After the accidental death of her daughter, Julia (Mia Farrow) leaves her domineering husband Magnus (Keir Dullea) and moves into an old house. Soon she believes she is being visited by her daughter's spirit. But when people around her are murdered, Julia realizes this isn't her daughter she's dealing with.
I wish I understood the logic behind casting Americans Mia Farrow and Keir Dullea and then making them speak with British accents the whole film (when they remembered). I just don't see what them being Brits contributed to the film but their poor accents did take away from it. So perhaps they would have been better off making them Americans living in England or something. Anyway, that bit of business aside, it's a by-the-numbers ghost story with some mindless killings thrown in for good measure. There's the creepy old house, the strange noises, the gauzy photography, the haunting piano music, the obligatory séance scene, the investigation into a decades-old crime, and so on. It's based on Peter Straub's first novel "Julia." Haven't read it but I see many people who have saying it's better than this film. I'll assume it must be. Ghost stories have always fared better in books where fear of noises and shadows holds more weight. There's nothing scary about this movie. While it is watchable, it has very little atmosphere and the pace is terribly slow. The murders do nothing to liven things up, either. It's really pretty dull. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it unless you're a Straub fan or a ghost movie nut who just wants to see as many of them as possible. The only other thing worth seeing here is Tom Conti's hair, which is admittedly magnificent.
I wish I understood the logic behind casting Americans Mia Farrow and Keir Dullea and then making them speak with British accents the whole film (when they remembered). I just don't see what them being Brits contributed to the film but their poor accents did take away from it. So perhaps they would have been better off making them Americans living in England or something. Anyway, that bit of business aside, it's a by-the-numbers ghost story with some mindless killings thrown in for good measure. There's the creepy old house, the strange noises, the gauzy photography, the haunting piano music, the obligatory séance scene, the investigation into a decades-old crime, and so on. It's based on Peter Straub's first novel "Julia." Haven't read it but I see many people who have saying it's better than this film. I'll assume it must be. Ghost stories have always fared better in books where fear of noises and shadows holds more weight. There's nothing scary about this movie. While it is watchable, it has very little atmosphere and the pace is terribly slow. The murders do nothing to liven things up, either. It's really pretty dull. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it unless you're a Straub fan or a ghost movie nut who just wants to see as many of them as possible. The only other thing worth seeing here is Tom Conti's hair, which is admittedly magnificent.