The Haunted Season is a new annual series on Shudder from Severin Films and Kier-La Janisse. I absolutely love the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas time, so I’m really excited to be treated to a new ghost story every December.

To Fire You Come at Last is the first short film, a beautiful black and white story set in a rural 17th century village. Squire Marlow’s son has died and he hires 3 men from the local village to carry his coffin to the graveyard. It’s dark, it’s atmospheric and it’s wonderfully creepy. There’s just something about period ghost stories that is incredibly cosy and so perfectly suited to Christmas and the winter months.

I missed To Fire You Come at Last at FrightFest 2023, so I’m really pleased it’s found a home on Shudder and is also part of an ongoing series. Folk horror has a rich history in British film (and culture!), which Kier-La has lovingly explored in Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (which is incredible, if you haven’t seen it!) I really enjoyed this tale and now I want to lose myself in folk horror and ghost stories, for the foreseeable.

It’s wonderful to see James Swanton in another classic British ghost story and this time, not hidden under creature makeup. A truly standout performance that both made me chuckle and unsettled me.

To Fire You Come at Last is on Shudder now – a perfect cosy watch for Christmas Eve.