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Quite a palatable surprise. After being disappointed by the well-regarded 1980 ghost feature "The Changeling", I was thinking that I maybe will find myself in the same predicament due to their similar styles. Actually is wasn't the case, as while the story is foreseeable it had me intrigued and kept me involved in what was a well-told, movingly tragic story at the core. Adapted from a novel "Ghost Story" is an intelligently well-dressed and highly creepy old fashioned ghost fable that has a bunch of great veteran actors; Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Patricia Neal and Jacqueline Brookes.
Four elderly men who formed a group known as the Chowder society during their younger days, our still together where they would meet up to tell each other horrific stories. Although they do share an unforgivable secret that seems to plague their dreams but they don't talk about it until the bizarre death of one of their member's sons and then even more frightening occurrences begin to develop.
The film does play out like a moody spook tale, if one of those stories that the elderly men were telling each other happened to come alive through their guilt ridden psyches and formed a hauntingly bad dream. The narrative does move back and forth, relying on often told tales in digging up information of what's truly going on when strange / unexplainable incidents begin leading to moments of valuable suspense and mystery. As flashbacks are done through stories relating back to characters. Director John Irvin tidily drills in a chilling air to his polished craftsmanship, as the screen is immense in dark shadows, trouble shades and lurking secrets with a presentably redolent and stinging music score balancing it out. Irvin is rather detailed in his choice of locations and the glum winter backdrop really complements it with the smooth cinematography. Surprisingly it's not as subtle in its punctuated scares, because the well-timed jolts comprise of an recurring rotting corpse (which illustrates some ghastly make-up FX), but the giggling ghost figure dressed in black which at times consisted of a blurred face was somewhat unsettling. Outside the excellent seasoned cast there were solid performances by Craig Wasson, a sinisterly oddball Miguel Fernandes and a beautifully seductive Alice Krige bestowing quite a creepy intensity to her part.
score 8/10
lost-in-limbo 27 March 2010
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2227321/ |
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1-4-2020 12:05:10