The Stalls of Barchester
Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark
The discovery of a mysterious box in a library leads a scholar to piece together a chain of events leading to the murder of an archdeacon.
An ambitious cleric engineers the murder of an archdeacon.
Cast: Harold Bennett, Clive Swift, Erik Chitty, Robert Hardy, Thelma Barlow
Member Reviews
Very atmospheric and creepy little story. It seems the best episodes in this series are those based on M R James stories. This one has good acting and a great setting, plus it made me look up Psalms 109, which honestly is a pretty brutal scripture. I love this series and wish they were all grouped together for ease of access.
Richard Bucket is in this tale.
I appreciate James' understated style of horror writing. His tales terrify but are not dependent on gore, over the top stories and characters. He has buttoned-up characters who are not the sort you expect to go in for ghost hunts and adventures, and so when they encounter the numinous, they are all the more terrified and leave us feeling this same terror. His stories lend themselves to understated filmmaking like this. What some call boring and slow, I think are precisely what James was master of.
My 2nd favorite of these Ghost Story batch, only behind The Signalman! Check it out
An amazing adaptation of what I consider one of James's somewhat disjointed tales. The story actually flows better and makes more sense in this wonderful drama. A truly classic and compelling ghost story.