Ghost Story (1981)

A great chiller!

This film is very well made,based on Peter Straub's classic novel.The movie is a little long but not boring and it has plently of scary moments.I recommend this highly to a fan of modern horror fan that's been lost in the trendy films that are made on the silver screen currently and are looking for a naturally scary horror film.Read the book as well,I read the book in high school and enjoyed it thoroughly:) November 9, 2008

Will You Forget the Book!!!

When I saw this movie in '81, a breath of fresh air. From the late '70s on,our basic horror choices were along the lines of Halloween or Friday the 13th. Becoming tired of slasher films this was done with good old fashion supernatural and psychological suspense with a great cast.

Having gone to movies and read books for over 48 years, this is the one case in which the movie is better than the book [not easy to say that folks]. If I had read the book first, I would never have seen the movie. The book meanders through too much time, nothing in it was scarey, and it wasn't really about a ghost as an evil spirit/demon that had existed for centuries in many different forms.

The movie really just takes the book title {based on the novel by} and uses the material from one or two chapters. It became more concise, focused and was about a ghost coming back after fifty years for revenge [period]. It had the right atmosphere applied at the right time with the right score and flashbacks done perfectly. Well developed with Alma's vengence evolving at a correct pace to build the suspense for the finale.

I would agree that the nudity wasn't necessary, but it wasn't gratuitous [it did apply to what was happening at the moment] ... and remember this was the early '80s. If you took of this nudity out, you'd be losing two minutes of the movie ... maybe.

Take this movie for what it is: loosely adapted from a book, it is a reawakening of the best attributes of the horror genre. August 11, 2008

Any real horror fan can appreciate the old school scares of Ghost Story

Ghost Story was released in 1981, adapted from a novel of the same name. Sid has never read the book, admitedly, but we really can't imagine it being better than this great movie. The film stars Fred Astaire, John Houseman and others. Sid remembered seeing this flick one late night on tv. It scared the everliving out of this young elf then, so we decided to see if it held up today. So, we settled in with a little of the sacrament, and an inordinate ammount of food, sat back and watched a great horror flick. And if you were there, you'd have been like ahh sweet.

Ghost story is centered around a group of guys called the Chowder society. We see them as young men and old men. As young men, they are a fruity barbershop quartet type of group. As old men they aren't much better, the're snooty old fogies. Except for Fred Astaire, you couldn't even make fun of him too much here. This actually works for the story though. You're not supposed to totally like these guys, but you're supposed to kind of like them and that sucks you in. The basis of the Chowder Society is telling ghost stories. In their old age, the members have become unsettled. They are having nightmares, and one of them, Edward, dies. He is wandering around in the snow following the death of his son. He suddenly sees the hideous face of a creature. It looks like a dead woman whose corpse has been rotting for a very long time. Obviously, this scares him. It sends him over a bridge, falling to his death. Ironically, or maybe not, his son fell out of his high-rise window after seeing his girlfriend turn into that same horrible creature. This brings Edward's other son, David into town, wanting membership into the Chowder Society. So, he has to tell a ghost story. He tells one about his brother's girlfriend. Years earlier, he dated the same woman, but dumped her because she was cold to the touch and also because she was ugly. But she did put out a ton. I mean David was getting just a huge ammount of booty. A yooogge...ammount...of booty. Then his brother Don tells him that a woman stopped him on the street years later and thought he was David. David warns him, but his brother doesn't listen, dates this woman and she ultimately kills him then kills their father. Creepy.

Now comes the why of all this. The old guys tell a ghost story of their own. 50 years ago, when they were in school a young woman came to town. Each of the guys wanted to make her a member of their personal chowder society. Giggety! Shockingly, she looked just like the woman who killed David's father and brother. Well, you know, when she was her normal ugly self, not the super ugly creature who caused two men to plunge to their deaths. So, she and Edward, David and Don's father, are all set to make a sexy time. But this yambag's bird is earthbound. What a loser! What a freak! Good. Good. More for you and me. This little scene was hilarious, just trust us. Then, this broad is making fun of Edward for his um, issue. And, to shut her up, he gives her a smack/push and she smashes her head against a stone fireplace. The Chowder Society thinks she's dead. Damn, now they all have to take turns with young Fred Astaire. Anyway, these are all promising young guys. If they admit to killing this girl, game over. So, instead, they stick her in the back of a car and push the car in a lake. Just as the car is being submurged, the girl starts to move. And the last we see of her alive is her screaming for help behind the back window of the car. The guys just stand on shore, stunned. They don't try to save her or get help. They let her die, and now she's back to haunt them all.

