A View from a Hill (2005 TV Movie) User Reviews

Take care of your binoculars

[Caps Fan · 8/10 · 9 January 2016]

In the 1960s and 1970s, the BBC used to include a ghost story, usually by Dickens or M.R. James, in their Christmas schedules. They rather got out of the habit later on, but since about 2000 have, thankfully, begun doing it again. This is one of the better examples.

It tells the story of Dr Fanshawe (Mark Letheren) a specialist who comes down to the moribund country estate of Squire Richards (Pip Torrens) to evaluate some archaeological material. When he breaks his own binoculars, he is given an old pair that somehow enable him to see the local abbey, though it has been a ruin since the time of Henry VIII. He ends up in trouble in a most unexpected way, an experience that, as we see at the end, leaves a lasting impression on him.

It's a fairly simple story and the film is only 40 minutes long, but it is surprisingly substantial and gives a rewarding television experience. Good acting helps – Letheren and Torrens are both well cast, and ably supported by David Burke as the Squire's pleasingly dour manservant. The music is good too and there's a kind of dream sequence in the abbey that really carries you along.

If this one is anything to go by, the BBC would be well advised to keep up their Christmas ghost story habit.

Rating: 8/10

Fairly effective little ghost story

[halal_capone · 7/10 · 18 February 2006]

This adaptation of M.R. James's short story 'A View From A Hill' was first shown on British television in 2005, on the little watched digital channel BBC 4. I saw that it was being repeated again on BBC 4, and decided to give it a go, remembering the BBC's successful 1970's adaptations of other M.R. James stories including 'Whistle And I'll Come To You My Lad' and 'The Signalman'. Though not in the same class as these masterpieces, 'A View From A Hill' is nonetheless an enjoyable and at times suspenseful drama.

A historian arrives in a small rural village to look over the collection of a recently deceased collector of antique artifacts. Whilst out in the countryside, he sees an abbey that has been in ruins for hundreds of years. But what does this have in connection with an old pair of binoculars and a gruesome legend about the ominously named Gallows Hill? And what do the brusque country squire and his servant know about the situation? Whilst not scary in any way, I enjoyed this little production, and had the running time been longer than 40 minutes it could have become a truly great adaptation. As it is, it all feels a little rushed and a bit more exposition to set the mood would have been welcome.

I give it 7 out of 10.

Disappointing

[david_colbourne · 6/10 · 1 December 2009]

I watched this film when broadcast over Christmas with a keen sense of anticipation, being a long time fan of MR James' stories, and having enjoyed the BBC's previous adaptations of his work. I do have to say I was a little disappointed at the treatment. A View from a Hill is one of my favourite James stories and I have to say the film did not convey the story well. The story was made much darker, presumably with the intent of frightening the viewer, and lost the atmosphere of the original. The original was set in summer and conveyed the season well, whereas the film was set in winter with bare trees in dripping woods. I'm not going to give any details away, but I don't think it measured up to the previous adaptations of James' work, particularly The Stalls of Barchester.

Effective and atmospheric ghost story

[bob the moo · 23 February 2008]

Historian Dr Fanshawe comes to the country home of Squire Richards in order to review the artefacts he is selling off. On his way his luggage falls off his bike and his binoculars break. He borrows those belong to the late father of Richards as the two go for a walk. From the hilltop he believes he can see an abbey but with the naked eye there is nothing. The next day he heads to the spot and finds nothing but ruins, however is there more to the glasses than just magnification? As with other years BBC4 sees in the Christmas period with a season of films that serve as modern versions of the family sitting round the fire telling ghost stories. I have seen one or two of these in the past and decided this year to make more of an effort to see them – after all, one never knows if BBC4 will continue to be protected from tabloids keen to rip it down. The first film of the season I saw was A View From a Hill and it bodes well for the rest of the films if they can be this good.

The plot is simple and the film is short but it is a very good idea that uses the common device of having a character stumbling into a mystery that may or may not have claimed the life of the last person who was involved with it. The tone of the film is spot on as it delivers this story with a total lack of answers and never any more than the slightest glimpse of anything that may be a danger. My favourite example of this is a moment where Fanshawe believes he has seen something and flashes back to it; the pause function told me nothing was there but regardless it is still creepy as an effect. While the style is quite old-fashioned, director Watson uses modern camera movements sparingly and wisely – thus we do get "Evil Dead" rushing shots and jump cuts but they are far from overdone and work better for it.

