Ghost Story for Christmas

[Jerzy Bondov]

Watched the latest one of these, Lot No. 249, it was fucking wank. Not scary. It's not even a ghost, it's a mummy, and it's not even mysterious because you see the mummy going around like 'raaaahhh I'm a mummy' really early on. And they put a Sherlock Holmes in it! CRINGE

Honestly none of these new Gatiss ones have had anything like the power of A Warning to the Curious or The Signalman. Count Magnus was probably the best of this batch. A View from a Hill from 2005 was pretty good.

There are a few other ones that are unofficial entries in the series, most obviously the original Whistle and I'll Come To You. Schalcken the Painter had a repeat last year on BBC Four, I've got it but still not watched it. There's the ITV version of Casting the Runes from 1979 as well, never seen that.

Anyway yeah, I do like Mark Gatiss but I think someone else needs a turn. Not me tho

[lauraxsynthesis]

I found it a little bit scary at one point, but overall not good, no. The Tractate Middoth was good, I thought.

[BlodwynPig]

Next year: The spook of tik tok

[Magnum Valentino]

Jonathan Rigby was in it! I'm very fond of him as a horror film expert and DVD commentary regular and probably wouldn't have watched this if I hadn't caught his name in the cast list.

Ending nicked from the original Universal mummy film where the laughter was much better.

Shite overall. Good mummy though.

[druss]

Jon Snow was better than I expected although I expected very little.

[Keebleman]

I didn't watch this - didn't know it was on even - but I have read Conan Doyle's story which is good and creepy, and I think probably it is the ur-text for the whole Mummy sub-genre.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I'm not scared of mummies. If a mummy came round here I'd tell it to do one

[checkoutgirl]

I do like Mark Gatiss

Why? Didn't he make a hash of Sherlock as well?

[badaids]

Next year: The spook of tik tok

Slither!

[badaids]

I'm not scared of mummies. If a mummy came round here I'd tell it to do one

If one came round my gaff it end up going home with a pint glass in its face.

[Minami Minegishi]

Sorry to thread shit but other than TLOG I can't do any Gatiss. I'm sure he's a lovely person but I do wish they would give these GSfC films to someone else. Maybe guest directors/writers each year. Let Ben Wheatley and Rose Glass have a crack at it.

[iamcoop]

Anyway yeah, I do like Mark Gatiss but I think someone else needs a turn. Not me tho

Agreed. I wish they'd let someone who's a proper skilled horror director have a go. Or even just someone that can ratchet up the dread a bit. I bet Ben Wheatley would make a fantastic one, for example.

My local cinema shows the old Ghost Stories for Christmas episodes every year, earlier this month they showed The Stalls of Barchester and then Stigma, the year before it was A Warning to the Curious and The Signalman. All are way more powerful and creepy than the increasingly polished dross we get from Gatiss.

Also there's other writers than Dickens, MR James and Conan Doyle. Do a nasty fucked up EF Benson one like The House with the Brick-Kiln if he insists on plundering early 20th century one. Fuck it, really push things forward and do a Mariana Enríquez story or something. Obviously not going to happen but come on, let's keep things moving

To be fair I'm a big fan of Gatiss in general, and I've heard him say in a few interviews that he really has to push the BBC to give him the money to make them as they seem pretty reluctant to keep them going, so I suppose it's a case of better than nothing when it comes to Christmas spooky shit from them.

[Minami Minegishi]

I bet Ben Wheatley would make a fantastic one, for example.

That's a really good idea.

[iamcoop]

That's a really good idea.

lol, sorry I obviously hadn't read your post before I wrote mine but great minds and all that

[BlodwynPig]

Sorry to thread shit but other than TLOG I can't do any Gatiss. I'm sure he's a lovely person but I do wish they would give these GSfC films to someone else. Maybe guest directors/writers each year. Let Ben Wheatley and Rose Glass have a crack at it.

Seconded. Stick to Glen Bulb and avoid middle of the road BBC writing.

[BlodwynPig]

Agreed. I wish they'd let someone who's a proper skilled horror director have a go. Or even just someone that can ratchet up the dread a bit. I bet Ben Wheatley would make a fantastic one, for example.

My local cinema shows the old Ghost Stories for Christmas episodes every year, earlier this month they showed The Stalls of Barchester and then Stigma, the year before it was A Warning to the Curious and The Signalman. All are way more powerful and creepy than the increasingly polished dross we get from Gatiss.

Also there's other writers than Dickens, MR James and Conan Doyle. Do a nasty fucked up EF Benson one like The House with the Brick-Kiln if he insists on plundering early 20th century one. Fuck it, really push things forward and do a Mariana Enríquez story or something. Obviously not going to happen but come on, let's keep things moving

To be fair I'm a big fan of Gatiss in general, and I've heard him say in a few interviews that he really has to push the BBC to give him the money to make them as they seem pretty reluctant to keep them going, so I suppose it's a case of better than nothing when it comes to Christmas spooky shit from them.

Or William Hope Hodgson's - The House on the Borderland (although that could be overly cosmic, and overly long). Algernon Blackwood's - The Willows, would be neat (unless they need UK centric stories).

[druss]

Agreed. I wish they'd let someone who's a proper skilled horror director have a go. Or even just someone that can ratchet up the dread a bit. I bet Ben Wheatley would make a fantastic one, for example.

