" Two ingredients most valuable in the concocting of a ghost story are the atmosphere and the nicely managed crescendo
…Let us, then, be introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings; and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage. "

― M.R. James , A Warning to the Curious