Rent The Ghost of Winifred Meeks (2021)

No subtitles?? - The Ghost of Winifred Meeks review by SL

Looking through cinema paradiso's new films, I was very excited to see this. I love 'traditional' ghost stories and especially M R James and was about to add this to my list until I thought, let's check if it has subtitles, fully expecting to have them, it being a new film.

But no, no subtitles so those of us who have hearing problems cannot enjoy this film. Incredible.

Wonderful! - The Ghost of Winifred Meeks review by JK

I really enjoyed this film, the photography was brilliant and acting superb. The way in which the atmosphere  built as the story progressed was masterful. My only criticism was the ending, which I found a bit disappointing, I think it was lacking and could have been done much better. Also, no subtitles? The telephone dialogues were quite hard to follow at times. I think these should have been subtitles at least.

Not much ado about nothing ... - The Ghost of Winifred Meeks review by NP

This begins with a kind of Universal films tribute – the opening credits come complete with Hans J. Salter’s familiar 1940s music suite, and our heroine Anna James is listening to a Universal Sherlock Holmes soundtrack in the opening scenes (1946’s ‘Terror by Night’, as it goes). Before much else happens, she settles down to watch ‘Nosferatu’ and Vincent Price in further classic old films. It seems that a deliberate decision has been made that identifying these vintage icons is far more interesting than anything else going on here – because for some considerable time, nothing else *is* going on here.

Anna (Lara Belmont) wanders around the big isolated house she has rented. She sits down, stands up, arranges her laptop on a desk, walks around, and has a cuppa. Sometimes she is in daylight, other times in the dark. It is scintillating stuff. There are nice views of the rolling countryside, often with a blue filter over them. All to the strains of melancholy piano music reassuring us all this meandering is deliberate. This is the film.

I very rarely watch a film and get the feeling I am having the mickey taken out of me, but this is the case much of the time here – how long can I watch someone doing nothing? I like slow-burning, atmospheric stories, and there is a remote ambience here; there are also a handful of genuinely eerie moments, but you really have to wait far too long for them. My score is 4 out of 10.