Letheren leads the cast well with an innocent "everyman" who guides the audience into the story well as the "eyes". Torrens is quite fun but his performance did come over like the producers wanted to get Hugh Laurie but couldn't afford him post-House. Burke is obvious perhaps but perfectly functional while Linnell is a menacing presence and needs to be no more than that. Delivery from Watson is very effective as he controls what the viewer sees (even letting us see the abbey itself through the excitable glances of Fanshawe) and it is this tone and atmosphere that makes the piece work as well as it does.

Overall then a short but effective ghost story that is reassuringly free of cheap shots and gore, delivering a nice sense of creepiness instead.

GHOST STORY FOR Christmas: A VIEW FROM THE HILL (Luke Watson, 2005) (TV) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 23 January 2010]

This latter-day entry in the British TV horror series is actually not too bad, though its style is essentially flatter than previous vintage ghost stories. It is yet another M.R. James adaptation which sees a young man staying at an inn who happens upon an old pair of binoculars among the bric-a-brac in a closet; the landlord, knowledgeable of a curse attached to them, attempts to dissuade him from keeping the 'relic' but, as always in such tales, the hero has to find out for himself – and to his ultimate dismay – just what possessing the binoculars entails. In fact, watching through them allows an old cathedral (which has been torn down over the years, possibly in view of its evil influence) to 'materialize'; at first, he is intrigued by this curious occurrence…but it all turns serious very soon when a shadowy figure he notices within the 'scene' begins to move about and is apparently out to get him!

We were just about to send out a search party

[begob · 6/10 · 1 January 2016]

An archaeologist visits a decaying country estate to survey its artefacts, but the artefacts lead him into a dark history.

Another slice of MR James alienation, where intellectual curiosity attracts the attention of distant, menacing figures and ends in nothing good.

The opening sequence is a little irritating with its slow focuses, but the rapid editing later on in the woods creates good tension. Music keeps the mood bubbling. Actors all excellent, and in the end nothing is explained.

Overall - not the spookiest, but confident enough not to deliver pat answers.

Fumbled direction

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 30 March 2021]

A VIEW FROM A HILL is another BBC 'Ghost Story for Christmas', released in 2005 and adapting the M. R. James short story of the same name. I absolutely love the story on which this is based, but this adaptation doesn't really capture the same sense of atmospheric horror. It involves an archaeologist called in to a catalogue a collection of finds and objects belonging to a private owner with an eye to selling them. One of the items in his possession is a pair of binoculars which reveal unusual sights...

Although low budget, this is a handsome little affair with good attention to period detail. Pip Torrens (of PREACHER fame) is greatin support. Where it falls down is the direction of the horror scenes. The twist with the binoculars was the best part of the story but it's revealed in a really negligible way here. Instead the director opts for tired POV killer-in-the-woods shots and fumbled editing at the climax. We've seen this kind of thing play out hundreds of times so doing something derivative is a pity: it turns what could have been great into merely okay.

Excellent

[BlueDragon · 10/10 · 1 March 2006]

I must confess to not having read the original M R James story although I have read many of his other supernatural tales. I've also seen most of the previous BBC Christmas Ghost Stories and this one, in my opinion, surpasses most of them, only equalling The Signalman.

I can't really fault A View From a Hill - the direction and 'mood' is perfect, as is the acting, lighting and, of course, the story and writing. I thoroughly enjoyed this and can only hope for more of this quality from the same director and production team. I understand that the BBC plan to make some more (not necessarily based on M R James stories) so that's promising.

10/10

A View from a Hill

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 19 January 2024]

In 2005 the BBC revived A Ghost Story for Christmas that were so effective in the 1970s.

Dr Fanshawe an archaeologist arrives at the home of Squire Richards (Pip Torrens) and his surly butler Patten (David Burke.) He is meant to catalogue some items that the squire is selling off.

He borrows a pair of binoculars that were made by a strange local man called Baxter. Patten tells Fanshawe that Baxter became obsessed with an old Abbey and dug up the bones of the hanged men in Gallows Hill next to it.

The Abbey is now a ruin but Fanshawe can see the Abbey when looking through the binoculars.

He later thinks that a shadowy figure is haunting him. Fanshawe certainly becomes haunted for an inexplicable reason.

Bristling with atmosphere. The colour is supplied by the performances of Torrens and Burke. Apart from the eeriness, it does not amount to anything more. It is almost there was a pattern to these MR James stories.

A welcome return after twenty-seven years

[dr_clarke_2 · 8/10 · 6 September 2020]

In 2005, BBC Four revived A Ghost Story for Christmas twenty-seven years after The Ice House concluded the original series. With the original episodes having gained a cult following over the years - bolstered by British Film Institute home media releases of a couple of the episodes in early years of the twenty-first century, and the BBC repeating some of them in 2004 - going back to basics undoubtedly seemed like a good idea. Thus, the new series began as the original did, with an adaptation of a short story by M. R. James.

