This is another nicely atmospheric entry from the 'Ghost for Christmas' BBC series. Its a another M. R. James adaption, which is less of a ghost story than a folk horror which taps into witchcraft. It has a timeline which moves back in forth from the present to the past - the first time I watched this, I didn't pick up on the fact that the main actor is playing two roles, the central character and his father. The whole thing works very well, with some great photography which accentuates the feel; while the folk horror angle was a nice diversion from the ghosts. Perhaps one minor issue would be that nowadays we quite rightly are appalled with the 17th century witch trials, where many innocent women were murdered by fanatics and maniacs, whereas in the James story, the woman really is a malevolent witch, which means that in order for this to fully work, we do need to side with the witchfinder! But all-in-all, this is another great entry in this series and wait until you find out what it is that is living in that old ash tree...
Review of The Ash Tree
