The Phantom Wagon

The spirits of those who die at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve are condemned to drive the "Death Cart" for an entire year. This horse-drawn cart is what takes human souls to meet their maker, and the cart's creaky sound is heard by those who are about to die. The early sequence of an impoverished old woman struggling across a field of snow as the sound of the cart's axle rings in her ears is truly eerie. This is a brilliant film, a remarkable dark fantasy that has all the atmospheric scares of a Val Lewton chiller. Yet it's far more than just another B&W horror film. It deals with the good and evil in men's souls and the driving force of goodness that can bring them back to the light. Bell is one of the most virtuously beautiful women you will ever see on screen as she plays a nun suffering from TB who desperately tries to save an alcoholic tramp (Fresnay) from his own vices. Yet it is Bell herself who struggles with her own character as she falls in love with this human wretch. The final minutes of the film are riveting as the Death Cart returns once again to bring more lost souls to their destiny. Wow!

• horror