This movie came out the year i was born. I remember throughout my childhood sneaking off to look at the horror section of the video story and staring longingly at the cover of this VHS. My mom wouldn't let us watch horror movies, which is a shame because i think she would have liked this movie. It has an actor she loved, Fred Astaire, playing a decidedly different role than in his usual dancing musicals. I didn't know this then, but this movie is based on a novel by Peter Straub, who would go on to write one of my favorite novels ever, called "Shadowland." i read that novel in college, but i still haven't read the book (hey, it'son my to-do list) and ive never seen the movie until today. Amazon was like, "hey, you might like this movie," and i was like "why yes, Amazon, I think i will too,So i added it to my watchlist and here we are."
In this movie, Ricky Hawthorne (Fred Astaire), Sears James (John Houseman), Dr. John Jaffrey (Melvyn Douglas) and Edward Wanderley (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) are a group of four old friends who meet together once a year to tell each other ghost stories. The point is to scare each other I think, snd that they do until one day when the ghost stories become all too real. one of the men, Edward, suffers a terrible loss when one of his sons dies just one day before his wedding. How Sad. Now in mourning, Edward swears he sees his son walking on the street one day and he follows him until something terrible happens. Now the four friends must meet again with some urgency, for it is time for them to tell one more ghost story, only this time, the story is more horrifying because it is true.
One of the characters in this movie quotes the 23rd Psalm at one point, which caught my attention because we just went over this psalm in church this last Sunday. How fortuitous. I think the guy in this movie is using it scornfully, though. I love the idea of a club of distinguished gentlemen meeting together to tell each other ghost stories. My friends and I used to sit around and tell each other ghost stories too, and it was fun trying to scare each other that way. I like seeing these old men scaring each other with these stories, and slowly becoming more terrified as they realize that this time, the ghost story is real.
This movie really takes its sweet time getting to the point. I should have known that was going to happen. These old men like to tell stories, so when it finally comes time to tell the secret that they've all been hiding for like 50 years, they hem and haw and beat around the bush until I'm ready to smack the truth out of them. And when we do find out the truth, I still want to smack them, but for very different reasons. Someone over the years spoiled this story for me so I kinda knew what their secret was, but when it's revealed, I was still shocked by how callous and uncaring they are. Every bad thing that happens in this movie is literally their fault, and they're still like "oh well, ho-hum, what else were we supposed to do?" Literally anything except what you actually did, jerks. This movie is frustrating because I forgot how often Peter Straub takes forever to get to the point, but it's still a good movie and I'm glad I finally watched it.
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