He attends her funeral where only him and another person appear. This is where we first meet the ghost. The ghost is a Women dressed in black and looks like she is at the funeral to grieve. We know she is a ghost a because of the way the camera pans and the music. We see her at the back of the church and then when we look again she has disappeared. This is also used quite a lot in horror films and can be very successful in getting the reader interested in the ghost or very scared. The next time we see her is in the church cemetery. At the time Arthur Kidd thinks she is there to commemorate Mrs Drablows passing away. He begins to get scared of her at his first night at the house when he goes out to visit the marsh Graves. He sees her standing in the marshes staring at him. This is when he starts to get suspicious about who she is.
Arthur looks around the House and starts to listen to the recorded diary of Mrs Drablow. He learns that Mrs Drablow had a sister who had a son. Mrs Drablow adopted the child and took care of him. Later in the boys life Mrs Drablows sister tried to steal the boy back. She got him out of the house but as she was leaving she crashed the cart into the marshes. She and the child drowned. He later learns that the ghost of Mrs Drablows sister kills a child every time she is around in revenge for what happened to her child. This explains to the audience why she follows Arthur, when he first arrived in the town he saved a gypsy child from being crushed by falling logs. The child was being killed by the ghost and she was angered, as she did not kill her
While he is staying there at one point he hears a thumping sound coming from one of the bedrooms. He rushes upstairs to see what it is and the door to the room is locked. He tries to knock it down but the lights turn off so he rushes out to turn them back on and when he gets back to the door its unlocked. Inside it is a child’s bedroom with toys all over the place but there is no one in the room. He then hears a child laughing and feels a toy solider being placed in his hand. This at the time does not seem of much relevance but the solider keeps appearing throughout the film. When Sam Toovey arrives the next day Arthur goes to show him the child’s room but when he gets there it has been completely trashed. He feints and is taken back to a hotel where they look after him.
While he is there we hear the child’s voice again as it puts the same solider into Arthur Kidd’s hand. As this happens the voice says It’s for you. Then suddenly we see the ghost swoop over him. She has rough tangled hair blowing back, deep black hollow eyes, a black cloak blowing back in the air, the music is screeching wildly and this is all used to terrify us. It is very successful but I think it lasts slightly too long so instead of being scared of it you begin to find it funny.
We learn that Eel Marsh House burnt down so Arthur no longer needed to stay there. This is a fake ending where we think that the movie is finished. It is used in horror films to give the audience a false sense of security where they do not know whether the main character is safe or not. Arthur goes home and at his first day back at work He sees the Black chest that didn’t get burnt down in the fire. When he sees it he gets nervous again. One of his colleagues tells him that there was a woman dressed like a widow standing outside. He looks in the chest and in it are all the papers of Mrs Drablow and sitting at the bottom is the Toy solider. He destroys the chest in hope of getting rid of the ghost.
He goes boating with his Wife and children to get away from it all. At first we believe this to be the ending but we soon realize he is not safe as the camera is looking at him as though there is someone watching him. Then suddenly we see him staring with a look of fear. The next camera shot is of the ghost standing on the lake then Mrs Kidd stands up obscuring our view of the ghost. She screams and then the next shot is of a giant branch snap and fall. We see the same shot six times with screeching music playing and then it hits the water and there is silence. This defies the conventions of a normal horror movie as in it the Good guy dies. This is very effective as it means we know that the ghost is still out there. It makes us think and wonder what the ghost is doing and where she is. It is very successful but is not a popular style of ending. It is not widely used and I do not know many films that end in this way.
