Another ghoulish Yuletide yarn from the atmospheric pen of the great M. R. James: after a slow start depicting the settling in of a young boy into the mansion of his slightly dotty elderly cousin, the pace picks up considerably towards the midpoint of this 35 minute TV program with the chilling reappearance of the young children (fleetingly seen waving to the boy at the start) who have now morphed into ondulating Nosferatu-like wraiths complete with talons for fingernails! As it turns out, this boy and girl had previously also been guests at the cousin's manor but were sacrificed to the old man's obsessive quest for immortality via his belief that extracting three young hearts of living children will do the trick; needless to say, our young protagonist is the last link in the chain but the greedy old man did not count on the protection/retribution of his previous victims who (understandably off-screen) perform their own live heart removal on him and throw the beating organ into the flaming fireplace!
Review of Lost Hearts
Lost Hearts
(1973 TV Movie)
GHOST STORY FOR Christmas: LOST HEARTS (TV) (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1973) ***
23 January 2010