Cannon Films once produced a movie with Vincent Price, John Carradine, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and titled The House of the Long Shadows. They were trying to create an ultra all star horror film, but really it ended up being a comedy of sorts. I guess Menachem Golan wanted to put together the Universal Monsters, but, you know, there is a reason they're known as the UNIVERSAL monsters.
In a reversal of fortune here, mainstream old Hollywood legends Fred Astaire, Melvin Douglas, John Houseman, And Douglas Fairbanks Junior star in a fantastic horror adaptation of Peter Straub’s classic novel. A 1981 Halloween adjacent movie that aired on Spectrum !
John Irving’s somewhat classy Ghost Story.
Secrets have a way of coming back to destroy people. Literally in real life, the buried truth can be a nightmare. And in works of fiction, it can be murder and hell on earth.
Alice Krige is absolutely terrifying in certain early parts of this film as she arrives to seduce a pair of twins then kill one. These young men (both played by genre vet Craig Wasson) bear a connection to our primary cast. These four men who call themselves The Chowder Society (our 4 cinematic legends) have a long history together that may have some buried darkness.
But do you believe in ghosts? The film has a deliberate slow pace but has plenty of grasping shocks. Those stunning moments, with the help of make up stalwart Dick Smith, peppered throughout its unnerving crawling pace, make it a horror film that deserves to be remembered.
And maybe reevaluated.
It should be remembered not just for its amazing cast, but for a truly creepy and excellently told ghost story, as the title does indicate.
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