Rating: 
Summary: Still scarey after all these years.
Review: Made before the current incredible age of special effects by computer, nonetheless this still is a scary flick for watching late at night with the lights out and the wind blowing. Not one of my top ten flicks of all time, but very entertaining and quick shots of the ghost at the proper murderous moments are a shocker, amidst quaint performances by several long-time theater/movie professionals. My teenage son, raised on special effects, found this spine-tingling and tense and we both enjoyed the way this keeps you waiting for the next strike of the ghost. Solid stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: bad but what could you expect from such a short film...
Review: straub's book is a classic and any attempt to scrunch it down to a 90 minute to 120 minute film would be problematic, as is the case with this movie. the only way to bring the book to true visial form would be to make a mini-series out of it.in any case, the cast was outstanding, the acting was fine, alice krige was great as both alma and eva (i'm not in the same warp as that reviewer who must be suffering from some kind of krige-mania), and the overall feel was pretty eerie. so long as you approach the film with the right mind set (knowing that going in you are about to watch an under-two-hour movie which needed to be a 6-hour movie, and that the film would leave out some of the cooler moments in the book, such as the barnes' party where young peter meets the evil anna mostyn), you should enjoy what the film does have to offer. the ending was weak (obviously nothing like the book's ending) but overall it's a good scary watch if you're in the mood for less blood and more tension.
Rating:
Summary: Luckily, I didn't read the book first!
Review: This is truly a horror film - reanimated dead bodies, noises in the darkness, all that good stuff. Sure, the movie drags at times, but is enthralling far more often. Plus, what a cast!! Halloween's coming - place your order. Those reviewers who read the book first seem disappointed with the film. What else in new? :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Hello, I'm suffering from terrible movie syndrome
Review: Peter Straub had and excellent book, the screenwriter had other ideas. This film is a peice of trash. It's not scray, it's badly acted, and it's a waste of time. I rented it because I liked the book, however, the screenwriter (who should be shot) totally messed it up. There's more gratuitous nudity in this film then scares. There was actually one part where I turned my head away from the screen, that was when the guy fell out the window butt naked, and showed the viewer his .... There are a bunch of more sex scenes, each looking like they were taken from a slasher movie. This was just appauling, it was almost a complete mockery of the book. Another thing, where was John Jaffery's party? apparently, the screenwriter didn't read the book. There's no Peter Barnes, no Louis, no Elmer, no Anna Moysten and no Ann Veronica Moore. This was just stupid, they ruined the book. Instead, we have Edward's nephew (oops! I ment son! because in this movie, he's his son!)Ricky, Sears, Edward and John all in a very stupid situation. Early in the movie, Edward jumps off a bridge (what? no, John is supposed to jump off a bridge, but in the film, Edward does!) and even stupider things happen. I can go on and on about how this film is a complete disgrace, but I believe that i've said enough. Have a good day
Rating:
Summary: "REAL GRUMPY OLD MEN WITH SECRETS"
Review: Beautiful ALICE KRIGE stars in this mind-bending extravaganza centred around the guilty thoughts of "possible" dirty old men. Something that happened during, shall we say an ungarded moment of passion, between the four male students and an alluring, seductive female new-comer to their village. A crime follows? Or does it? The quartet [Astaire, Houseman, Fairbanks Jr., Douglas] remain bound over the years, then with the passing of the moon, perhaps ...... something very old and nasty [with cronies] comes to life and starts a pattern of seduction, starting with the male offspring of one of the old guys! During a one night stand with a [now reconstructed] beautiful stranger one sibling is thrown [?] from his high rise apartment [Craig Wasson in a dual role]. Unintelligble? That's how it goes, and the horror continues - and the original four are being dispatched one after the other. Based on the novel by Peter Straub it is not a perfect script. Lots of difficulties with the conclusion, but it is Alice Krige who triumphs in this movie - a maddening beauty, enough to drive anyone over the edge!. Now, where is the DVD version? Please restore to wide-screen, with the deleted scenes please [including the sightless spectral Ms. Krige, a special effect considered too disturbing for 1981]. Another point of view? "Vertigo" Similar horror!
Rating: 
Summary: A Horror fan must see
Review: I am a huge Horror fan - not the chop them up type, but the supernatural twist kind. If that is you, this is a must see. It's the 1st movie I've seen that is hands-down better than the book. The plot is great. You have to pay attention. A great movie. John Houseman and Fred Astaire are great.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than The Book
Review: As much as I enjoy reading Peter Straub, I didn't care for the book "Ghost Story," and thought that the simplification of the original story made a pretty good movie. It is an old fashioned ghost story of revenge. I thought all of the performances were quite good, although I found the young men in the flash-back to be irritating. This movie relies on atmosphere and the marvelous performance of Alice Krige. It's not gory or bloody, although it is kind of violent (a character falls to his death rather graphically in the beginning of the film sans clothing). There is a bit of nudity so if that offends you, don't watch this film.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: I enjoy this movie now as much as I did when I was a teenager. Alice Krige does an excellent job as the ghost of Alma, who seeks revenge against the club of four elderly men who were responsible for her death in the 1920s. She does this in the most vile, gruesome way. Not only does she go after them, but one of the members' sons. The remaining members of the club go back to the day they met Alma and the love tryst which led up to her untimely death. They are forced to own up to their involvement, whether it was murder or an accident. The director did such a good job taking us back to that time, that I felt that I was there. And, the special effects for the time the movie was made were very good. Very creepy and revolting.
Rating:
Summary: if cheap is scary, this is the scariest movie ever
Review: Worse than there's any excuse for, this is a terrible screen version of Peter Straub's not bad 1979 gothic. It was obviously made on the cheap by people who didn't know much about horror movies but is inept in special ways. Why, for instance, does most of the movie take place in a series of poorly lit hallways? If there's a movie with more hallways in it than this one, I'm not aware of it. The movie makes a big deal about unfolding in the town of Milburn, which seems to be populated by about six people. When we do see a handful of extras, they look exactly like extras and you can sense them making an effort to be unobtrusive. Much of the movie apparently never made it to the screen; the end credits list several characters never seen. The movie, which never recovers from its awkward introductory scenes, comes to a dead halt during the campus flashback sequence, which was also the weakest, most "writerly" part of the book. Others reviewers here have mentioned the waste of Patricia Neal, the pained acting of Craig Wasson, and the porcelain beauty of Alice Krieg, who somehow survives the cinematographer's botch job (she outclasses the movie as a whole and has a great evil giggle to boot). To the list of complaints against the filmmakers, I'd like to add 1) the director's bizarre penchant for men in dresses (in a movie where practically nothing happens, there are not one but two such scenes); 2) editing and an overall narrative logic that rival the lunacy of "Mommie Dearest"; and 3) the hilariously bad "special effects" by Albert Whitlock, which are so primitive they'd put William Castle into despair. Do I have anything good to say about this movie? I liked opening credits and the musical score by Phillipe Sarde, which does musically what the idiot filmmakers should have done visually.
Rating:
Summary: Oldfashioned ghost
Review: Always enjoy a good oldfashioned ghost story, and this one is believable too. Just scary and suspenseful enough to keep you tight; but with the ghost makeup as it was, it wasn't too creepy to view. Great suspense. Really good storyline, with twin brothers' ghost experience being fantastically tied into their father's ghost-telling club's most famous ghost story, one they hadn't told yet! Alice Krige, indeed, is absolutely ethereal. (See her as the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact!) Good, but kinda scarey, so watch out you don't get scared to death.
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