Lady In White. PG-13, 1 hr. 32 min. Directed by: Frank LaLoggia. Release Date: April 22, 1988. DVD Release Date: March 14, 1998.
This has the dubious distinction of being the first thriller/horror movie that I was allowed to see, although I'm still not really sure whether it's really intended to be horror or some sort of supernatural thriller. The relatively low rating has me assuming the filmmakers were just going for mass market appeal and minimizing their potential for offense. I've talked about movies that try and waffle back and forth between thriller and horror before in an attempt to dodge the dreaded R rating and the resultant drop in potential box office sales, but I rarely have anything positive to say about the approach. It usually ends up with the kind of confusion and questions that I have about this movie.
I remember this movie creeping me out at the tender age of 11. When I happened across this in a Netflix Cinematch list, that was pretty much all I remembered about the movie. It's a good sign that a movie I haven't seen in 20 years still manages an emotional impact. Watching it today, I had many of the same reactions, although a few of the scenes that once would have given me the creeps then were now a bit cheesy. In 1988, the appearance of the ghost characters looked real, but today they were hokey and a little rough around the edges. I would; however, LOVE for someone to do a remake on this. Maybe up the gore quotient a touch, get a solid R rating, and do some decent special effects.
Back then, the only association I had with the cast was Katherine Helmond, who I knew as Mona from Who's The Boss?. It was a little weak, as was Ms. Helmond's odd and disjointed performance, but it was what kept me connected. Now, I'm familiar with most of the major players. I've seen Lukas Haas in Witness, Brick, and a few other films, the dad in this movie is the man who played the dad on The Wonder Years, and I recognize the killer, but I can't think of where from.
I really enjoyed this, right up until the end. There's only so much cheese I can take in a movie, and I guess this exceeds my recommended daily dosage in the last twenty minutes or so. If you have a tween or young teen (especially one that's a bit of a wussy) this isn't a bad starter movie to see how they're going to deal with scary movies. Oh man, now that I've written that I'm wondering if my mother, who is a total wuss about these movies, thought I was, too.
Ghost Story. R, 1 hr. 50 min.
Directed by: John Irvin.
Release Date: December 18, 1981.
DVD Release Date: October 10, 2000.
A funny thing happened while I was watching this
movie. In the first few minutes of the
movie, my attention was snagged by my phone ringing. I looked at the face to determine whether or
not I wanted to answer the call (as it turns out, I didn’t), and when I looked
back up at the screen, I spent several seconds looking at something which I
belatedly realized was some guy’s Johnson as he fell from a hi-rise
window. It was an eternally WTF moment,
and I spent the next several minutes laughing so hard that I nearly wet
myself. Sadly, that one moment changed
the feel of this film, which might otherwise have been creepy, or the very
least ominous.
One of the things that this movie has going for
it is that they managed to bring up all the best elements of a ghost story: the opening scenes of a room in deep shadows
and flickering firelight are pretty traditional for the telling of a ghost
story. I would have been a little
happier if these guys had continued to tell the story from there rather than
moving on with their lives in the present while flashbacks from the time line
of their story continued. There is an
eerie haunted house, which I thought was the setting for a few spooky
moments. But really what this movie has
in its favor is the cast, which includes Fred Astaire and John Houseman.
But, it’s all of these things going on against a
backdrop that managed to be idyllic enough that I almost mistook it for the
winter scenes by that painter whose work changes in appearance depending on how
much light is focused on it. I want to
say Jackson Pollock, but I know that’s not it.
Well, regardless, you have this beautiful backdrop and so much
wickedness going on the foreground that it attracted my attention in the first
few minutes.
I’d call this movie intriguing, and if was
inclined to be generous, I might say that it was spooky. The problem is that I would have liked this
to be scarier, like those old stories about lonely drivers on dark highways
that meet someone that they later learn died some time before. Those stories abound throughout the United
States, and I remember my father telling me a story about driving in the rain
down Pacific Coast Highway when he saw his little sister on the side of the
road. He stopped and went back to pick
her up, but she was gone. When he got
home, he learned that she had died several hours before. Generally my father was full of equal parts
crap and vinegar, so I think he was using the old theme to spook me. For whatever reason, that rising fear was
absent, and I’m thinking that the age of the film is working against it.