David suggests that they go to the girl's old house to end the madness. The ghost's accomplices (don't ask) are there and they bump off one of the old men, and almost kill Fred Astaire. Eventually, Fred Astaire goes to the cops and they pull the car up. He and David confront the ghost/corpse and all is well.

We just glossed over the ending of the film because it was terrible. As we said earlier, Sid saw this flick as a young elf and was terrified. As Sid remembers, the movie ended with the chick looking out the car window, and the car becoming submurged in the lake. Aparently, we blocked out the crappy ending. We really liked this movie. It was entertaining, ubercreepy, you could even go as far as saying it was kind of scary. And if it ended with the car dipping into the lake, this is a top 10 all-time horror movie. That awful ending knocked the flick down a peg in our eyes, but not enough to take a star away. This is a 5 star horror flick. Check it out, but turn it off when the chick is underwater.

July 22, 2008

Not as scary as the book

I read the book years ago and found it so scary that I would often have to put it down and take a break or hold off on a chapter if late at night. It scared me so much that I was jumping at slight noises and got shivers up my spine. The book was one of the best I've ever read. (I was heavily into King, Straub, Koontz, and Crichton at the time and thoroughly enjoyed spooky books. I still do.) Then I saw Ghost Story movie that I'd so looked forward to. The movie was enjoyable and occasionally intense but it lacked that total spooky character that I'd enjoyed so much while reading the book. I was disappointed. However, had I seen the movie alone or prior to reading the book, I'm sure I would have appreciated it much more than I did. My boyfriend couldn't understand my disappointment, since the movie scared him. June 5, 2008

"I will show you places you've never been and I will watch the life run out of you!"

For a movie made in 1981, this one still packs a whollop! For anyone not familiar with this little gem, this one is not for the faint of heart. In this day of SAW and HOSTEL, this movie still has the ability to scare the crap out of you! It isn't overly bloody or violent, but what it lacks in substance, it more than makes up
for it with it's suspenseful crawl through the ghostly heart of a woman's revenge. Based on the novel of the same name, four old men (Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Fred Astaire,and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in their last starring roles) spend their evenings in a New England town swapping ghost stories. Soon they start dropping like flies, starting with one of the Mayor's (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) twin sons, played to the hilt by Craig Wasson in a dual role (beware...there is frontal nudity and it is shockingly displayed). Not long after the mayor falls to his death and soon, the doctor (Melvyn Douglas)is visited by a strange woman in black and dies of a heart attack. The remaining members of the group are beside themselves and Craig Wasson soon reveals his connection to a strange young woman with whom he had a torrid and short lived affair. Alice Krige is just lovely here and at her horrifying best as the object of Craig Wasson's desire and his ill-fated brother's as well. Not long after his twin brother's shocking death, he tells his father's friends what he knows about "Alma" who is later revealed as Eva, the woman whom the old men fancied years before. Eva's sad story is told in flashbacks and what eventually happened to her is one of the most horrifying and heartbreaking aspects of the movie. It doesn't take long for the surviving members (Fred Astaire and John Houseman) to make the connection and figure out they're all in danger. But ghosts have a way of exacting revenge, especially a woman scorned so it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's happening. I have to say this is one of the more enjoyable and certainly one of the best horror movies from the 80s. It's certainly worth a look on a dark and stormy night. But I do take issue with the excessive nudity. It isn't necessary in a movie like this. Alice Krige for all her talent must have felt it was essential for her career to bare her breasts. If that's true, then that's a sad commentary on the world today. Craig Wasson certainly isn't ashamed of his body given the amount of flesh he exposed in this film and in several others. Again, not necessary. There is a sex scene that is quite shocking for all its violence and once you understand Eva's history, I guess it was her way of exacting her revenge. Still it is shocking and even disturbing. It will keep you up nights to be sure. A must for any horror fan. April 8, 2008

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