SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

JoeB131 Before CGI and when you could do full frontal nudity in a major film. The story is that a mysterious woman is haunting the families of four men who accidently killed her back in the 1930's. It's not jump scare or gross out horror like you would see later when Hollywood just ran out of idea. It's very moody and atmospheric. IT was also interesting to see some older actors getting key roles in this film, such as Fred Astaire and Douglas Fairbanks. Where the movie falls down is Alice Krige, who shows about as much acting range as she did when she played the Borg Queen on Star Trek. Her acting is truly robotic and wooden. Her male co-star isn't much better.

AaronCapenBanner Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Doulas Fairbanks Jr., and John Houseman play four elderly and long-time friends of "The Chowder Society" which loves to tell people scary ghost stories. A "real life" ghost story comes back to haunt the four men when the son(played by Craig Wasson) of Fairbanks' character comes to visit after the strange death of his twin brother(also Wasson), who was with a mysterious woman when he plunged out the window! That woman turns out to be linked to the friends' past, where they were guilty of an unpunished crime, but now it seems that long-delayed punishment is at hand...Based on Peter Straub's novel, film tries to emulate old school ghost stories with modern "R" rated touches with dreadful results. Sleazy, thoroughly unappealing and overlong film wastes its good cast and period atmosphere in predictable and heavy-handed fashion. Pretty Bad.

januaryman-1 This is one of my favorites. My first apartment, my first year on my own, my first HBO subscription. I watched this movie over and over again. Ghost Story is very atmospheric. Dark, dismal weather in the form of downpours and never ending snow. The weather was the perfect backdrop for the mysterious Eva Galli. Houseman, Astaire, Douglas,and Fairbanks, Jr. slip effortlessly into their roles as small town figureheads and Chowder Society members steeling their nerves with brandy in the coziness of their studies, trying to hold back the cold, the darkness, and Eva Galli's pent-up fury. Choate, Chamberlin, Johnson, and Olin play the Chowder Society's younger selves in the sweetness of their youth. Eva Krige plays the dual roles (or are they?) of Alma Mobley and Eva Galli, exhibiting a perfect blend of innocence and sensuality. The tragedy of Krige's Eva is inescapable. Craig Wasson also has a dual role as twin brothers Don and David Wanderly who become the avenue of attack for Eva Galli's vengeance against the Chowder Society. Ghost Story has few in-your-face shocks. Instead it is a slow simmering of genuinely creepy moments climaxing with Galli's rustling walk down the hall of her decrepit house to meet the trapped Don Wanderly. Will Eva have her revenge?

MartinHafer While my summary above may sound facetious, I am not exaggerating. I don't like ghost films at all (they just don't interest me)--I simply saw it for the elderly actors making their final appearances (Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.)! And so, for me, it was worth seeing--even though it did seem odd to have these actors from Hollywood's golden age in a film so atypical of their other films.The film is at times like two different films intertwined. For most of the film, Craig Wasson played a guy who fell hard for a pretty and VERY horny lady (Alice Krige). Wasson and the audience see A LOT of Krige and over time, it becomes clear she ain't no ordinary horny lady. She appears to be, in fact, a ghost--a ghost using him for revenge. As for the revenge, that's where these old-time actors (as well as John Houseman) come into the story. You see, she's REALLY mad at them and has lots of reason to be. But why? What have these men done and what have they been hiding all these years? As I said above, this sort of film isn't really my thing. So keep this in mind as you read. The story was pretty good but the combination of drippy and gooey stuff and a lot of nudity made me feel odd as I thought about Astaire, Douglas and Fairbanks being in the film. They must have been pretty comfortable with this--I just felt it wasn't the way I wanted to remember these guys (though fortunately, they DID keep their clothing on!). A decent film but just my cup of tea.By the way, if Alice Krige seems oddly familiar, among her many roles was the Borg leader in "Star Trek: First Contact" as well as Harold Abrams girlfriend in "Chariots of Fire".