Rent The Mr James Collection (2012)

M R James still waiting for a decent adaptation - The Mr James Collection review by MB

Having the seen the 1970's TV adaptations of M R James (good then; less so now) I was interested to see a couple of the more recent ones. Alas, they managed not only to be as staid as the worst moments of the 1970s ones but so relentlessly unimaginative they do James's ghost stories a real disservice.

Take 'A View from A Hill', one of James's most chilling stories. As the central character in the TV film explores the haunted hill - site of ancient hangings - the director attempts to evoke the place's morbid atmosphere with serial killer-style subjective camera shots (cf. Black Christmas and a hundred other slashers) mixed with half-seen movement - the latter ok for one shot but quickly irritating. It's too crude, too literal, and simply doesn't work.

For those wanting to experience a cinema version of M R James's often creepy atmospherics, which no-one has really managed so far, I'd recommend the Italian 'Across the River'. True, it can't supply James's distinctive Englishness, but its central character - a naturalist in search of night-time creatures, using fixed cameras - is a pretty good equivalent to James's peripatetic antiquaries in search of ancient texts. And like in James, the mysterious unseen creatures turn out to be immensely vengeful and vicious, despite their innocent appearance.