The Phantom Carriage:

Legend has it that whoever is the last person to die on New Year's Eve will be destined to drive the Phantom Carriage, collecting dead souls for a year. When a drunkard is found at the stroke of midnight, the victim of a vicious fight, he is forced to relive his past to see how he and those around him have been destroyed by his selfish and destructive ways.

Directed by pioneering Swedish film-maker Victor Sjostrom, The Phantom Carriage is arguably the most influential and enduring horror film of all time. Powerful acting and groundbreaking trick photography lend it an otherworldly atmosphere not since matched in modern cinema. Cited as being one of Ingmar Bergman's primary inspirations, The Phantom Carriage depicted death as a physical and industrious presence, something later echoed in The Seventh Seal.

The Image Makers:

Set in the 1920s at the Swedish film studios, the great silent director Victor Sjostrom is nearing completion of The Phantom Carriage, a cinematic adaptation of a popular novel, and has invited the book's authoress, along with the film's leading actress, to look at some early scenes. But, when both women claim to know the story and the characters best, a psychological battle arises which threatens to destabilise the whole project.

A tribute to his mentor and to the film which inspired him to become a film-maker, Bergman's drama features a mesmerising performance by one of Sweden's greatest theatre actress, Anita Bjork. An emotional storm of a film, with a style and rhythm quite unlike that of his other films (described by Bergman as 'TV Theatre') The Image Makers was the great director's penultimate work for the screen.