Although primarily an academic, British writer MR James was a master of the ghost story.
In it, a Cambridge professor discovers an old whistle near a deserted beach.
Walking back to his hotel, he notices a figure emerging from the hazy distance.
Like all great ghost tales, it seems to hover on the boundary between nightmare and reality.
Ad content continues below
The openings a great tone-setter.
the father says, as the girl leaps into a car and skitters away at top speed.
Later, on a lonely beach, the girl cowers, seemingly resigned to the fate which awaits her.
I was followed by a monster, and I instinctively knew it was bad, the writer-director told us.
It was very slow, and it was always coming towards me.
It would walk towards me when I was with friends or family, at all different times.
Id have to run away, or climb out of a window, or run down the street.
It was just this constant feeling of dread and anxiety.
That was obviously much later, when I put that altogether.
But the basic idea was in the back of my head for a long time.
