Prof-Hieronymos-Grost
A few days before his 12th birthday, young Master Stephen is sent to the country to spend some time with his elderly cousin, Mr Abney, who is to be his new guardian, at his country manor. As he nears his destination he sees two young children waving at him in a slow synchronicity, he thinks their movements are odd, but when he takes a second look, they are gone. On arrival, he is shown to his cousin who immediately strikes Stephen as being very eccentric, being a man who writes down every trivial event of the day no matter how menial, Mr Abney seems very excited to learn that Master Stephen will soon be twelve on Halloween night, a fact he immediately leaves to the room to enter in his daily log, much to Stephen's bemusement. Mr Abney we learn is a man of science? his study is full of strange paintings and statuettes and studies it by way of his vast collection of antiquated books, but what exactly his work is, is anyone's guess? although Astrology and the Black Arts are hinted at. Stephen is a bright boy and is soon gleaning plenty of information on his cousin, from cook Mrs Bunch, he questions her about other children staying there, but there are none he learns, but there used to be, Mrs Bunch tells him. There was a young girl some years previously who Mr Abney brought home, he looked after her for a few weeks before she disappeared, Mr Abney's theory being that the girl was a gypsy and had been taken by them, still though he had trawled the nearby lake just to be sure. Then after her, there was an Italian orphan boy, Giovanni, whom Mr Abney found walking nearby, the boy was obsessed with playing the hurdy-gurdy, again Mr Abney took him in but the boy didn't stay long either and disappeared soon after, leaving behind his beloved hurdy-gurdy, a fact Stephen jumps upon as very odd. Stephen's dreams are very soon haunted by dreadful visions of the two children he had seen before, Are they real or ghosts, Stephen is unsure, as he continually catches fleeting glimpses of them here and there around Abneys estate. He also begins to hear voices, he learns he's not the only one either, as Mrs Bunch and handyman Parkes also hear them. On the eve of his birthday, Mr Abney invites young Stephen to a Halloween midnight rendezvous, to experience the gift of a lifetime, Stephen is at first hesitant as he is sure at that late hour he will be too tired, but eager to please his very insistent cousin, he agrees....It always amazes me how Clark is never mentioned is dispatches, when best horror director lists are being compiled, for he truly had a unique vision on how supernatural films should be filmed and should be better known and admired for his rather obvious talents. Again he delves into M.R.James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and ensures the screen equivalent is just as terrifying as the written word. He uses the beautifully stunning English countryside to perfection, as the ghostly children stand transfixed amidst wind rustled trees, as stealthily creeping fog encircles them, their gaze fixed on Mr Abney's manor. The look of the children is quite eerie and unsettling, especially their twisted fingers and elongated fingernails and is added to immensely by Giovanni's rather odd hurdy-gurdy music. Abney himself on the surface seems friendly, but behind the eccentric facade and failed experiments, we just know something dark lingers and its not long before our suspicions of his predatory nature are realized. For its time, the 1890's, James's extremely dark work seems to herald future, more modern concerns and yet still seems to contain even more unspeakable ideas. Stephen's dangerous and fateful midnight meeting, is the subject of the films finale and succeeds in providing us with yet more unsettling imagery. And yet another superb entry in the series is realized.
