Prismark10 Number 13 is a creepy adaptation of a MR James story.Greg Wise plays a rather dull and stern scholar, Professor Anderson who is going through some ancient and re-discovered manuscripts at a local cathedral that he has to authenticate.He is taken aback when the local hotelier wants money in advance as previous guests have disappeared in the night.As he carries out his research about a local mischievous bishop back in the time of Cromwell, his sleep is disturbed by strange sounds coming from the room 13 even though that room is supposed to not exist.This is an atmospheric thriller with several scares and jolts.

begob A visiting scholar lodges at an ancient inn while he trawls the manuscript collection of the local cathedral, only to find a connection that puts him in a deadly bind.I'm in two minds about this: it elaborates on the original story to give a more joined up drama, but it loses much of the uncanny alienation that is the hallmark of M R James. The protagonist is loaded with characterisation and yet he's unlikeable, his task is given more detail and that sets up plot points that come to fruition later on, and the haunting is more conventional than the original, with a cheesy shadow passing across the unnecessary print of Bosch's painting The Garden Of Earthly Delights - I much prefer the weird shadow dancing cast by the light of the bedroom window in James' story.It's well acted and well paced, and the post script is satisfying.Overall - well done, but although the drama is improved it's an adaptation too far for fans of the author.

jc-osms M.R. James is considered the best ghost short-story teller of all so that all it takes to tell an effective tale is to follow the source and that's just what is done here. Period detail, interior sets, costumes and language are all intact here in this spooky teller of the mysterious room 13 in a small hotel the dark secret behind which flares up into life when an innocent ecclesiastical scholar comes across a secret note in his research. The other-worldly effects aren't overdone, with no great special effects employed to convey the other-worldly visitation, merely some shadow-play, lighting effects and off- camera sound effects, but this is in keeping with the general, unspectacular tenor of the piece, saving the viewer's imagination to do its own work, which is as it should be. My only carp with the story is that in the end-up three parties enter the foreboding Room 13 at once, when any horror scholar will tell you that this should be done by one party acting alone. All of the acting was solid and without histrionics and the neat twist at the end which explained the sudden disappearance of a previous scholar at the same hotel was a good finishing touch.

bob the moo Academic Anderson comes to a small English cathedral town to authenticate some newly discovered letters that appeared to date back to Cromwell. At night he stays in room 12 of his hotel and by day he works out of the cathedral chambers. One day he discovers a letter from a mysterious figure called Nicholas Franken, while also looking into some shadowy allegations made against a former bishop of the town. As he digs though, he finds more mysterious goings-on exist outside of his letters and historical records.An atmospheric little ghost story this, based on a short story by MR James. Delivered by BBC4, the film doesn't really deliver all the answers that one would like and modern viewers such as myself might notice that it is not all tied up and resolved at the end in the way that many of our stories now are. However this is a slight point because really the film does much better where we're not sure at all what is going on and are caught up like Anderson in the fear and desire to get to the bottom of things.It is not particularly scary and again modern viewers who maintain that horror = gore will be left cold by this; however it is very creepy and it produces this very well. The sound design is well engineered to produce gradual noises and sudden silences while the visual effects are restrained and all the better for it. Wise leads the cast well while Freeman and David Burke both provide solid turns as the older figures in the story. I must admit that I didn't really like Tom Burke as Jenkins, but mostly because his character just felt like a red herring for most of the film.Overall though I found it enjoyable as it got by with its strong sense of atmosphere covering over for the lack of detail and slightly slow pace. Perhaps not the strongest thing that BBC4 were responsible for last year but it is still a quality little chiller for a dark evening on a windy night.