Rating: 
Summary: Moldy sheets are more frightening.
Review: The Peter Straub novel upon which this movie is based is one of the best and scariest ghost stories ever written. Unfortunately such praise cannot be applied to this disappointing "adaptation." The routine thriller settles for trite effects over any substance and nearly everything that made the book unique has been removed. The narrative as a result crumbles into a predictable, strictly by the numbers bore. There really isn't much to hold your attention - the only good thing about this film is the beautiful Alice Krige and the script is so poor that she has little to do with her role. Read the book instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Lame chiller
Review: The old men who make up the "Chowder Society" bide their fading years in a freezing and apparently unending northeastern winter telling each other ghost stories. Then they start dying. We learn that the group - a close-knit old boy's club going back decades - has been living a sort of ghost story of their own, one that easily exceeds anything they've told each other. When the son of one of the old men dies under mysterious circumstances, his twin brother returns to home to investigate. It seems that there's some link between a mystery woman both of the sons dated, and a strikingly similar woman who disappeared many years before when...Oh, what's the use. This flick hasn't any surprises. Both Alma, the beautiful woman desired by our aged anti-heroes, and the mystery woman loved by both sons, are one and the same. Alma (a very pre-assimilated-by-the-Borg Alice Krige), we learn, came to the home-town of the Chowders in a by-gone age, when life was good, the weather was warm and the old men were young enough to be played by the likes of Ken Olin. Sought and seemingly shared by each of the men, Alma is killed in an outrageous fluke. The "Chowders" of course, being gentlemen, cannot consider answering for their admittedly unwitting homicide, and cover up their tracks. Sealing the secret with a vow of silence, they set themselves up for Alma's horrific vengeance from beyond the grave. Years later, when they are old enough to be played by John Houseman, Alam returns. This flick was a major disappointment-even before I knew who Alice Krige was. When we first meet them, the Chowders are basically non-characters - already dead. Our ghost is also a mystery - but for the wrong reasons. Instead of irony or peotic justice, you've got to wonder why she postponed vengeance until the Chowders are old enough to be at death's door. I'd accept that the Chowder's guilt gave Alma power them - but how does that net sweep the sons of one of her killers? Instead, the script just gives her the power to scare people into falling out of high-rise buildings and off of bridges and - when there are no cliffs or open windows around - the power to simply suck life out of the living. Alice Krige, as Alma, seems more alive than anybody else in this flick - until the script decides she needs some special effects and turns her into a rotting corpse. The story grants her the despair and rage of a lonely and cold death, giving her more dimension than anybody else in the story. Wisely, the story preserves her fate as a victim, even as she seeks to dispatch her killers. Still, her vengeance is hollow because none of her haunts seems alive enough to warrant her ectoplasmic revenge. The script is light on effects, implying that it was going for the subtle route - but that requires more mystery, character and plot-power than this flick painfully lacks. The special effects are lackluster and the editing is incredibly sloppy. Near the end, the cinematographers seem to have forgotten whether a scene is occuring at dusk or in the deep night. Rather than pick apart the irony of ghost stories (in which the dead come alive by their desire for justice, while the guilty living seem to be walking ghosts) the film plods until it reaches an ambiguous climax clear in only a single respect: this is the least scary movie I've ever seen.
Rating: 
Summary: I didn't read the book, but...
Review: I still enjoyed the movie, or maybe I enjoyed the movie because I didn't read the book first. You be the judge. I saw this when it came out with my older sister who did read the book and we both thought it was scary at the time. Also, as some of it was filmed around our hometown, Albany, N.Y. there was a local angle of interest. The film is loaded with stars of today and yesteryear. If approached as a low rent horror film that has been given an upper crust treatment it works just fine. I had to bid around but I got a brand new copy of the now out of print DVD Image produced for Universal. While not perfect for the price (both Laserdisc releases were much more, even the VHS) I was pleased. The picture has been correctly framed in a 1:85:1 widescreen release and the picture has been given a very nice, but not exceptional transfer. Colors were fine, flesh-tones seemed fairly accurate and there was very little grain apparent. The sound delivered the score and effects just fine, dialogue was soft at times, but that may have been due to the film itself. It is to bad that Universal let its contract with Image lapse (Universal was un-happy with the lower prices Image started charging for its 50 Universal movie only editions) and these titles go out of print. They have re-issued a few themselves with (so far) mixed results. Get a copy of this if you can and enjoy the show. thanks, cal
Rating: 
Summary: Terrifying
Review: I've read mixed reviews of this horror filck, but I for one, was absolutely terrified. As a huge horror fan, I can safely say that there has really been only one other movie that scared me the way this movie did, and that one movie would be the Shining, respectfully.
