1977Dir. Robert Wise
Janice and Bill Templeton (Marsha Mason and John Beck), an affluent middle class couple living in New York, look on helplessly as their comfortable existence is shattered when the mysterious and charismatic Elliot Hoover (Anthony Hopkins) enters their lives. He declares that their daughter Ivy (Susan Swift) is actually the reincarnation of his dead daughter Audrey Rose. Is he telling the truth? Or is he a raving psychotic they should cross the street to avoid? When Ivy begins to experience weird seizures and hallucinations, the couple have no choice but to accept the help of Hoover and the family are plunged into a nightmare they may never wake up from…
Director Robert Wise began his eclectic career as an editor for RKO. He was given his big break by producer Val Lewton directing the poetic horror sequel The Curse of the Cat People – a sensitive, deeply moody study of child psychology. Wise would return to the horror arena again with titles such as The Body Snatcher and his startlingly atmospheric Lewton homage The Haunting – adapted from the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - another testament to how effective the ‘less is more’ approach to horror can be. Not one to rest on his laurels, Wise preferred to span the genres, making his mark with a wide range of titles such as The Sound of Music, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Towards the end of his career he returned to horror once again, with Audrey Rose.
Beginning intriguingly enough, Audrey Rose opens with a shocking car crash in which a little girl is killed. From this point on a couple of parallels with Don’t Look Now can be drawn – both films open with the death of a young girl and the remainder of the film charts the varying attempts of a parent to come to terms with this death, all the while suspecting their dead child is attempting to contact them somehow from beyond the grave. Here the similarities end. Audrey Rose initially unravels as a mysterious stranger stalks a young family – Hoover is seemingly obsessed with their daughter Ivy. This seems to coincide with Ivy having some very weird experiences indeed – distressing dreams and seizures during which she believes she is burning to death. As the tension mounts and the intrigue continues to swirl throughout proceedings, the film switches gear as the bizarre Hoover invites the Templeton’s to dinner and explains that he believes their daughter is the reincarnation of his daughter. They are obviously sceptical and warn him to stay away – some of the looks exchanged over this particular dinner table are priceless. However certain events happen that force Janice to ask Hoover for his help, and so begins another segment of the film – the ongoing debate about whether or not reincarnation is real. The old religion vs. science vs. spirituality debates are had, as are the ‘who am I and what is my life for’ ponderings as the cast act their faces off. The film is peppered with a few memorable moments and images, such as the scenes in which Ivy flings herself violently around the rather nicely lit apartment as we watch from outside through the rain dappled windows. During one of her attacks, she ‘burns’ her hands on a cold window. Another mind-boggling though admittedly striking scene features a group of school girls dancing around a giant snowman they’ve just set fire to as an entranced Ivy crawls slowly towards the flames…
When Hoover kidnaps Ivy, the film - which began as a creepy tale about the potentially unsettling nature of reincarnation and a father’s irrepressible grief - does another u-turn and plunges headlong into melodramatic courtroom drama. Anthony Hopkins is no stranger to horror – two years after this film, he would go on to star in the chilling ventriloquist-doll horror Magic and then lock horns with Gary Oldman in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, via The Silence of the Lambs, of course. While Audrey Rose is an oddly uneven film, Hopkins – on the most part – remains the most mesmerising aspect of it. When he is onscreen he commands attention. His sinisterly calm demeanour cracks at various intervals to allow us to peek into the fragile and damaged soul of a man who never got over the death of his daughter and remains locked in a heart-wrenching cycle as he searches the world for her – or rather, for whoever she now lives again within. Aside from one or two rather ‘thespiany’ scenes in which Hopkins locks eyebrows with anyone else in the general vicinity and tries to emulate Bela Lugosi with the overuse of his hands, his performance is nuanced and suitably anxious.
The most resonant thing about the film is its depiction of the misery, perpetual longing and heartache of Elliot Hoover as he desperately tries to reunite with his dead daughter. The notion that our lives are governed by ‘greater forces’ we have no hope of ever comprehending is also successfully evoked throughout the film. The downbeat ending that tries to assure us that Hoover hasn’t given up hope, just ensures events are left on a cold note, and for all the emoting onscreen, Audrey Rose is a strangely unfeeling film, and one that despite its seemingly positive message about life, death and reincarnation, is a little too bereft to make any sort of impact. While at times it is thought provoking, it is way too dry and overwrought. *Spoiler Alert* The tragic death that occurs at the end of the film, and the fact that it was brought about through utter incompetence on the part of certain individuals, isn't softened any by suggestion that Ivy will be reincarnated... And what of Audrey Rose? Is her soul to be entwined with Ivy's for all time? This might warrant another viewing sometime in the future, but not for a while yet.