(DVR’ed from Turner Classic Movies on November 17th, 2017)
Janice (Marsha Mason) notices there’s a strange man who is always following her daughter Ivy (Susan Swift) around. As it turns out, his name is Elliot (Anthony Hopkins), and he’s convinced Ivy is the reincarnation of his dead daughter, Audrey Rose. She and her husband (John Beck) think he’s nuts at first, but when Ivy begins reliving Audrey Rose’s violent death on a nightly basis, they soon have to face the possibility that Elliot is the only man who can save her.
Audrey Rose is a handsomely mounted, low key, slow burn horror movie directed by Robert Wise, who knows a thing or two about handsomely mounted, low key slow burn horror movies. It was written by Frank De Felitta, who also wrote the book the movie was base on. The film unfolds slowly, much like a novel, and the way Wise and De Felitta drop the pieces into place throughout the first act is quite effective.
I also enjoyed the second act, which bears more than a little resemblance to The Exorcist in many respects. As a parent, the scenes of Mason and Beck helplessly standing by as their daughter suffers night after night, hit home. There is also something unsettling about the idea of allowing a strange man into your home to comfort your daughter.
All the mood and tension drain out of the movie in the third act when it abruptly changes gears and becomes a courtroom drama, of all things. It’s almost as if someone changed the channel and left the TV on an episode of Matlock or something. Although the final “test” scene is well done, the back-and-forth during the trial, not to mention the melodramatic shit between Mason and Beck, pretty much sink the whole affair.
Mason, it must be said, is a bit miscast. She’s not bad, but all she really gets to do is act hysterical and look longingly at Hopkins for help. Beck fares quite well as the dickhead husband who has his head so far up his ass, he can’t see that Hopkins only wants to help. Hopkins ties it all together nicely. His twitchy, sweaty, committed performance keeps you watching, even once the film has completely gone off the rails.
They say you shouldn’t remake good movies. The thought is you should only remake ones that almost worked, but somehow fell short. I’d say Audrey Rose would be a prime candidate for a remake. It might be the only way for this reincarnation-tinged horror flick to… ahem… find another life.
De Felitta later wrote The Entity.
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