Eighteen years ago, when I was ten, I watched a short black and white film that my mum had recorded from the TV. It chilled me and my friends at the time, and the image of a frightened man in a room, and being chased down a beach, has stayed with me ever since. I've often wondered what it was, and then recently Channel 4 showed the 100 most scary moments, and there it was. And now I've finally got hold of the DVD, and it scared me all over again. The professor's nightmares are especially chilling. The sparing use of sound, the misty black and white, the use of close-ups, all these combine to make what could be quite ridiculous into something quite unsettling. The final scene in particular is horrible. I think it touches on fears we have all had at night of strange sounds in the dark, and the unmistakable feeling of a presence in the room. The way Michael Horden portrays these fears is brilliant. I love the way he is reduced from a philosophising academic to a terrified, murmuring, inarticulate shell of a man. He doesn't run around screaming like so many ghost story films tend towards. He is simply afraid and rooted to the spot, unable to comprehend the supernatural goings on right in front of him.
I challenge anyone to watch this short film and not feel afraid, and uncomfortable.
I challenge anyone to watch this short film and not feel afraid, and uncomfortable.