A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Mezzotint

Uzlíky nádeje

January 1979 •Slovak

Social ballad. Three short stories – "Uzlík tepla", "Chlapec a pánboh" and "Rubári" – depict three different human stories, the common denominator of which is suffering and existential threat.

The Love Letter

February 1998 •English

20th century computer games designer Scott, Civil War buff, buys an antique desk from that era and, while polishing it, he discovers a secret compartment in which sits an unmailed letter--a letter written by a young poet named Lizzie over a century earlier. Touched by her yearning for passion, he writes her back, egged on by his mystically inclined mother. Magically, his letter reaches Lizzie and they begin a correspondence that threatens Scott's impending marriage but promises to bring fulfilment to Lizzie. Spanning the Civil War to the present, the perils of Lizzie's war-torn situation threaten her safe passage into the future. Will their love endure the test of time?

Pälsen

December 1966 •Swedish

Doctor Henck is having bad day, and borrows a fur from a friend. It gives him new confidence, and his day immediately gets better. Hjalmar Söderberg's rejected 1911 movie script, filmed in 1966 for TV as a silent film with a piano soundtrack, to match the time in which it was written for.

Dúhenka

December 2000 •Slovak

The Lord of the Springs finds the abandoned infant Pramek and unjustly neglects King Zoran. However, his daughter Dúhenka loves Zoran and becomes his wife despite her father's prohibition. The ruler of the springs becomes angry and deprives Zoran's kingdom of water as punishment. After the birth of her daughter Rosenka, Rainbow decides to sacrifice herself to save the kingdom and returns to the sky. Zoran and his daughter yearn in vain for years to meet Dúhenka. Rosenka grows up, she is fit for marriage, but she has one condition for the suitors: they must obtain rainbow water. But only Pramko can do that. And so the Ruler of the Springs must once again struggle with human emotions, and Rosenka and Pramko face many obstacles before they can convince him of the power of human love.

Bangkok Haunted

December 2001 •Thai

Three women meet in a cafe and tell each other ghost stories, from a story of an ancient drum with a hidden past, a magic love potion so strong that one can literally die from love, to and a murder case with a twist.

A Christmas Carol

December 1971 •English

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

Ghost Bride

September 2017 •Chinese

The film tells the touching love story of urban youth Lin Qingyi and Liang Xiaoguang, based on the story of the "Ghost Bride" widely circulated in the people of the Republic of China.

Grandmothers Recharge Well!

July 1984 •Czech

A family purchases a home robot designed to look like a grandmum. Their neighbours immediately buy a more expensivve model as the two families always try to up the other one. Both grandmums start to "terorize" their families because they were set up to ensure the mums exercise, the kids study etc. Apart from that they start causing problems to the other family ... cut ropes with hanging clothes, pierced tires, etc. Once they get to killing each other family's pets the parents get really worried about the safety of their kids. The grannys later destroy each other while fighting and the families decide that they'll be better off without any robots. (It's some time since I saw this so the details may be off.) Mainly thanks to the design of the robots it's rather a comedy than a horror. Unless you are ten. And a rather good comedy!

4 Horror Tales: Hidden Floor

July 2006 •Korean

A woman moves into an apartment house with her daughter. But her daughter begins to be haunted by a mysterious ghost on a hidden floor.

Čestné kolo

July 1989 •Czech

The theme is inspired by the real life stories of Czechoslovak cyclists Jan Vesely and Jan Kubro. It offers us a look behind the scenes of big races, conflicts with coaches and inner tensions in borderline situations.

The Battles of Simeon the Student

November 1999 •Serbian

Thematically diverse stories written by Petar Kocic are bond by the thread, creating the basis for a dramatic story of the events surrounding the student Simeun. In the foreground there's a summary of Simeun's features, some patriotic, but some arrogant as well. These Simeun's actions are manifesto of the complexity of his nature, acting like a tyrant and patriot who displays bravery for the sake of freedom of his people.

Hellraiser

September 2022 •English

A young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.

Sole Survivor

January 1970 •English

In 1960, the ruins of an American bomber were found in the Libyan desert, but the remains of the crew were never located. In Guerdon Trueblood's teleplay, the ghosts of a bomber crew hang around their derelict plane, awaiting the day that their bones will be recovered and given a decent burial. The sole survivor, navigator Russell Hamner, has in the intervening 25 years become a General. He joins an investigation team that has come across the wreckage, while the ghosts, headed by Major Devlin, plot to expose Hamner as a coward who deserted his post and left his crew mates to die.

The Demise of Paľo Ročka

January 1985 •Slovak

A television production based on Bozena Slančíková-Timrava's short stories about social and moral conditions in a Slovak village in the 1930s.

Christmas Spirits

January 1981 •English

Julia, a Hollywood property scout, is looking for a house to star in a horror movie, she finds more than she bargained for at Glebes Hall. Unaired in the UK.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

June 1990 •English

A rich woman becomes paranoid after losing her daughter to a so-called Kabuki Killer.

Dvě z Paříže

April 1989 •Czech

Dorian Gray

April 1970 •German

London, England. Dorian Gray is a young man who somehow keeps his beauty eternally, while a mysterious portrait of himself gradually reveals his moral decay.

Children of the Corn

October 2020 •English

A psychopathic twelve-year-old girl in a small town in Nebraska recruits all the other children and goes on a bloody rampage, killing the corrupt adults and anyone else who opposes her. A bright high schooler who won't go along with the plan is the town's only hope of survival.

One for the Road

October 2024 •English

When a stranger ambles into a roadside diner in the dead of night, two friendly Samaritans prove no good deed goes unpunished.