October 1st - Lady in White Revisit
 |
| The Lady in White (1988) |
I thought I'd try a different tack this year by watching a film that might usually pop up sometime in the second week of October or right during that final stretch in the month. I remember seeing this for the first time, gosh, probably around 2008 or even perhaps earlier. It would have been around the time one of two movie rentals was still hanging in there before the recession just overwhelmed the store, closing its doors. The store, MovieTyme, was only open for a few years, too. But they had shelves of VHS rentals and one of those was The Lady in White (1988), a film I later learned was actually filmed in 1986. Set in 1962, I remember thinking about how there is this warm and cozy aesthetic to the time and place, which I felt LaLoggia really detailed with great comfort and care. This film covers some really heavy material, including racism in upper NY, serial killings of kids, how a close member of a family is actually the murderer who nearly chokes out Haas (and later tries to throw him off the same cliff as a little red-hair girl whose ghost communicates with Haas), and how a grieving mother (believing a kindly black janitor killed her Richie) shoots an innocent man in the head in the back of a car while fake apologizing to him just so she could get close. The film even concludes with a truly scary Cariou (who is probably best known for the series, "Blue Bloods"), his face warping into a rage, strangling Helmond with a cord as an abandoned (and supposedly haunted) cottage goes up in flames, eventually beating her to death with his fist. Seeing young Haas fighting with Cariou as the serial killer tries to toss him off the cliff is really horrifying.
The film actually opens in October at Halloween time, and the small town seasonal atmosphere really set my tone for the month on a high note. The camera pointing out figurines of the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, and the Wolfman, including a Frankenstein comic (I WANT THAT!!!) opening up by the red-headed ghost girl, not to mention, the night stand Robby the Robot! These collectibles should be on my shelf! But the school room with kids in costumes and the wonderful Lucy Lee Flippin as the teacher allowing Haas to read his story about a monster kicks the film off (and my month off) just right. I loved all the odes to Halloween, including how the leaves have turned and the little town is really celebrating the season as it should be. Jared Rushton, as Donald, always seemingly cast as a bully in his youth, getting punched out by Haas for being an asshole cracked me up. Being the one who instigated Haas being locked in the coatroom when Cariou spots him and tries to strangle him makes perfect sense. And Rushton dressed as the Devil was fitting.
The special effects at the end really hurt the film, for me, but the setting, how the time is really well established, and the strong characters are enough to override the cringe I do get from the Lady in White floating about with bolts from her fingers or the ghost girl being held by invisible arms and carried. You take the good with the bad. 4/5
*** I recorded this off of ThrillerMax after DirecTv offered a free Cinemax premium channels weekend.***
Comments
Post a Comment