"Ghost Story" (1981)

[jaragon]

Peter Straub's scary novel became a not very scary film- great cast- Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks are terrorized by a vengeful ghost (Alice Kriege) .    Straubs long complex novel which pays tribute to classic horror stories is over simplified- some character simply vanish with out explanation.   Director John Irvin fails to create suspense one can only imagine what John Carpenter might have done with the material. Make-up fx from the great Richard (Dick) Smith supply the occasional shock.  The eerie score by Philippe Sarde provides the spooky atmosphere.  This is a novel that should be remade- it would make an excellent mini-series.

[ChristineHoard]

Good idea about the mini-series.  Limited series are popular now.  A two hour movie can't do justice to the book which I liked a lot. The awesome cast is the best thing about the movie.

[jaragon]

I loved the book but the story makes no sense in the movie.  The ending is specially lame. 

[ChaplinsWolf]

I agree. The movie is not very good. They completely missed with this movie. They left out one character from the book. Lewis. It has holes not explained. I loved the book so much I've read it probably 15 times or more. But the movie, it does nothing for me, even though I love how it was cast except for Wasson. I didn't like the direction either. Definitely needs redone.