The Ghostly Countdown -- 4

[Pamela Troy]

The countdown to Christmas continues with this nicely done 10-minute chiller from Ireland called The Ten Steps.

It's interesting to observe the way these kind of stories adapt to changes in technology -- the classic automobile-age story of the phantom hitchhiker, for instance, seems to have evolved from the 19th century story of "Frozen Charlotte," about a girl who died of cold while riding in a horse-drawn sleigh. The babysitter story that always ends, "He's in the house, get OUT!" could only have taken place in the era of telephones. And this creepy tale could not have been told as convincingly in the era before cellphones --



"You'll have to go and check the fusebox. It's in the cellar..."