I watched Casting the Runes last night. I really liked it. Obviously it's very similar to Night of the Demon (without the demon naturally but featuring a ghostly spectre) but is still really well done. There were some brilliant snowy landscapes which made the whole thing very bleak indeed. Jan Francis was excellent as the woman who finds time is ticking away and Ian Cuthbertson as Karswell was as good if not better than Niall MacGinnis from the 57 classic film. It was made by Clive Exton and Lawrence Gordon Clarke who are the dogs bollocks when it comes to MR James adaptations.
Even better was a fifty minute semi-dramatised documentary about MR James hosted by Bill Wallis. It's brilliantly done and influenced by Ghost Stories for Christmas...BUT, it also was clearly an influence on the 2000 series Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee. Lee incidentally is in this doc too.
An excellent release and highly recommended to James fans.
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