One of those supposed "haunting" films that turns out to have a boringly mundane explanation - a tradition that harks back to 1935's MARK OF THE VAMPIRE and Lugosi's vampire actor theatrics. Here, a woman hears a child screaming in the night and believes she is being haunted by the spirit of her dead kid - it turns out that the screams are recorded and being played at the behest of a love rival who is determined to drive the woman insane and thus have her locked away.
Everything about this movie is middle-of-the-road stuff, aside from a few atmospheric dream sequences which have some really impressive lighting. Otherwise there's nothing going for it, from the routine but adequate acting, to the predictable story (by Mary Higgins Clark) and the supposedly surprising outcome which is both bland and derivative. The slow pacing doesn't help, and neither does the casting of Kelly McGillis (one of my least favourite actresses, right behind Julia Roberts) in the lead role. This is contrived, middling television movie-level stuff, designed to appeal to the middle-aged female masses and nobody else - a soft-hearted horror flick? An instantly forgettable experience. And here I was hoping for some cheesy horror flick a la ESCAPE TO NOWHERE. What a disappointment.
Everything about this movie is middle-of-the-road stuff, aside from a few atmospheric dream sequences which have some really impressive lighting. Otherwise there's nothing going for it, from the routine but adequate acting, to the predictable story (by Mary Higgins Clark) and the supposedly surprising outcome which is both bland and derivative. The slow pacing doesn't help, and neither does the casting of Kelly McGillis (one of my least favourite actresses, right behind Julia Roberts) in the lead role. This is contrived, middling television movie-level stuff, designed to appeal to the middle-aged female masses and nobody else - a soft-hearted horror flick? An instantly forgettable experience. And here I was hoping for some cheesy horror flick a la ESCAPE TO NOWHERE. What a disappointment.