12 November 2024
Ghost Story (1981)
110 min.
Directed by John Irwin.
With Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Craig Wasson, Alice Krige, Jacqueline Brookes.
Curious ghost effort about four elderly men who call themselves the Chowder Society, and spend their time telling tales of the macabre and ethereal to each other.

But storytelling aside, this quartet of men harbor a very real and very dark secret which comes back to haunt them.

Seems 50 years before, they were all involved in an accidental murder....and the dead victim's icy fingers are still reaching out for vengeance from beyond!

Despite the top-notch cast, this one just didn't draw us in on our first viewing.

However, a subsequent viewing upped its score with us, as we began to appreciate the solidity of the plot, the slowmoving, deliberate pacing, rounded out by the above average acting of the ensemble cast (screen veterans Astaire and Fairbanks are particular standouts).

Bottom line? This adaptation of Peter Straub's bestselling horror novel is a satisfying enough sleeper that's fleshed out by a well-borne storyline that grows stronger with each viewing.

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