My local cinema shows the old Ghost Stories for Christmas episodes every year, earlier this month they showed The Stalls of Barchester and then Stigma, the year before it was A Warning to the Curious and The Signalman. All are way more powerful and creepy than the increasingly polished dross we get from Gatiss.

Also there's other writers than Dickens, MR James and Conan Doyle. Do a nasty fucked up EF Benson one like The House with the Brick-Kiln if he insists on plundering early 20th century one. Fuck it, really push things forward and do a Mariana Enríquez story or something. Obviously not going to happen but come on, let's keep things moving

To be fair I'm a big fan of Gatiss in general, and I've heard him say in a few interviews that he really has to push the BBC to give him the money to make them as they seem pretty reluctant to keep them going, so I suppose it's a case of better than nothing when it comes to Christmas spooky shit from them.

Steve and Reece seem an obvious choice.

[Campbell Soupe]

Another year, another so-so Gatiss Ghost Story...

Don't get me wrong, he comes across as a GBOL but my fundamental issue is that they're just not creepy enough.  I can't really put a finger on why (I suppose, like comedy, "chills" are very subjective), but there's no build or atmosphere - The Mezzotint almost did, the other year.   Gatiss clearly knows all the ingredients of a good ghost story, but he can't get them to fit together very well.  There's also an off-putting archness to a lot of them. It's buried, but you know someone somewhere is giving a knowing wink to the camera...

It doesn't help that I tend to binge the 70s runs at this time of year which set the bar high. The only modern one that comes near these is '05s A View from A Hill. This had bags of quiet, austere atmos, some wry lines ("you're a doctor? Must get you to look at my feet...), and a couple of genuine spooky chills.  It made the most of what was clearly a tiny budget, so just do them a bit like that, Gatiss.

It seems like every year, he makes a big thing of saying how much of a struggle it is getting the beeb to commission them, and that if it wasn't for him they wouldn't get made... this might be the last..blah blah.  Fair fucks if that's the case... I'd rather have a bit crap Ghost Story than none at all.  But I can't believe the format is so moribund that it's not worth letting someone else have a go

[Minami Minegishi]

lol, sorry I obviously hadn't read your post before I wrote mine but great minds and all that

Haha I was pretending to be that kind of dick.

I'd rather have a bit crap Ghost Story than none at all.

I sort of disagree. I didn't watch this year's and watched old classics instead. I feel irritated that time, effort and money is being put into such a great concept that I adore, but is left in the hands of someone who clearly loves these old MR James adaptations and ghost stories for entirely different reasons.

Ghost stories at Christmas were a massive feature of my Irish childhood and I think very fondly upon the old BBC dramas.

What is missing?

A sense of the macabre? Genuine tension? Unironic horror?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Why? Didn't he make a hash of Sherlock as well?

Yes, but he was great in the League of Gentlemen and his history of horror documentaries are excellent. However, despite being absolutely steeped in M.R James et al, he's just not very good at adapting those ghost stories for the screen; they're always fatally lacking in that essential feeling of creeping dread and unease.

EDIT: Sorry, that point has already been made. Should've read the rest of the thread before replying.

[badaids]

Ghost stories are just nonsense for weaklings who can't handle goast stories.

[BlodwynPig]

Ghost stories are just nonsense for weaklings who can't handle goast stories.

Planning a Borley Rectory / Boleskine double header next year if you care to join me?

[checkoutgirl]

Yes, but he was great in the League of Gentlemen and his history of horror documentaries are excellent.

I enjoyed his docs and LoG is beyond question but neither of those were directing jobs. And given the gulf between Gatiss's solo efforts and say, Inside Number 9, it goes to show it takes more than a love of something to be talented at it. And he's had a fair few bites of the cherry at this stage.

If he fights for these things he loves and manages to get funding for them despite a reluctant commissioner, wouldn't he be more suited as a producer or department head, something like that?

[BlodwynPig]

Don't think the modern BBC parameters are suitable for this sort of content.

[badaids]

Planning a Borley Rectory / Boleskine double header next year if you care to join me?

Already been mate, in 1994. Saw the grave of Henry Bull and all that but the rest is gone. Not a ghost to be seen but I think I saw a goast. Not evening joking, nearest I've come to genuinely shiting my pants in my life. To scared to go back there.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Don't think the modern BBC parameters are suitable for this sort of content.

Pemberton and Shearsmith manage it with Inside No. 9.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

If he fights for these things he loves and manages to get funding for them despite a reluctant commissioner, wouldn't he be more suited as a producer or department head, something like that?

Definitely.

[BlodwynPig]

Pemberton and Shearsmith manage it with Inside No. 9.

Diminishing returns, in my opinion. Their Christmas ones and that Ghostwatch spoof were of a standard, but thin gruel recently. Just get rid of the glossiness, bring back the linger, the space between, the 'intimate loneliness'.

[Campbell Soupe]

I sort of disagree. I didn't watch this year's and watched old classics instead. I feel irritated that time, effort and money is being put into such a great concept that I adore, but is left in the hands of someone who clearly loves these old MR James adaptations and ghost stories for entirely different reasons.

I'd defend Gatiss' prerogative to do these (even if I don't think they are that good) simply because, apart from his old pals Steve & Reece, who is attempting anything "spooky" on British TV these days? Genuine question. 

[Bingo Fury]

Gattis strikes me as a lovely bloke who would be great company over dinner, but I'm gradually and reluctantly coming round to the idea that he's a far better actor than he is a writer.