raymundohpl
LOST HEARTS is based on the short story of the same name by the renowned scholar and Provost of Eton College who wrote ghost stories as a hobby and amusement, Montague Rhodes James(or M.R. James), and comes from James' landmark collection entitled GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY. Part of the BBC's "A Ghost Story For Christmas" Series, it was directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, who directed many other M.R. James stories for the BBC series. LOST HEARTS is one of his best, with chilling supernatural occurrences and the dangers faced by children at the hands of evil adults skillfully mixed together in a very satisfying tale of ghostly revenge.The typical "Jamesian" spectre is a solid, menacing revenant, usually skeletal, sometimes demonic, that returns from the dead to revenge themselves on those who have killed them. In LOST HEARTS, the alchemist/diabolist/sorcerer Mr. Peregrine Abney, played by the marvelous Joseph O'Conor(also credited as Joseph O'Connor), is a seemingly charming, eccentric and kindly old soul who welcomes young Stephen, his cousin, played innocently by Simon Gipps-Kent, into his palatial residence. Scarcely believing his good fortune in becoming the ward of such a well-to-do gentleman of class and learning, Stephen is nevertheless taken aback by Mr. Abney's more than guardian-like interest in his well-being by having Mrs. Bunch, played by the motherly and comforting Susan Richards, to nourish Stephen by giving him lots of good food to keep him strong and vigorous, like a lamb or calf being fattened up for the slaughterhouse. A statue of Arimanius, the lion-headed Mithraic God of the Dark who holds the keys to heaven, on Abney's desk and Mithraic Cult astrological symbols on Abney's study wall and his weird queries and remarks about "Censorinus", "Simon Magus" and the like all bode ill for little Stephen. The sinister-looking manservant Parkes is played stolidly by James Mellor.Stephen, at the very beginning of LOST HEARTS, sees two pale-looking children, a boy and a girl, waving at him from the countryside fields as he nears Abney's residence, and as Stephen is exploring the grounds surrounding Abney's estate, he hears children laughing and the same boy and girl appearing and disappearing amid the trees of the estate, appearing at windows and around columns. Stephen asks Mrs. Bunch about this and Mrs.Bunch explains that Mr. Abney, being a very kindly soul, brought two children before Stephen came, to "care" for them--an Italian lad by the name of Giovanni Paoli, played by Christopher Davis, and a girl with "a touch of the Gypsy about her," Phoebe Stanley, played by Michelle Foster. Giovanni had a hurdy-gurdy with him and its distinctive tune is used to great effect in one nightmarish scene at night when the long-finger-nailed ghostly revenants of Giovanni and Phoebe pay Stephen a visit, pale bluish-grey faces and dark-rimmed eyes filled with longing and hunger(exactly as James described them in his story)childishly exhort Stephen to join them, not to harm him but to warn him about what Abney has in store for him, Giovanni playing his hurdy-gurdy and both of them expose their torn-open chests, bones gleaming and their hearts missing from their bodies as their ghoulish peals of childish laughter echo through the house. Mr. Abney feigns ignorance when Stephen asks him about the children, while Mrs. Bunch and Parkes assume that the two children ran away somewhere. Abney finally sees the two ghost-children as they glare and smile at him from outside the window and he makes notes in his commonplace book about not being able to prevent their psychic flotsam and jetsam from returning to bedevil him. Abney had cut their hearts out from their bodies, reduced the hearts to ashes, and drunk those ashes in a glass of fortified wine, preferably Port, in a Mithraic-inspired blood sacrifice for his own attainment of immortality. The time for Stephen's fate draws nearer and Abney requests that Stephen join him downstairs late at night on Halloween, his birthday, for "a surprise!" Stephen is leery at first but Abney is very persuasive and Stephen has his fateful rendezvous with Abney, who tries to make Stephen drink some wine which he has drugged--Stephen resists violently but Abney overpowers him and makes him drink. Stephen falls into a drugged stupor and Abney prepares to perform the sacrifice which will make him immortal--but then the two revenant-children enter the scene. They close in on Abney, who says that it's too late, they cannot stop him, that he is immortal! The children, giggling, prove him wrong as Abney is paralysed in their thrall, his drawn dagger taken by Giovanni from his numb fingers, and Giovanni and Phoebe, dagger and long fingernails extended, cut into Abney's chest, ripping HIS HEART out of his chest as he screams in fury and agony! Stephen watches helplessly as the two spirits make their exit.Afterwards, a churchyard scene is seen as the vicar, played by Roger Milner, remarks that Abney dabbled in things better left alone. Stephen looks to the side and sees Giovanni and Phoebe smiling and waving good-bye as they go to their final rest, their brutal murders avenged. LOST HEARTS is a masterpiece of its kind in the ghost story genre, having both frightful and playful scenes, cold grue and childish fun. It also touches on diabolical actions by perverted adults, the scenes of Abney forcing Stephen to drink the drugged wine very uncomfortably realistic in its depiction of a stronger adult forcing a young child to his will much in the same way as Gilles De Montmorency-Laval, Baron De Rais, or Gilles De Rais murdered, raped, and dismembered children in his alchemical and black magic, necromantic quest for immortality. Perverted adults taking advantage of children is present in everyday life nowadays as well, as in the Mark Foley republican party FIASCO! Everyone should watch LOST HEARTS for its moral lesson to be learned as well as for its well-crafted supernatural thrills! TEN STARS!
