A Ghost Story for Christmas

Thanks for those recommendations.

I loved 'The Shining' when I read it.  The film is also good - but on a different level.  I was interested to read, in King's memoirs, that he was disappointed in the film.  He relates a tale of how Kubrick rang him up one night and asked him if he believed in God.  He said he did.  Kubrick didn't, though, and was a little leery on notions of the 'supernatural'.  If I remember the film right (not seen it for years), it was more about Jack Torrance as the source of the evil rather than The Overlook Hotel itself.  I think King was influenced by an old Guy de Maupassant short story, 'The Hostelry' - one of my childhood favourites.  'The Thing', too - mainly the John Carpenter version - had a similar setting and atmosphere.  I love anything like that: people isolated and stranded by some circumstance... and something out to get them.  '30 Days of Night' is another such film.

Indeed I have. There have been both contemporary and modern film adaptations of it too, which are also pretty good. And Kate Bush made an eerie song sbout it, called Infant's Kiss. 

The Awakening looks to be worth checking out. Someone recently, very kindly put on several films on a pen drive for me, looking  forward to glutting on them over the break, for that matter on the plane and then  the coach. Last time I rewatched Mama and saw some Penny Dreadfuls. At least I hope it will be on a plane and not on an airport floor in case there is the wrong kind of snow on either side. 

I have seen all the sequels to Alien, but the first is the best. As is often the case.

One classic in this genre is still The Shining, of course.....

Here are a few more for the virtual Christmas spiderweb stocking....

https://youtu.be/RkyWE-q3KF4

I think it is in Spanish though there are subtitles. If you like Guillermo del Toro.....

This one is a bit more 21st Century. About a young musician haunted by his old friend deep in a wilderness with just his laptop a d Skype for company....

https://youtu.be/9bvWRR3AeqM

I agree.  It's why, too, I prefer films like 'Blair Witch Project' and 'Alien', where you don't really get to see anything - or just glimpses.

Have you ever read 'The Turn of the Screw', by Henry James?  Wonderful spooky story.  I think Sarah Waters must have been influenced by it in writing 'The Little Stranger'.  She failed with that, in my opinion.  Far too long... and after all that wordy trek, it just seemed to burn out at the end.

'The Awakening' was another good film.

With a ghost story I think less is more. And when one jump scare in particular happens....it works all the better as a jump scare. 

I remember the Daniel Radcliffe version.  'Harry Potter and the Woman in Black', as I thought of it!  I didn't like it at all.  He was so wooden in it I'll be surprised if he didn't give himself splinters.

This one is not bad either:

https://youtu.be/yYP-mrK_kEo

This is one of my faves. I first saw it in 1989:

https://youtu.be/XFWgz4nRe0Q

The Woman on Black. There was a later adaptation of it with the Hardy Potter actor, but I found it rather overdone. The author actually hated the 2989 version though. 

The novel makes a good read too, they actually have set it as part of GCSE studies. 

I think I saw it!

Stalls of Barchester is a goodie

This BBC dramatisation from the early '70s is also good.  Based on another M.R James story and starring Robert Hardy.

The Stalls of Barchester

I have that book, too.  He was one of the masters.  Ghost stories and horror stories were one of my big obsessions as a child and teenager.  I always favoured short stories, too.

Here's a link to one of my all-time favourite ghost/horror stories.  A bit seasonal, too, with all the snow...

The Seventh Man, by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

I read a book of "Collected Ghost Stories" by M R James once.

Probably not the best idea for someone with an imagination as vivid as mine  . Very well written, just very spooky!