👻 A Ghost Story For Christmas Lost Hearts (1973) – Review 🎻🩸

🎞️ Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

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📖 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Lost Hearts is a short supernatural horror tale that originally aired in 1973 as part of the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series. Set in the early 1800s, it follows a young orphan named Stephen who is sent to live with his distant relative, the eccentric scholar Mr. Abney, in a vast, cold country house. At first, the situation seems like a standard Victorian inheritance setup — but soon, Stephen begins seeing ghostly visions of two pale, silent children who watch him from the shadows.

As Stephen starts to piece together the house’s dark secrets, he realizes he may not be the first child to live under Abney’s roof… and he might not survive long enough to inherit anything at all.


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🧍 Character Rundown

Stephen – A young orphan boy and our protagonist. Naive but observant, he begins to suspect something is deeply wrong.

Mr. Abney – A reclusive scholar obsessed with ancient occult knowledge. At first, he seems kind… but as always, appearances are deceiving.

The Ghost Children – Two pale, eerie spirits who silently appear throughout the house. Dressed in old-fashioned clothes, their quiet presence is unsettling — and tragic.



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🕰️ Pacing / Episode Flow

This short film has a measured, deliberate pace, which works in its favor. The unease builds slowly, like a whisper growing into a scream. It doesn’t rely on jump scares — instead, it lets dread simmer in every corner of the estate. The runtime is under 40 minutes, but the tension lingers long after the credits roll.


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✅ Pros

🎻 Genuinely haunting imagery — the pale ghost children playing the hurdy-gurdy is pure nightmare fuel.

🏛️ A chilling gothic atmosphere: the creaky estate, the candlelit corridors, the silence.

💀 A surprisingly disturbing story for a TV short, especially given when it aired.

📚 Captures the cold detachment of Victorian rationalism clashing with the supernatural.

🏕️ Bonus pro: Despite its disturbing elements, the short format captures a folk-horror, seasonal ghost tale vibe, ideal for winter or Halloween viewing.



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❌ Cons

🔇 The restrained acting style and slow pacing might turn off modern viewers used to more overt horror.

🗡️ There are uncomfortable undertones to the story, especially with the implication of grooming or manipulation under the guise of guardianship — which, while intentional, might make this hard to watch for some.

🧠 Younger viewers or casual audiences may not immediately grasp the mythological or esoteric references.



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🧾 Final Thoughts

Lost Hearts is a darkly poetic, unsettling ghost story — one that uses minimalism and suggestion to its advantage. There’s no gore, no screaming possessions, no demonic jump cuts. Just a growing sense of wrongness, a slow reveal of human cruelty, and ghostly vengeance done quiet and cold.

This isn’t just one of the best entries in the A Ghost Story for Christmas lineup — it’s one of the best short-form horror stories, period. It’s also a sharp reminder that some of the most haunting horrors aren’t the ghosts, but the people pretending to protect us.


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⭐ Rating: 10/10 🎻👁️🫀


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🚨 Spoiler Warning 🚨

From this point on, beware… there are hearts missing in the study.


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🧠 Spoilers

We eventually learn that Mr. Abney is not the kindly scholar he pretends to be. His obsession with immortality and esoteric rituals has led him down a dark path: he believes the key to eternal life lies in harvesting the hearts of children with special abilities.

That’s right — he intentionally lured orphaned children into his home, performed occult rituals, and murdered them, cutting out their hearts in order to gain supernatural power.

The two pale children that Stephen keeps seeing? They’re ghosts of Mr. Abney’s previous victims, lingering in the house and silently warning Stephen of what’s to come.

In the final moments, the ghost children appear one last time — not just to warn, but to take revenge. They physically attack Mr. Abney, ending his twisted quest once and for all. Stephen survives, but not without trauma, having discovered the truth about his guardian and the haunted house he nearly became a part of.