Don't Believe the Hype

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Before CGI and when you could do full frontal nudity in a major film. The story is that a mysterious woman is haunting the families of four men who accidently killed her back in the 1930's. It's not jump scare or gross out horror like you would see later when Hollywood just ran out of idea. It's very moody and atmospheric. IT was also interesting to see some older actors getting key roles in this film, such as Fred Astaire and Douglas Fairbanks. Where the movie falls down is Alice Krige, who shows about as much acting range as she did when she played the Borg Queen on Star Trek. Her acting is truly robotic and wooden. Her male co-star isn't much better.

Following the death of his twin brother, a man travels home to be with his father and his childhood friends who belong to a secret club and when a mysterious presence starts to kill them one-by-one he helps the remaining members fight the secret that haunts them.This really could've been a halfway decent film. That is helped along greatly by the fact that the central story on display is pretty creative and it manages to wring a clever idea or two out of the story. The fact that it centers on the elderly is it's smartest idea, as it really doesn't seem like a traditional area to focus on and really features a lot of great work to explore that idea of the past coming back to haunt them. That mainly comes about in some rather enjoyable and impressive stalking scenes here, from the first bridge encounter to the strong series of shock flashes showing the ghost appearing around their houses or around the town to torment them, while the fact that it goes into a series of strong attacks in the final half hour as it starts knocking them off in more urgent fashion comes off rather nicely which is where the film really picks up the energy and wins this one quite nicely. The several ghost effects look really disturbing, especially the head make-up on the final reveal which is undoubtedly the best one for its strong shock as it falls out of the car although many of the other jump-scenes featuring the ghost jumping out at them come off rather nicely. The best part of the film, though, is its nudity which is pretty much constant at the beginning of the film and makes it a really strong attention-getting opening half. They're quite nicely filmed and don't really seem all that exploitative featuring plenty of times with them in bed together or taking a bath which is quite nice. They're the best part about the film as. there are several things in here that really could've made this a special film. Among the biggest problems is that the film is just terminally boring as nothing at all happens until the final half hour, and even then there's not a whole lot there. This is mainly caused by two very long and unnecessary flashbacks that don't provide anything other than the nudity since it features all the groups' interactions with her and telling how they all came together in their past. They pad out the film's running time and cover ground that could've been covered in a much simpler and faster way. The lack of scares present is also a bad sign, and other than the mere thought of this involving a ghost, there's nothing remotely scary in here at all since not only is the majority of the scenes are just them being worried without being clear about what's going on since it has all the elements in play, but they don't come together telling a cohesive scary offering. That hurts the film mostly with the other factors to really lower this film a lot. As well, there's a rather abrupt ending that ends this on a quick note and just seems to end without really explaining anything. These here are the film's problems.Rated R: Full Male and Female Nudity, Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and several sex scenes.

If you think because this features some classic movie stars (Melvyn Douglas, Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) that it's going to be a classy affair, think again. It's tawdry, exploitative, and not at all scary. The mystery is predictable and uninvolving. The music is overbearing and kills any chance of building suspense. People with eyes beware: Craig Wasson has a full-frontal nude scene in this. Don't say you weren't warned. The opening scene with John Houseman appears to have been done just to rip-off the similar opening Houseman did the year prior in The Fog. I haven't read Peter Straub's novel but I'd be surprised if it wasn't better than this. Just awful.

Hello everyone, I don't remember seeing this movie ever coming out at the theaters, but I was only 9 years old at the time. The first time I saw this movie was on TV and after I watched it I had to buy it. I thought it was a great horror story without all the gore. It had a great cast with a few of the classic actor's as the Chowder Society. I don't know what it is about revenge movie's but some make great movies that are hard to stay away from.This is not you typical horror flick, in fact it has a plot. I liked the fact how the story was told, it takes place somewhere in the northeast, with beautiful Winter scenery. The Chowder Society, getting together in their 70's and telling spooky stories. They never discuss don't discuss what happened in the thirties until, Don finds them. After the death of his brother and father from the hand's of this woman, he know's is not who she appears to be.Don finds the rest of the Chowder Society were his father was once a member and tells them he thinks this is a ghost story and the woman is back for revenge. He explains what has happened when he met her and the story begins to unfold, with more of the Chowder Society meeting their fates with Alma Moberley, the woman back for her revenge.The truth eventually comes out, with the story going back to the times where the Chodwer Society was in their prime. We discover who they were and what the did so wrong to Alma. To save the last remaining member of the Chowder Society. Don with the help of Fred Astaire's character begin to unravel the mystery and unlock the crime they were responsible for back in the 1930's.This movie is a great thrill without all the blood and guts that come with some horror stories. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under age ten though, but it is still a great story. It's a great movie to rent and one that you can watch over and over again, especially around Fall/Halloween.