A View from a Hill was adapted by Peter Harness, who remained fairly close to the original story. The story sees historian Dr Fanshawe - a typical James academic - arriving at the house of Squire Richards to catalogue and value his archaeological collection, where he inadvertently unleashes supernatural terrors by borrowing an old pair of binoculars that provide a view of a dark past. A story about haunted binoculars sounds faintly ridiculous, but Harness captures the creepy atmosphere typical of James's work very well. Tellingly, it is when Fanshawe starts to treat the binoculars as a gift - delightedly sketching the abbey that he can only see through them - that they vengeful ghosts punish him dragging him to Gallows Hill for a hanging. He survives, but the sting in the tale suggests that the ghosts haven't finished with him.

With Lawrence Gordon Clark long since retired, Luke Watson directs, and like his predecessor he makes good use of stark location filming to invoke the spirit of James' ghost stories. In an era where horror films tend to be blood soaked and violent, Watson manages to make this ghostly tale chilling without showing us much at all, particularly when Fanshawe is in the woods being stalked by an unseen presence and during the spine-tingling bathroom scene, which turns out to be a nightmare. It also on several occasions makes the viewer jump, such as when Fanshawe sees the poacher; some reviewers have been critical of the use of jump shots, a modern editing technique increasingly sneered at as lazy, but the reason that jump shots remain popular with horror film directors is that they work. And given that Clark was using a similar technique long before the term was in popular use, Watson can hardly be blamed for doing the same thing.

Mark Letheren and Pip Torrens give good performances as Dr Fanshawe and Squire Richards, especially Letheren who makes Fanshawe look convincingly terrified when he's spooked in the woods and metaphorically as well as literally haunted at the end. David Burke meanwhile is excellent as aging butler Patten, whose revelations about the past provide the explanation for what is going on. The finishing touch is a very atmospheric incidental score by Harry Escott and Andy Price. The end result is a fitting tribute to Clark's seventies episodes and a modestly impressive modern update of A Ghost Story for Christmas which sends the required shiver down one's spine.

M R James still waits for a decent adaptation

[mike_film09 · 3/10 · 6 January 2018]

Having seen the 1970's TV adaptations of M R James (goodish then; less so now) I was interested to see a couple of the more recent ones. Alas, they managed not only to be as staid as the worst moments of the 1970s ones but so relentlessly unimaginative they do James's ghost stories a real disservice. In 'A View from A Hill', one of James's most chilling stories, the central character explores a haunted hill, site of ancient hangings. In this TV film the director attempts to evoke its morbid atmosphere with serial killer-style subjective camera shots (cf. Black Christmas and a hundred other slashers) and quick-cut half-seen movement - the latter ok for one shot but quickly irritating, rather than frightening. What should have been a creepy sequence is entirely too crude, too literal, and simply doesn't work. I won't belabour the point further - but nothing in the film rises above this level.

For those who want to experience a cinema version of M R James's truly creepy slow-burn atmospherics, which no-one has really managed so far, I'd recommend the Italian 'Across the River'. True, it can't supply James's distinctive Englishness, but its central character - a naturalist in search of night-time creatures, using fixed cameras - is a pretty good equivalent to James's peripatetic antiquaries in search of ancient texts. And like in James, the mysterious creatures which haunt abandoned village turn out to be immensely vengeful and vicious.

[Note: these remarks exclude Night of the Demon, which although based on a James story, does not reflect the world of his stories - however good it is.]

Great to have it back

[Gary-161 · 16 April 2006]

This was clearly made for the fans, with 'nods' towards Lawrence Gordon Clark. It would be churlish to complain about the production being too respectful. It does fit nicely into the old series and the formulaic aspect can to some extent be laid at the door of James himself. Having said that, If the BBC were to make more I hope they don't fall into the trap they did before by moving away from MR James to contemporary stories that fail to resonate. There are plenty of his works still left to adapt.

Some have complained of the modern editing of this new edition to the series, but I liked the way it made me jump. It is beautifully shot and kudos to Pip Torrens as the supercilious Squire Richards, who in looks and words reminded me of Hugh Laurie's great turn in 'Sense and Sensibilty' as Mr Palmer.

A neurosis perhaps?

[corinnahoptroff · 10/10 · 8 November 2021]

For me, this is one of the most disturbing ghost stories on film. Very atmospheric, I'm convinced Dr Fanshawe is fresh from the war with some sort of neurosis. I haven't read the story so maybe this is the case. It's particularly scary when he's pushing his bike through the woods and the staff of the house have to search for him after dark. Mark Letheren's moody performance really fits the bill and the frosty weather during filming just add to the overall effect.

