Lot No. 249

First I will say how great it was seeing Kit Harington in something other than GOT. Yes he had a short scene in "Externals" but his performance here is world away from anything I've seen him in prior. Which is not much (oh yes, he was also in "Pompeii"). Honestly if it were not for the IMDB credits, I would not have known it was him! No doubt in my mind as to who his characters friend was, it was clearly Sherlock Holmes prior to the Baker Street days. No name was given but it was not necessary. The very end had a nice nod to the 1932 Boris Karloff film "The Mummy". If you have seen it, when the mummy comes to life a young archeological student begins laughing. Slowly at first, but then increasingly mad. Harrington's character does the same when faced with the living mummy!

Now, I haven't read the Conan Doyle story, but I am familiar with the story from "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie" anthology. And thus, of course I had to sit down and watch this 2023 take on the story and see what writer and directors Mark Gatiss had to offer here with this short film. Again, while I am not familiar with the original Conan Doyle story, I don't know how true Mark Gatiss stayed to the source material, or how much liberty of rewriting he took here. Regardless, sitting down to watch "Lot No. 249" for the purpose of being entertained, I will say that writer and director Mark Gatiss succeeded in doing so. I was only familiar with Kit Harington on the cast list in "Lot No. 249", but I have to say that the entire cast ensemble put on good performances. It was a small cast ensemble, but they carried the film well. I was also particularly impressed with actor Colin Ryan's performance. Visually then "Lot No. 249" was good. The special effects were simplistic, but to the point and very functional. And that certainly spoke well in favor of the overall impression of the short film. My rating of "Lot No. 249" lands on a six out of ten stars.

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source: Lot No. 249

Another Christmas, another episode of A Ghost Story for Christmas on the BBC. For 2023, writer and director Mark Gatiss breaks with tradition and eschews the work of M. R. James, instead adapting Arthur Conan Doyle's short story 'Lot No. 249'. The end result is rather satisfying, albeit not terribly scary. 'Lot No. 249' stars Kit Harington as Abercrombie Smith, an Oxford student who recounts to his friend the tale of his neighbour Edward Bellingham (Freddie Fox) using an Egyptian mummy to murder anybody who crosses him on campus. The plot is largely true to Conan Doyle's original, with Smith uncovering Bellingham's activities, having a narrow escape from the Mummy, and confronting Bellingham at gunpoint and forcing him to destroy the creature. Gatiss however adds a modern slant - Bellingham is implied to be gay, to Smith's seeming disgust - and also changes the ending to provide a dark twist in the tale, as it turns out that Bellingham also has a Lot. 250, and - more in keeping with James' work - he protagonist of the story meets a terrible fate at the end. Gatiss' track record with A Ghost Story for Christmas is highly variable, but 'Lot No. 249' is one of his stronger efforts. Despite tweaking the story, he stays true to the spirit of Conan Doyle's version, with Smith the embodiment of the Victorian ideal of manliness, an athletic medical student who combines a keen intellect and good looks. Or "just the sort of man to keep the flags of empire flying", as Bellingham puts it. Smith triumphs in the original story, and one wonders whether Gatiss' new ending is intended purely to provide the traditional grisly ending one excepts from A Ghost Story for Christmas, or in fact to acknowledge contemporary views that Victorian morality, including Smith's condemnation of Bellingham's "perversions" and championing of English law over Egyptian superstition and barbarism, has long since had its day. As a director, Gatiss is even more variable than he is as a writer; his lesser episodes of A Ghost Story for Christmas have suffered simply from not being especially scary. That is equally true here, but proves to be less of an issue when adapting Conan Doyle than adapting M. R. James, for whom chills were a must. Nevertheless, the scene of the snarling Mummy chasing Smith to his friend's house is quite tense, and the creature looks great. The cast is excellent to, with Harrington perfectly cat as the square jawed epitome of Victorian masculinity, contrasted with Colin Ryan's submissive and terrified Monkhouse Lee (implied to be Bellingham's lover) and Fox's foppish, smarmy, slightly camp Bellingham. John Heffernan is also very good as "the Friend", who in a nod to both Conan Doyle's most famous works of fiction and Gatiss' own career with the BBC is strongly implied to be Sherlock Holmes. Unsurprisingly, the period setting is well realised, with great sets and costumes, and if 'Lot No. 249' isn't the scariest instalment of A Ghost Story for Christmas, it is nevertheless a solid episode and a ripping yarn. Gatiss has cast doubt over the future of the program, due to the increasing difficulty of raising the budget to make these festive offerings. Hopefully, that is a problem that he will continue to overcome.