Anyway, having never read the novel this movie was based on I can't tell you how this adaptation fairs. But I can tell you that as a psychological horror film, this is one of the best. Top-notch directing, especially in the last few scenes, and great acting as well.
A few flaws, but nothing that takes away from the overall enjoyment. See it.
Rating:
Summary: super dopper
Review: This movie is very good to look at on a cold rainy night, but not by yourself. When I first saw this movie I always remembered the name and I know that I would some day get this film for my own personal use.
Rating:
Summary: Too stunned to giggle.
Review: Classy horror story, or eighties cheesefest? The movie never makes up its mind. Not very entertaining, except for the awesome gore effects.
Rating:
Summary: A Travesty....
Review: Knowing that "the movie is never as good as the book" doesn't help this horrific mess of a film. That being said, I saw the film when it came out 20 years ago, and it was bad then. Now, after having just put down the book, I would revise that rating down another notch to "atrocious."
I won't go on and on, but I do have a question: why bother basing a film on a book and utilizing almost none of the characterizations, plot nuances or, most importantly, sense of pervasive dread inherent in the novel and so completely necessary to films in this genre?
The book I literally could not put down, all the superlatives apply: engrossing, frightening, thought-provoking, evocative and suspenseful. The film unfortunately seems to have been written by someone who lifted the names and locations from the novel, while leaving out almost everything else.
A dream cast completely wasted (John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Employing one of the worst actors in the business (Craig Wasson) to play the lead--not to mention opening the film with a mind-numbingly gratuitous shot of him plunging nude from a window--ugghhh, didn't need to see that AT ALL (not that there was much to see, ahem).
It all adds up to disaster and, worse, boredom. This film is a travesty in every sense of the word and an insult to Peter Straub--he should have sued.
This begs to be remade--only PLEASE this time do it right.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic Ghost Tale
Review: This is a chilling ghost story combined with an eerie mystery that's delivered by an all star supporting cast of Fred Astaire, John Houseman,Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Melvin Douglas; (the "Chowder Society") who play the now retired, last surviving group of fratenity brothers who peridically get together to raise a snifter of 21 year old brandy, toke on a good Cuban and engage in a friendly contest of "who can conjur up the best Ghost Story"! It's all fun and games until the son of one of their recently departed frat brothers shows up (Craig Wasson) requesting to share his own ghostly tale. It's a thriller, with a few twists, that will keep you on the edge of your seat. You'll want to see this more than once and you'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Prancing Poofters On Parade
Review: Even if I hadn't read the incredible book on which this movie is only nominally based, I'd still hate it. It's one of the least coherent, illogical messes ever committed to film. It's hard to know where to begin blasting this movie. It's so melodramatic as to be frequently laughable, for starters. The soundtrack, which is sometimes hauntingly beautiful, is more often jarringly inappropriate. The script is inconsistent, bringing up names out of nowhere and never explaining them (such as the name of the town in which the story takes place, which comes off sounding like a character who doesn't exist the way in which it is brought up), and introducing characters who drop out of the action equally inexplicably (Fenny Bates). The two young lover leads, Craig Wasson and Alice Krige, have zero chemistry together (Krige moved on to better roles, at least). Wasson is cast in a dual role, playing both the lead and his brother, seeming no different at all except for a paste-on moustache, which is just bizarre, considering there is no mention of the two being twins and any other actor could have been cast. He also has the most comically inappropriate full frontal nude scene ever gratuitously thrown into a movie, again for no appreciable reason. The effects are generally pretty bad - especially in the aforementioned comically inappropriate gratuitous full frontal nude scene, which is employed while Wasson's character falls unbelievably out of a window. The entire reason for the ghost's haunting makes no sense at all, making her seem merely petty and not really sympathetic at all (considering her death was accidentally caused) - and why is she after Wasson's dual characters, anyway, considering they had nothing to do with her demise? But the worst of all sins in this film is the portrayal of the haunted old men - splendid actors all, completely wasted in this awful mess - in their youth. They are all effeminate beyond belief, tittering like girls constantly, even dressing in drag for a party scene. They don't even bear much resemblance to their older counterparts. This movie is just embarrassingly awful, in every way. Read Peter Straub's book instead, and see what the movie missed.
Rating:
Summary: A True Classic
Review: GHOST STORY is a remarkable,gloomy chiller. Astaire,Douglas,Fairbanks,& Houseman are terrific as the "Chowder Society" who get together to tell horrifying stories.Craig Wasson has been one the most underrated actors in the business for 25 years now and is perfect in his role.Patricia Neal is a dark and mysterious woman who is somehow linked to Wasson and the Chowder society.The ending is extremely bonechilling.GHOST STORY is a great classic horror all the way around.
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