An okay return of the 'Ghost Story for Christmas' series but this isn't especially good really

[Red-Barracuda · 5/10 · 4 July 2022]

The penultimate entry in the 'Ghost Story for Christmas' BBC series is about, of all things...a bewitched pair of binoculars! A museum curator uses these binoculars to see scenes from the past. Its quite a good idea, although these newer digital instalments, with their sharper image, do lack the fuzziness of the older shot-on-film entries and have a slightly more sterilized feel, while they also seem to be operating on a tighter budget. Still, the basic idea of the piece is distinctive enough.

A welcome return to a great series of films

[Prof-Hieronymos-Grost · 9/10 · 17 November 2009]

The young Dr. Fanshawe(Mark Letheren), an avid archaeologist, is dispatched by his Museum boss to the large country home of Squire Richards(Pip Torrens), where his task is to find provenance for and catalogue the collection of antiquities and curios belonging to the recently deceased father of the Squire. The Squire is surprised by the arrival Fanshawe, he hadn't been expecting him for another week, but none the less welcomes him and gets his only servant, Patten (David Burke..of Dr Watson fame), to show him to his room, as Fanshawe must stay over for some days in order to finish his rather large task. Patten it would seem is not the friendliest sort and seems to resent the extra work that Fanshawe's visit will entail, the large empty house providing an endless amount of cooking, cleaning and maintenance for him. Fanshawe is a fussy sort, very neat and precise with everything having its place, whether they be his clothes or his books and papers and he is rather disgusted by the dirt in his room. Needless to say he is rather eager to begin his work, but unpacking he finds his binoculars have been damaged in transit, so he asks the Squire for a replacement pair, The Squire who is a modern thinking man but also it would seem rather uncultured with such matters, is also eager to get rid of the clutter around the house, so he obliges and walks Fanshawe to the top of the hill so that he can survey the estate and the surrounding villages, there the Squire directs him to points of interest, including Gallows Hill, where locals were hung for their crimes and misdemeanours, his interest is also taken by a local abbey which the Squire describes as a ruin, but Fanshawe can see through the binoculars that it clearly isn't, he investigates further and pays a visit to the site of the abbey and is shocked to find that there are but a few stone remnants? Fanshawe doesn't have too much time to think about this conundrum as he darkness falls he feels he is being watched, he feels a presence, he begins to see moving shadows in the woods, startled he runs home. Over dinner he imparts details of his harrowing day to the Squire, Patten overhears the story and suggests an explanation for it..The Binoculars! they used to belong to a local man called Baxter, whom it would seem collected bones and skulls from Gallows Hill, boiling them up for some concoction or other, Baxter had disappeared mysteriously one night, the late Squire had acquired his belongings, including a mask made out of a skull and some old etchings of the area. These etchings fascinate Fanshawe as they portray the Abbey he seen through his binoculars, but he learns that the abbey had been destroyed during the reign of Henry VII and so it would be impossible for Baxter to have drawn the sketches, never the less they are signed and dated by Baxter to the recent past so he concludes that the binoculars have some special power. That night he has horrifically vivid dreams, when he wakes, he sets off with the binoculars to have a closer look at the abbey through them, what he finds surprises him but has he put himself in perilous danger by doing so? Fanshawe finally becomes trapped in his dangerous obsession, as darkness falls the Squire and a search party go in search of the now missing archaeologist, they are alerted by dozens of loudly cawing crows circling above Gallows HIll, they quicken their speed, but will they be in time to help or save Fanshawe from his destiny? The Ghost Story for Christmas series of films made by the BBC sadly ended its initial run of films in 1978 with The Ice House, they were for the most part based on the work of the great M.R. James. In 2005 and 2006 the series was revived briefly and thankfully A View from a Hill also marked a return to the work of James, whose ghostly writings have haunted many generations of readers. Director Luke Watson being new to the series might have worried fans of the older films, but he returns to the period setting abandoned by the later films which immediately sets the tone for a great Ghost story, his direction is assured as he stays true to the mood of the masters works and gradually builds up the fear factor to a terrifying climax, all the while keeping what the viewer sees to a minimum, thus upping the tension and mystery. The Autumn countryside provides oodles of atmosphere, the falling leaves and low lying sun providing an unsettling backdrop for the sinister events to come. The cast it must be said are all superb and are perfectly cast in their respective roles. The idea behind the binoculars is simple but very effective, the use of a man made object to see supernatural beings and events that the naked eye cannot see, may even have influenced Álex de la Iglesia in his film La habitación del niño (2006) of the following year, with which it bears striking similarity. I had heard mixed reviews of this particular film, but i must say i found it at all times intriguing and it even raised a few hairs on my head and gave me a few shivers, something that doesn't happen much these days, i think any negativity surrounding the film can only be attributed to its pacing, which to my eyes is perfection but to modern audiences it will be seen as deathly slow. Plenty of time is given, even within its brief 40 minutes running time, for character development and plot expansion and i must say its a new favourite of mine and certainly one of the better films of the decade.

