Before CGI and when you could do full frontal nudity in a major film. The story is that a mysterious woman is haunting the families of four men who accidently killed her back in the 1930's. It's not jump scare or gross out horror like you would see later when Hollywood just ran out of idea. It's very moody and atmospheric. IT was also interesting to see some older actors getting key roles in this film, such as Fred Astaire and Douglas Fairbanks. Where the movie falls down is Alice Krige, who shows about as much acting range as she did when she played the Borg Queen on Star Trek. Her acting is truly robotic and wooden. Her male co-star isn't much better.

If you think because this features some classic movie stars (Melvyn Douglas, Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) that it's going to be a classy affair, think again. It's tawdry, exploitative, and not at all scary. The mystery is predictable and uninvolving. The music is overbearing and kills any chance of building suspense. People with eyes beware: Craig Wasson has a full-frontal nude scene in this. Don't say you weren't warned. The opening scene with John Houseman appears to have been done just to rip-off the similar opening Houseman did the year prior in The Fog. I haven't read Peter Straub's novel but I'd be surprised if it wasn't better than this. Just awful.

Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Doulas Fairbanks Jr., and John Houseman play four elderly and long-time friends of "The Chowder Society" which loves to tell people scary ghost stories. A "real life" ghost story comes back to haunt the four men when the son(played by Craig Wasson) of Fairbanks' character comes to visit after the strange death of his twin brother(also Wasson), who was with a mysterious woman when he plunged out the window! That woman turns out to be linked to the friends' past, where they were guilty of an unpunished crime, but now it seems that long-delayed punishment is at hand...Based on Peter Straub's novel, film tries to emulate old school ghost stories with modern "R" rated touches with dreadful results. Sleazy, thoroughly unappealing and overlong film wastes its good cast and period atmosphere in predictable and heavy-handed fashion. Pretty Bad.

This is one of my favorites. My first apartment, my first year on my own, my first HBO subscription. I watched this movie over and over again. Ghost Story is very atmospheric. Dark, dismal weather in the form of downpours and never ending snow. The weather was the perfect backdrop for the mysterious Eva Galli. Houseman, Astaire, Douglas,and Fairbanks, Jr. slip effortlessly into their roles as small town figureheads and Chowder Society members steeling their nerves with brandy in the coziness of their studies, trying to hold back the cold, the darkness, and Eva Galli's pent-up fury. Choate, Chamberlin, Johnson, and Olin play the Chowder Society's younger selves in the sweetness of their youth. Eva Krige plays the dual roles (or are they?) of Alma Mobley and Eva Galli, exhibiting a perfect blend of innocence and sensuality. The tragedy of Krige's Eva is inescapable. Craig Wasson also has a dual role as twin brothers Don and David Wanderly who become the avenue of attack for Eva Galli's vengeance against the Chowder Society. Ghost Story has few in-your-face shocks. Instead it is a slow simmering of genuinely creepy moments climaxing with Galli's rustling walk down the hall of her decrepit house to meet the trapped Don Wanderly. Will Eva have her revenge?