On a beautiful autumn day, a writer in a taxi stops and steps out into a cemetery in Willowpoint, NY to visit a pair of gravestones. Prompted by his driver's skeptical question he tells his story in flashback, the mode of the rest of the movie. On 31 October 1962, Frankie Scarlatti (Lukas Haas) is a typical nine-year old with a warm and loving family: widowed father Angelo (Alex Rocco), brother Gino (Jason Presson), and two grandparents. Grandma (Mama Assunta = Renata Vanni) goes to great lengths to stop grandpa (Angelo Bertolini) from smoking. There are also family friend Tony (Jack Andreozzi) and "Uncle" Phil (Len Cariou), who was originally an orphan as a youth but raised by Angelo's family. Halloween day is festive in school as kids are allowed to wear costumes. With a taste of the macabre, Frankie in his Dracula outfit reads his "pre-hysterical monster" story to his classmates. "I really liked your story, Frankie, I wish I was as weird as you," says a girl in braces. After school two of Frankie's friends, Donald and Louis, play a sadistic prank on him and lock him in the school cloakroom and run away. While he's alone at night, a translucent apparition of a red-haired, ten-year old girl (Melissa Ann Montgomery = Joelle Jacobi) appears. She struggles with an invisible assailant before dying and being carried away. In the struggle an object falls to the floor into a vent grate. Leaving but quickly returning to find the object, the assailant – now a visible man whose face cannot be seen because of darkness – quickly discovers Frankie (wearing his Halloween mask) and tries to strangle him. Frankie loses consciousness, but is rescued and revived when his father Angelo arrives. Is this coincidence or did the killer let him live? The police on the scene arrest the black school janitor (Harold Williams), found drunk in the school basement. He is accused of serial murders: the deaths of eleven children during the past eleven years. Melissa, who perished in the cloakroom, was the first victim.After recovering, Frankie goes to the school cloakroom and removes the floor grate to locate the missing object that the murderer searched for in vain. He retrieves a jack, a barrette, and a ring. Meanwhile the ghost sometimes returns, as during the Christmas holidays. Later Frankie overhears a conversation between Angelo and Sheriff Saunders (Tom Bower) about the serial murders; Saunders believes that Williams is a scapegoat. Then Frankie confines to Phil a summary of the recent events that affected him. He says that the ring must belong to the killer and that he must have returned for it. The conversation is interrupted by Angelo for dinner time. Phil keeps the information provided by Frankie to himself. Frankie and friends Donald and Louis "visit" the spooky house by the cliff, inhabited by eccentric recluse Amanda (Katherine Helmond), the aunt of Melissa Ann Montgomery. Frightened, Donald and Louis flee, leaving Frankie behind. Soon he too flees and runs into brother Geno, who was out searching for him. He tells Geno about the ring, not knowing that Geno found it and said nothing. When they return to their room, Melissa's ghost appears to them. Frankie explains to Geno that she is the daughter of the Lady in White (Karen Powell), who "haunts" the area. Melissa's ghost leaves at 10:00 pm and is carried to the shoreline by the invisible man who throws her over the edge of the cliff. Then a female white robed spirit appears and plunges herself over the edge. Meanwhile Harold Williams is released for lack of evidence. Wrongly believing him to be the serial killer, a woman who lost her young son violently shoots Williams to death in front of his wife. SPOILER ALERT FROM HERE ON: Back at home, Geno compares the high school ring of his father with the one found in the cloakroom. Comparing and correctly surmising that the rings are of the same year of graduation, he checks out initials MPT (P=Phil) and realizes that Phil is the owner and murderer! In the meantime, Phil and Frankie are practicing archery in the woods. Frankie becomes tipped off when Phil whistles the same tune heard by Frankie when he was locked in the cloakroom. The boy runs away but is caught. Phil says he did not know who Frankie was in the cloakroom because his face was covered by the mask. But he still wants the ring. Coincidentally Phil is clubbed from behind by reclusive Amanda, who takes Frankie to her house. Nonetheless Phil catches up to them and struggles with and kills the woman. Then he tries to throw Frankie off the nearby cliff. The ghost of the Lady in White appears and throws Phil off the edge, however. In Frankie's presence, the translucent ghosts of both mother and daughter reunite lovingly in the sky. But Phil climbs up the cliff and seizes Frankie's leg. Coincidentally and in the nick of time, Angelo's rescue team arrives; Phil plunges to his death. Frank LaLoggia, a good but rare filmmaker, wrote, produced, and directed this eccentric, well thought out but flawed flick. The plot has holes and too many coincidences, such as when Amanda is suddenly around to save Frankie. Why did Phil wait so long to retrieve his ring? And why could he not locate it? The music selection is puzzling and should have been eerie in keeping with the atmosphere. We never discover the murderer's motivation, although the fact that he was a serial killer is enough. The racial subplot is heavy-handed and unneeded. Nevertheless the nostalgia piece and set-designs are certainly well done. And well-drawn are the characters that inhabit the small town and the local businesses. Warmly portrayed are the comforts of a strong family and the characterizations of the Italians (autobiographical?). In short, the movie deserves redeeming high marks for its old-time nostalgia, likable characters, and encompassing atmosphere.