Potential for more

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 12 June 2017]

"A View from a Hill" is a 40-minute live action short film from 2005 and this one is a mix of thriller/horror/drama. It is one of the more recent British movies (Ghost stories for Christmas) based on the work by M.R. James. Director is Luke Watson and the adaptation is by Peter Harness. I cannot say I know any of these or any of the cast members here, but this is probably not the biggest problem. This would be the script. In my opinion the acting would have made for a better film as well and I liked how only very few characters are in the center of it all here. Bit the actual horror elements in the second half of the film were not really to my liking and they really went against the solid build-up against of atmosphere. I personally liked the idea of a stranger in what is a strange new world to him almost and also the small snippets like that they expected him later etc. were okay additions. But it's not enough if the details are strong if the center of it all is weak and forgettable. That's why I five this brief movie a thumbs-down and I only recommend it if you like the much older short stories based on M.R. James works, the ones from the 1970s.

The Haunted Binoculars

[JamesHitchcock · 8/10 · 24 January 2024]

Between 1971 and 1978 the BBC used to dramatise a ghost story every year under the title "A Ghost Story for Christmas", and the first five entries in the series were all based upon tales by that great master of the genre, M. R. James. The tradition has been revived in recent years, and nine more Christmas ghost stories have appeared at irregular intervals since 2005. All of these, apart from "The Dead Room" in 2018 and "Lot No. 249" in 2023, are based upon stories by James.

"A View from a Hill" was the first episode in the revived series, broadcast at Christmas 2005. Dr Fanshawe, an academic archaeologist, is invited to the country manor house of Squire Richards, in order to catalogue and value the Squire's archaeological collection which is to be sold off to pay debts. He also takes the opportunity to carry out his own explorations of the area, and borrows a pair of binoculars from the Squire, his own having been broken in an accident.

Fanshawe discovers that the binoculars have the strange property of being able to show him how a place looked in the past. In particular, they reveal to him a local abbey, not how it is in the present- a ruin- but how it was in the sixteenth century, before the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. From conversations with the Squire and his butler, Patten, Fanshawe learns that the binoculars were made by a craftsman named Baxter, now dead, who was deeply unpopular with the local people and had a reputation for being a necromancer. He begins to fear that Baxter may have used dark forces to make the mysterious binoculars and that it was these forces which led to Baxter's death. (He was found dead on the sinister Gallows Hill, a one-time place of execution).

I have not seen all of the twenty-first century "Ghost Stories for Christmas", but of those I have seen I would rank this one as my favourite, along with "The Mezzotint". Strangely enough, neither of these are really among James's most scary stories on the printed page, but those who adapted them for television- Peter Harness here and Mark Gatiss in the case of "The Mezzotint"- realised that certain changes needed to be made to make them work in the new medium.

For much of its length, "A View from a Hill" keeps fairly closely to James's story although it makes a couple of minor changes such as updating it from the Edwardian period to the mid twentieth century. In the original story, Fanshawe was visiting Richards as a friend, and there was no mention of Richards being in debt. As with "The Mezzotint", the most important changes come at the end, with the protagonist realising that he himself is in danger from the dark forces which he has unwittingly unleashed. (In the original, the binoculars lose their power when Fanshawe takes them into a church, with the implication that the holiness of the place has overcome the evil they once contained).

Credit also needs to be given to Luke Watson for his skill as the director in conjuring up an atmosphere of unease, uncertainty and dread without ever showing us anything too explicit. This is an excellent "Ghost Story for Christmas". 8/10

Some goofs. The ancient abbey revealed to Fanshawe through the binoculars is in the Gothic style but is crowned with a large, elaborate dome. No mediaeval Gothic building in England would ever have had a dome. (In James's story it had a tower topped with four pinnacles). The story is set in the Chiltern Hills and Thames Valley. On a couple of occasions we see a red kite, a bird which at the time the story is set could be found in Wales but nowhere in England. (They have been reintroduced into parts of England and Scotland from 1989 onwards).