Today I'll be telling you about a movie called Ghost Story. It was released in 1981 and was directed by John Irvin. And this movie was based on a Peter Straub novel of the same name. This film stars Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman and Craig Wasson.
In 1982 Ghost Story was nominated for Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. And at the box office it earned a respectable $23,371,905. It was the third highest grossing horror film of 1981 and the 34th highest grosser of the year. So let's get to what it's about!
In a small New England town, four elderly friends (Ricky Hawthorne, Sears James, Dr. John Jaffrey, and Edward Charles Wanderly) form what they call the Chowder Society (Why they wanna name their group after soup is beyond me!). The Chowder Society was an informal club where tell each other scary stories. To get into the club, one must present such a story to the men.
Shortly after David's death, the four elderly men are suddenly restless and are frightened by vivid nightmares. Something is bothering them and none can figure out what. Edward becomes so distraught over the passing of his son that he wanders out into the snow. He sees the same female apparition that caused his son to fall to his death, and he too falls to his death over the side of the bridge. Although legally his death was ruled as suicide, his son Don believes that something else caused the death of his father. Don approaches the three elderly men left in the group and offers a "ghost" story of his own to get membership into the Chowder Society.
Don takes Alma to the beach and she starts acting strangely. While in the tub together, he playfully pushes her underwater and she comes out screaming. After that she tells him that she plans to take him to places he's never been, show him things he's never seen, and that she will see the life run out of him.
Don found this particularly odd and decided to leave her at once. Some time later he hears from his brother David in New York and he tells Don that he has met the same girl in New York and plans to marry her. Don warns him to stay away from because she isn't real and David dismisses it as jealousy.
When Millie goes to tell her that the Dr. no longer sees patients, the woman is gone. Meanwhile the Dr. is staggering down the stairs and starts looking in the medicine cabinet when he sees the skeleton of Alma and has a heart attack and dies. This leaves only Sears and Ricky left. And finally they tell Don of their strange history with a woman who looked exactly like Alma.
The four friends leave and return to Eva's house drunk, discussing Eva's abilities in the bedroom. They go into her house where all but Sears dance with her. When Edward insist that they leave, Sears suggestively insists on getting his dance, and Eva makes it known that she will dance with all of them.
She confronts Edward about what he told his friends about that night, and is about to tell the truth when Edward leaps at her to stop her, and knocks her down, accidentally smacking her head into the stone fireplace. Horrified, the young men believe that she is dead. At first they consider calling the police, but realize it would mean ruining their lives. Instead they decide to load her body into her car, and then push it into the nearby lake. As the car descends, Eva stirs inside, looking out the window at them, still alive.
Back in the present, Ricky and Sears admit that the death of Eva has haunted them for years. Sears is oblivious, but both Ricky and Don believe that Alma and Eva are one in the same and that her ghost has returned to seek revenge. Don suggests that they go to Eva's house, now in total ruins, to confront the past and her ghost once and for all. They go to confront Eva but Don falls through the stairs and Sears leaves to get help. While on his way Sears comes upon Eva's apparition and slams on his breaks and swerves into the side of the road. Inside of the car is attacked by one of Eva's accomplices, and is presumably killed. Ricky nearly dies at the hands of Eva's other accomplice, but Ricky survives and quickly tells the authorities to pull Eva's car from the lake. When Ricky opens the door, he finds....
The special effects of the dead skeleton chick were ok, not amazing, but it was the early 80's, so you get what you get. There was a bit of nekkidness and a little bit of sex, no blood...ehh. It could have been better. I'm used to newer movies with more blood, guts, and death I guess.
This movie is sort of old school and like I've said, I am for sure new school. I think overall I'd give this movie a 2.5 out of 5. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't great either. I thought the whole revenge thing was pretty cool. And the fact that she came back as Alma and found Edwards two sons was interesting.