But honestly, aside from the decor and the resulting atmosphere, what a waste of half an hour! The story is downright simple-minded, like something a schoolboy horror fan would dream up, with no attempt to make it more believable or to explain why any of the characters behave as they do. And in the end you're left saying, "Wait. You mean, that's IT? That's all there IS?? Where's the story?" I should add that "Oxford," as depicted in this little tale, seems to be -- even in an age before electricity -- a place badly in need of lights, since virtually all the rooms and corridors we see are shrouded in darkness.

To think this fantastic story could be condensed into 34 minutes if beyond me - I've been waiting a long time for Lot 249 to be adapted to the big screen, its so worthy. I felt the acting was good but you cant set the mood or scene in such a short amount of time. Why Gatiss couldn't stick to the original story line, the BBC always twist the originals. The link to Sherlock Holmes and the -'Sussex Vampire' was great but again not needed, Gatiss should remain flat footed. Kit Harrington i personally felt made a great Smith but would bring the character to life in a full length feature. One of my favorite story's, just not long enough.

Why does Mark Gatiss have the monopoly on doing these Ghost Stories for Christmas? Surely someone else should be given a chance to show what they can do? I haven't particularly enjoyed any of his, and I really don't think they should be associated with the classic Ghost Stories for Christmas. The only thing of his I rated was Crooked House and that's some time ago. This latest one seemed very obvious and ham fisted with no tension built up at all, plus the added campness didn't work at all. Perhaps it's the stories chosen that are part of the problem, maybe opening the net to other authors might help?

A young college student buys a mummy that he brings to life to do his bidding. I haven't read the short story, but I had seen this adapted before as a segment of "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie" with Christian Slater and then-unknowns Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore. I'm guessing Hollywood took some creative liberties -- but the BBC version did too, dragging in Sherlock Holmes and making a lead character gay. Harrington is way too old to be playing a college student (I thought he was a professor at first), the characters are all utterly one-dimensional, the motivation for the mummy-attacks are murky at best, and most importantly, there were zero scares. The performances weren't bad given what they had to work with, and there's a nice British atmosphere, but generally it was flat and unmemorable. Plus, the Holmes cameo was absolutely pointless. That's a shame, I really wanted to like this. As soon as I finished, I rewatched the "Darkside" segment, which I hadn't seen in over 30 years (it left a lasting impression though). The story is a little different, being relocated to the USA circa 1990, but it has everything that this version is lacking: strong characterizations, a clear motive, tension, and scares. The twist ending is equally corny, but at least it's logical, and it even runs a few minutes shorter than the BBC's adaptation.

I'm a bit of a devotee to the Christmas horror story, that is somewhat a BBC tradition. I've certainly seen and reviewed the contributions that Mark Gatiss has made to this run, though I'd be the first to say that I haven't liked all of them. I'm afraid that, for me "Lot no. 249" is another one for the disappointment file. Abercrombie Smith (Kit Harington) appears at the house of his friend (John Heffeman) terrified and recounts a story about a fellow student at Oxford. Smith is training as a doctor and was called to the chamber of Edward Bellingham (Freddie Fox) an Egyptologist, as he has passed out. Whilst reviving him, he notices a sarcophagus and mummified occupant. Later, Smith hears strange noises coming from Bellingham's room and, in an incident that evening, another student, with whom Bellingham has a longstanding grudge is attacked. Smith comes to believe that the Mummy is the perpetrator of the attacks. I think maybe some of the issue with this is with me and my expectations. As I've got older, the alure of Christmas TV has waned and these horror specials are one of the few things I look out for. So, I don't think that this is "bad" - it's just lacking in the sort of surprising or clever elements that I was after. I do think the decision to stray away from Conan Doyle's even more anticlimactical ending was a good one, but even this version I found lacking. I think perhaps this one suffers from being a bit too explicit, in the sense there's never really another plausible explanation offered for the attacks. The reason for them too, feels like a bit of a stretch, though maybe that half an hour run time meant that further exploration of that wasn't possible. Again, I don't think this was bad, and I'll be back in twelve months for the next one, but something a little more genuinely scary, or clever, would be welcome.