Ghost Stories (Andy Nyman & Jeremy Dyson, 2017)

Recalling classic British portmanteau horror films like Dead of Night or From Beyond the Grave, Ghost Stories has a professional debunker of supernatural incidents challenged to disprove three extreme cases. All three short tales are strong on atmosphere and chills, always holding something back where modern horror usually just goes straight for the jugular. The support by Paul Whitehouse as a spiky night watchman and Martin Freeman in a more pivotal role is also an asset. But the stories are also quite unsatisfying in themselves, since none of them reaches a conclusion, cutting off just pre-climax, and there's no sense that these are unsolvable mysteries either, being easy to put down as the fevered imaginings of individuals. It takes a closing chapter to tie it all together and while this starts off in decidedly wobbly fashion, there is dramatic closure at the end. It's not to be listed among the heights of the genre, since it could really have done with a tighter edit, but it's worth lauding nevertheless for its mood and ambition.

6/10