This is one of my wife's favorite 80s horror memories, but somehow the movie had escaped my notice for decades. While rifling through bootleg selections at a recent horror con, my wife was elated to find a copy and share this treasure with me. My immediate reaction, though, is maybe you have to have been there.Lucas Haas was all over 80s movies and this was the film that introduced him. The tale of a young Italian boy, living with his father, brother and grandparents after the loss of his mother. The movie definitely plays out the theme of loss in many different ways. The boy is trapped in a coat room as a prank and comes to find horrors, both spectral and real. He sets in motion a chain of events that will bring to attention a dozen murdered children, a family of ghostly women and a murder surrounding a molester.The things that I am going to hold most against this movie are not fair to hold against it. I admit that readily, yet cannot pretend that they don't skew my view of the movie towards the negative, mostly the budget, which brings a harsh light on the quality of the effects available at this time in cinema. I am not against indie horror, in any way. I love it, in fact, but when going back 30 years to watch a low budget horror, it does make the budget all the more noticeable. The movie feels blatantly 80s. While that should never be held against a movie, the best films feel timeless. Yes, Universal's monsters have bad effects that are signatures of their time, but they transcend those limitations to create movies that don't feel so much like products of their time. This movie, though, has many trappings of the 80s. This plays out a LOT in the effects used for the ghosts. They have that cheap, see-though quality that probably looked hokey at the time and looks downright terrible now. At one point I swear you see wires. Lovers of the film will shout that I am being a modernist here, but it removes the viewer from the picture too much to see a blatant look behind the curtains of the effects.The budget limitations also reflect on a lot of the other aspects of "film making" here, such as the score and the camera-work. They feel empty and do nothing to help heighten the tension or mood of the picture. On the other hand, though, the acting is pretty good for a movie of this caliber. The child actors are never cloying. The grandparents are funny and the adults in the movie, though never given that much to do, play their roles well.Many movies have the same limitations, though, some that I love and adore. One thing that can help a movie rise above those limitations, though, is a quality script and I think that's what this movie is missing more than anything. I don't feel that the movie ever quite knew what it wanted to be. There are plenty of tame, family-friendly horror films that don't need blood and gore and focus on child characters and end up being greatly successful at creating a good film. This movie, though, seems like it wanted to hide from that moniker of the child movie, creating some moments that are far too dark for the average kid-friendly spook and never hints at the pure magic that helps kids and adults alike love a movie of that tone. The movie never truly succeeds as a ghost story, either. It spends too much of its' time on a half-baked racial injustice angle and the mystery of the molester to ever give its' frights enough buildup and mood to be effective. Though the kids frequently tell tales of the Lady in White, we only ever get one real scene of an actual terror involving the specter and its' played almost more for laughs than scares.If you want a good ghost story, I can names dozens that are better. If you want a family-friendly frightener, I can name you plenty that are better. This movie isn't terrible by any stretch, but it's painfully average and really not worth your time.

One of the many strengths of Frank LaLoggia's 1988 ghost story "Lady In White" might be considered uncommon for a horror film; there is a lot of care, passion and compassion both behind and in front of the cameras. From script to performances, LaLoggia coaxed the very best out of everyone on this project and it shows. (He cast Alex Rocco as the widower father and got an astonishingly nuanced performance from him, perhaps his best ever.) LaLoggia also managed to get wonderful performances from his younger cast members and, playing on their strengths, created an almost otherworldly universe in which they could thrive and explore, the way children would naturally. It's almost as if "Lady In White" has a magic spell cast on it that seeps out of every frame and this, I believe, is why the film has garnered a devoted following since its initial theatrical release. It's also especially effective considering the story is about how 'normal life' in a small town—and also within a family in that town—is interrupted by the appearance of a ghost. In fact, the many levels and layers in this film make it difficult to neatly sum it up in bite-size pieces, so I will not try. LaLoggia does a great job of telling a somewhat complex story and yet still manages to keep the characters' relationships at the heart of the film. Most horror films don't even bother to try.

I remember walking into the video store in my town, I miss that so much, the owners were a lovely couple who knew my taste in movies. They would suggest movies they know I would especially like. One day I was told about a movie they were sure I would love called Lady In White. Love was an understatement because from the first watching Lady In White became not just a favorite but a family tradition. Growing up in a warm Italian family watching the Scarlattis is like watching my own family! Halloween in Frankie's school was just Halloween when I was in the 1st grade. Mysteries are my favorite genre especially well written mysteries that hold my interest and keep me guessing. Writer, director, producer Frank LaLoggia has written a mystery that not only kept me guessing but tugged at my heart. It's very rare indeed to find a mystery/suspense/horror movie that also has soul and depth!!!! It sets the exact mood I feel every year when Halloween comes creeping up and have felt since I was a child. That's why Lady In White is not only one of my top favorite movies, it's become part of my Halloween family tradition.