10 Most Terrifying Ghost Stories For Christmas

M. R. James stories often revolve around an academic, who's rationalism allows no room for the occult, dismissing such things as provincial nonsense. Here it's the turn of young Dr. Fanshawe, an archeologist hired to value the contents of a once magnificent country manor to recover the rising debts of the impatient owner, Squire Richards.

Curious about the outlying countryside, Fanshawe borrows an old pair of binoculars, his now broken in transit, from Richards and this is when events take a peculiar turn. As Fanshawe surveys the land through the lens of the antique field glasses, he sees an Abbey, many miles in the distance. Richards insists the abbey in question is nothing but a ruin, yet the structure can be clearly seen by Fanshawe.

His curiosity piqued, Fanshawe learns of Baxter, a local man who disappeared decades earlier while dabbling in the occult. It seems Baxter had been digging up the remains of criminals hanged in the woods and putting their bones to nefarious purposes, including weaving a spell into the binoculars sealed with glue made from human remains. As Fanshawe becomes obsessed with Baxter and the sinister Gallows Hill, he is soon pursued through the woods by forces not of this Earth.

Perhaps the slickest of the revival episodes, A View from a Hill is stacked with rural atmosphere and lost-in-the-woods scares, à la The Blair Witch Project. The ultimate fate of Fanshawe, however, will leave viewers feeling the noose tighten, as James serves up his usual warning to the curious. Speaking of which, read on...