Pleasing terror

I don’t really believe in ghosts, but have always loved ghost stories. That’s because I do believe in the power of stories to disturb and unsettle, even the most firmly rational mind. And judging by the audience figures for the theatre show “Ghost Stories” I’m not alone in the desire to be scared witless, by something I don’t believe in!

Nowadays, it’s easy for a play or film that sets out to frighten its audience – it can always rely on visual effects, and that old trick of simply making you jump.

For me personally, I like to sometimes forget what I’ve seen; whether in CGI, make-up or every monster imaginable, and go back in time, to the books of Montague Rhodes James.

The pleasure in reading his books is that they fill our nervous imaginations, at first welcoming with ease into his characters world. But then they bring trouble on themselves by innocent actions – a little too curious, examining an old manuscript or by picking up a harmless object on the beach.  As the stories unfold you begin to realise the unpleasantness that is developing around the victim. You see them slowly becoming trapped in horrific and ghostly situations from which there is no escape!

He does the literally equivalent of covering our eyes at the moment of horror – a few words dropped casually; a face like crumpled linen, a creature made of hair, a footprint with the bones visible. We desperately want to look, but even more desperately, we don’t want to ‘see’. We’re like the observers in “The Mezzotint” – “profoundly thankful that they could see no more”!

So for those of you who like your “flesh to creep”, there is nothing better than reading these stories; with just the sound of a ticking clock, you’ll be taken back to the time they were written, the times of long train journeys and remote landscapes.

 

Ask anyone what they consider to be the most horrible moment in M.R. James’ fiction, and the chances are they will come up with the passage in “Casting the Runes” – in which, waking in the dark Mr Dunning puts his hand under the pillow to get his watch and;

“What he touched was, according to his account, a mouth, with teeth and with hair about it, and he declares not the mouth of a human being.”

On the face of it, that mouth should be no more frightening than the false teeth in the glass on the bedside table. The ghostly mouth, doesn’t bite or even lick the hand, it’s just there and it shouldn’t be – it stops the heart!

And like most, I have my favourite stories one of which is  “The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”. It takes the dull pass time of a man looking through a collection of documents, to pie.ce together the death of an Archdeacon and finds a tale of murderous ambition!

Our guilty victim is increasingly troubled and ‘haunted’ from beyond the grave by a black cat and that whispering voice;

“The whispering in my house was more persistent tonight. I seemed not to be rid of it in my room. I have not noticed this before. A nervous man, which I am not, and hope I am not becoming, would have been much annoyed, if not alarmed, by it. The cat was on the stairs tonight. I think it sits there always……. There is no kitchen cat.”

You can feel his ghosts gather around you; from the 2 cloaked figures waiting expectantly at the crossroads in “Count Magnus” , the engraving of an old manor house coming to life in “The Mezzotint” and a man haunted through his dreams from “O Whistle & I’ll Come to you My Lad”

His memorable images conjure the night terrors of child-hood, the glimpsed figure on the lonely beach and that voice that whispers in our ear on the dark stairs. It’s unsettling the effect his books produce, reminding us, we don’t really know what populates the dark – beyond the circle of our candlelight!

Afterwards, you will be glad to constantly remind yourself, that this is in fact “just a story”. But you will never forget any of his writing, or find anything more English or disturbing as his “ghostly tales”

So as you walk down a deserted beach, or even a lonely stretch of road, it will never feel quite the same again – you have M.R. James to thank for that!

Say Hello….

A little boy wakes in the middle of the night to find his favourite toy, moving around his bedroom. His mother bolts out of her bed to the screams of her child and the sounds of furniture being overturned. Rushing to his room she is worried when his door is locked. All she can do is listen to the sounds of giggling and chaos, only broken by the screams of her son calling out to her. Finally wrenching the door opened she finds her son huddled under his blankets, his toy sat at the end of the bed and his belongings scattered all over the room … All the boy could whisper was “Robert did it”…

 

Now this could sound like the start of a horror film, or maybe just the little boy blaming his toy, so he wouldn’t get into trouble. Hoping his parents would just put it down to a nightmare or his over active imagination…..let’s face it didn’t you dream of your favourite toy coming to life to play with you?

We’d all agree that a good imagination is healthy…BUT what would happen if your toy started to torment you to the point where you couldn’t sleep??? This is what supposedly happened to Robert Eugene Otto (AKA ‘Gene) and his favourite toy “Robert”

“Robert” was given to Gene in the early 1900s by a maid and the child instantly became unnervingly close to his new doll. He took it everywhere with him.. feeding him at the dinner table….going on errands with his parents…and “Robert” took pride of place in Gene’s bed at night.

At first everyone thought it was cute how the two seemed so close, but then started to notice unsettling things, like at night people would wake to the sound of light footsteps echoing through the old house, as if someone was running from room to room, friends of the family reported seeing the doll walking up the stairs, furniture seemed to have a life of its own and most disturbingly people reported “Roberts” smile turning to a grimace and hearing it giggling.

And whilst most children tend to outgrow their toys – the bond between Gene and “Robert” continued throughout his life.

Returning to his family home (after the death of his parents), with his new wife Anne, Gene re-discovered “Robert” in the attic. However, Anne detested the toy, saying she found Gene’s attachment unsettling and insisted she’d seen the expression on “Roberts” face change!

With the two reunited, strange and frightening experiences haunted Anne and her friends, claims that doors would slam, dishes would smash by themselves and more chillingly they could hear the sounds of tiny foot-steps and childish laughter, which would disturb their quiet evenings.

After her servants left the house, refusing to return Anne confined the sinister object to the attic.

Her determined efforts, however, were short- lived and as Gene became even closer to his doll, he would spend hours with him talking, Anne also could hear the two-sided conversations between her husband and the deep voice.

Many stories circulated that Robert would be seen staring out of a window, frightening school children by moving or demonic giggling coming from the house, when supposedly no one was at home.

Gene insisted that Robert was locked in the attic, so imagine his surprise to find him sitting in a rocking chair in the Turret Room, seizing the doll he returned it to the attic, only to find it returned to the rocking chair when he came back down !

When Gene died in 1972, he was found in the Turret room, lying next to his favorite toy….even though Robert the man was gone, “Robert” the doll carried on…

Anne moved to Boston leaving the house to the new tenants, whose 10 year old little girl found “Robert” in the attic – she carried the doll everywhere and things were going great… until the parents found the doll at the end of their bed… knife in hand ! Even to this day their daughter claims the doll would torment her, was alive and tried to kill her – she is still deeply traumatized!

That was enough the family left the house never to return and donated “Robert” to the Key West Martello Museum but the story doesn’t end there…

One employee at the museum remembers having spent time cleaning the doll and then left for the night…. When he returned the next morning the lights were on. Robert was in a different position and stranger still? It appears that Robert’s shoes had dust on the bottom of them like he had been walking around!!!

Both visitors and employees report to hear giggling, see his legs cross and uncross and some claim to sometimes hear tapping on glass as they pass his case, when they turn to look they have seen “Roberts” hand pressed against the glass….

This would be the doll that inspired “Chucky” and haunt our nightmares and whilst you might not believe in curses or dolls that come to life, it’s always better to ask Robert permission to take his photo… you know… just to be on the safe side, because if you don’t when you return home, having completely forgotten about the doll and its curse ….you might just see something run across the room, out of the corner of your eye… That’s “Robert” and he’s not happy….