Casting the Runes (DVD)

This short made-for-TV British feature is only loosely based on the classic short story of the same title by M.R. James, but it is extremely eerie and chilling, just like you'd expect from an M.R. James work. A man is walking his dog when he is confronted with a supernatural horror that sends him stumbling and screaming into and open field. The authorities find him dead, nearly every bone in his body broken. Later, a beautiful young television producer is passed a slip of paper (slipped into one of her books) with ancient writing on it. She now has only four weeks (a Lunar calendar month) to live. She begins to experience terrifying events. The solution for her? Pass the paper back to the insidious fellow who passed it to her in the first place. But how? We all of course remember the earlier classic film version of this tale, Night of the Demon with Dana Andrews.

• horror