"Audrey Rose" started well as a thriller in the mold of "The Exorcist." A child is possibly "inhabited" by another child named Audrey Rose, who died in a tragic auto crash wherein she was trapped in the car. The lost soul has now taken on a new life in haunting little Ivy Templeton.A good cast (Marsha Mason, John Beck, Anthony Hopkins) keeps the suspense going until the film falters by turning the case into a courtroom drama. It is when lawyers get involved and try to "prove" the existence of reincarnation that the film has a major meltdown.The second half of film also includes far too much pretentious dialogue about how the soul must be mended and this incident is but "one act in a cosmic drama of many lifetimes." Please! The early portion of the film was on stronger dramatic ground when Anthony Hopkins' character was comforting the child by saying, "Dada is here." The pretentious excerpt from the Bhagavad Gita ("the soul is eternal, ever-existing, undying, and primeval") appearing on the screen at the end gave the impression that the filmmakers were engaged in a documentary, not a horror film.The excellent performers, especially Mason as the vulnerable mother, was wasted in the film's conclusion that took the form of a long hypnosis session of little Ivy/Audrey. In the end, the filmmakers wanted this film to be a provocative learning experience about world religions, but the result was only disturbing and unpleasant.

Ivy Templeton is a preteen girl living in New York City in the 1970's. She does daily activities with her mom and dad, goes to Catholic school with lots of friends and has the picture-perfect family life. Her mom and dad are sophisticated and live in a high-class apartment and have high-class friends. One day Ivy's mom notices a strange and sad-looking man watching Ivy on the street corner. He begins to stalk the family and they believe he may want to molest or attack Ivy. As it turns out, he used to be the successful owner of a large steel factory in Pittsburgh until his wife and daughter were killed in a horrible accident. His daughter's name was Audrey-Rose, and he believes Ivy is her reincarnation. The Templetons are skeptical until Ivy begins to act erratic and harm herself and the strange man, named Hoover, warns that Ivy may be in danger. Audrey Rose was based on a book by Frank De Felitta. It was highly popular and stated to be "the scariest since the Exorcist". Audrey Rose had very good acting, a beautiful soundtrack and a creepy plot, but what really made it good was the ending, as Ivy is hypnotized and goes backwards through different stages in her life. This was probably very difficult for the actress to pull off so considering that, it was a very convincing scene in the film. Audrey Rose shares elements of films like the Lovely Bones and Alice, Sweet Alice. It's really worth watching.

John Beck & Marsha Mason play Bill & Janice Templeton, a happily married New York couple with a young daughter named Ivy, who becomes the center of attention after she is repeatedly followed by a mysterious man, who eventually makes contact, and introduces himself as Elliot Hoover(played by Anthony Hopkins) who had lost his own daughter Audrey Rose 11 years ago in a car accident, and who is convinced that Ivy is his daughter Audrey reincarnated. The Templeton's are sympathetic for his loss, but scoff at reincarnation. However, when Ivy starts having horrible nightmares, Hoover gets directly involved and takes Ivy/Audrey out of their apartment, which prompts his arrest, and a trial involving the validity of reincarnation, which results in Ivy undergoing hypnosis, with unexpected results...Anthony Hopkins is excellent, and though director Robert Wise imbues the film with some atmosphere, it is unfortunately plodding and overlong, though does retain some interest in the premise, its conclusion is not very satisfying, almost becoming ridiculous.

While the overall plot of the movie was excellent, especially for that period of time when the subject of reincarnation was new, Susan Swift's acting "ability" made this movie unbearable to watch. Her constant whining and inability to control her facial features was a huge distraction not to mention that she looked as though she had a mental illness. I cannot believe that she was actually picked for a big screen movie, she lacks any form of talent and is one of the worst actresses I have ever seen. I looked up her biography and it's no surprise that she only starred in a total of 4 big screen productions, someone finally realized the dud that they had on their hands. The old saying that money talks really must have rung true when her parents took her to that audition.