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Stigma (1977) 5/10
WARNING: spoilers below
I would say this is horror rather than a ghost story. The idea itself is strong but I found the inconsistency of the blood a weakness several times it appears with no visible injury underneath; in the denouement this changes to minute droplets seeping through the skin. You could say that this is the curse gradually affecting the physical body of its victim in stages (maybe eventually a stab wound would manifest, perfectly replicating the human sacrifice under the stone?). This is where the psychological bent of earlier M. R. James adaptations was preferable and perhaps Stigma would have been more successful had they stuck to that style even more.
The direction's good and I think Kate Binchy was really good. The upper middle classness was a bit hard work but fair enough, they're a well-to-do family who can afford diggers to move a stone
. I thought the workman jumping straight into what was clearly a burial site and ultimately a murder scene and picking up the skull really quite ridiculous.
The direction's good and I think Kate Binchy was really good. The upper middle classness was a bit hard work but fair enough, they're a well-to-do family who can afford diggers to move a stone
. I thought the workman jumping straight into what was clearly a burial site and ultimately a murder scene and picking up the skull really quite ridiculous.
