| Author | Message | ||
     Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.64 |
I read Susan Hill's superb ghost story last year and have been wondering why the 1989 UK screen adaptation (written by Nigel Kneale) is so hard to get hold of. I believe there is a 'rights' issue stopping it from ever being re-broadcast ? I've heard nothing but glowing reviews of this film and am just itching to see it. Apparently the stage play is awesome as well. It had been to Belfast and gone before I realised. Damn ! http://www.thewomaninblack.com/index.html | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.72 |
What did you make of the book, Sean? I've a copy but have never gotten around to reading it. | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.140.190 |
I didn't like the book at all, but thought th stage play was simply superb and the film is excellent as well. Copies pop up on ebay from time to time, so it's worth checking there. S | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.180.83 |
I enjoyed the play, in a cosy predictable ghost story kind of way. Not read the book or seen the film. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
I've not read that one but I'm the King of the Castle was one of my favourite reads last year. | ||
| Stevej (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
The whole film is available to watch here, Sean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6jAM-aQLbc  Steve Jensen | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.140.190 |
Hey Steve! You okay? S | ||
| Stevej (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Mr Simon! *salutes*  Yeah, I'm ok, mate...just been having the usual crises at home lately, lol. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.118.211 |
Hi there Steve! | ||
| Stevej (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Hey Ally Thanks for recommending the forum to me. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.64 |
I thought the book was great Mark. It's more a Novella. Hill set out to be as Jamesian as possible and it certainly shows. One chapter is even called 'Whistle and I'll come'. Very atmospheric and creepy in several scenes. Highly recommended. Now I'll have to get hold of her other 2 ghost stories to see how they compare. Not sure what they are called though. Something about a haunted picture or mirror ? I'll look them up. Thanks for that link Steve. Just need to find a quiet corner now. And a dark and rainy night. | ||
| Stevej (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Both The Mist in the Mirror & The Man in the Picture are disappointing, Sean. They're not really up to the standard of The Woman in Black, in my opinion. TMITM seems to be a homage to Conrad, and TMITP is filled with Dickensian stereotypes; neither are very frightening, if at all, despite the atmosphere Hill so easily conjures (this is her strength, I feel). Hill get so much right, but often flounders when it comes to truly scary moments - it's telling that the famous, terrifying scene in The Woman in Black film isn't even in the novella itself. All in all, a fine writer, but one who isn't on a par with the authors she emulates. | ||
| Stevej (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Whoops, got ^that^ wrong...meant to write: TMITM seems to be a homage to Conrad, and is filled with Dickensian stereotypes, and TMITP is very lightweight indeed, and not even as memorable as John Harwood's flawed ghost stories; neither are very frightening, if at all, despite the atmosphere Hill so easily conjures (this is her strength, I feel). | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.64 |
Thanks for the warning Steve. I was tempted to splash out on these two books. The Woman in Black was a hard act to follow though ! | ||
| Stevej (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Be warned, Mr Sean...One particular scene in The Woman in Black film is so shocking that the first time I saw it, my hair caught fire and flew out of the window. Ok, so I exaggerated a bit, but...I was terrified. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.88.16 |
I bought this a few years back on region 1. The film was not bad, but feels a bit telly and it ends with a whimper. It does have one absolutely terrifying moment, though. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Oooo, you chaps are making me want to see the film now - it sounds good! I've never read the book, but I loved the stage play. It really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I wish there were more scary/ghost/creepy/horror-type stage plays. Nothing beats a live performance on stage. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.88.16 |
You're right. Why aren't there more? Why isn't theatrical horror a sub-genre? | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.88.16 |
Ah, just realised. Answer: limited numbers of stages + critics. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.73 |
Okay, Sean. I shall read the book very soon. part of the reason I hadn't was because I'd read The Man in the Picture book and it wasn't all that good. Jonathan Aycliffe was doing the same thing to much better effect, I thought, a couple or five years ago... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.203.110 |
Also they're bloody hard to write. Me and a friend tried to write a ghost play last year. I thought that tv film of Woman was quite flat, to be honest, but found the book exhilaratingly atmospheric. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.203.110 |
Mist in the Mirror sucks. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.179.237 |
I had the opposite reaction, Tony: I found the film to be more effective than the book. I haven't seen the play yet. There's an anthology of ghostly plays edited by Marvin Kaye titled 13 Plays of Ghosts & the Supernatural. It's well worth a read, and contains a dramatisation of The Haunting of Hill House. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
>>There's an anthology of ghostly plays edited by Marvin Kaye titled 13 Plays of Ghosts & the Supernatural. It's well worth a read, and contains a dramatisation of The Haunting of Hill House.<< Sounds good! Might try to get my hands on that. Thanks Huw. | ||
| Steveduffy (Steveduffy) Username: Steveduffy Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 86.164.32.111 |
I'm with you, Huw: I think the TVM of THE WOMAN IN BLACK (which I have a copy of) is great, while I find the book curiously heartless, in a sense - as if the author strung together all the ghostly cliches she could think of, ticking them off a list... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.179.237 |
You're welcome, Caroline! Steve, I know what you mean about the novel. I've had similar (albeit fleeting) feelings with some of Jonathan Aycliffe's novels, which are full of all manner of ghostly events the like of which I've encountered many times in older supernatural fiction, but something about the way he does it makes it work for me. In the hands of a less skillful writer, oft-used ghostly happenings often simply fall flat. |