Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Powerful

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

"Lost Hearts" is a British 35-minute live action short film from 1973, so this one will have its 45th anniversary next year. It is one of several horror stories for the holidays directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark based on stories by M.R. James. The contents of characters (a kid in this example here) at remote houses were frequent in these and there was always something spooky going on there. Here the boy (played by actor Simon Gipps-Kent, who had a tragically short life) experiences dreams about two other children that are missing their hearts. Overall, the premise wasn't too bad and the atmospheric touch was there too. But the boy's acting did not impress me too much next to Joseph O'Conor, who really gave a commanding performance that was almost too good for the material of this small screen release. I also had some problems with the (intended) scary moments like for example the two ghost children appearing near the very end. Something just felt not right about that. It's tough to put a finger on the exact reason, but it just wasn't as creepy or at least as mysterious as I had hoped it to be. So overall with the exception of the grown-up lead actor I'd give this film a thumbs-down. But I think you should decide yourself if you want to see it. It is highly unlikely you haven't seen any of the others from the series when considering seeing this one, so decide for yourself depending on how much you liked these.

After reading the 10 previous strongly positive reviews, I purchased this film on DVD. What a mistake! The plot was risible and the direction lame. The acting was pretty good, especially on the part of the two leads (too bad that Gipps-Kent died so young -- he was good enough that I wondered at first if the part was being played by a much more experienced woman). Nonetheless, the set-up (an innocent young orphan comes into the care of a kindly old bachelor) was followed by action that yielded not a particle of mystery, not a moment's frisson. The hackneyed denouement was so poorly executed as to leave me wondering what the other reviewers were thinking. They couldn't all be related to the cast or crew! Hope that other outings in the series are better-- I've now got several more to plow through. I'm a real fan of British TV and film, but this one isn't worth the heel of Mary Shelley's boot.

I watched this as a child whilst baby-sitting my younger sister and it scared the living hell out of me. 40 years later I think I would still hesitate to watch it again.Reading the previous reviews went some way to reliving the horror that I experienced when I saw it and I can concur that the scene where the two children walk up the staircase dragging their long fingernails against the banister has to be one of the most ghastly I can remember. By modern standards its probably rather a tame affair but the combination of horror and the children's lost innocence is what makes it such compelling viewing.

Another ghoulish Yuletide yarn from the atmospheric pen of the great M. R. James: after a slow start depicting the settling in of a young boy into the mansion of his slightly dotty elderly cousin, the pace picks up considerably towards the midpoint of this 35 minute TV program with the chilling reappearance of the young children (fleetingly seen waving to the boy at the start) who have now morphed into ondulating Nosferatu-like wraiths complete with talons for fingernails! As it turns out, this boy and girl had previously also been guests at the cousin's manor but were sacrificed to the old man's obsessive quest for immortality via his belief that extracting three young hearts of living children will do the trick; needless to say, our young protagonist is the last link in the chain but the greedy old man did not count on the protection/retribution of his previous victims who (understandably off-screen) perform their own live heart removal on him and throw the beating organ into the flaming fireplace!