UK release from Second Sight.

BY TIM GREAVES 

A quartet of ageing gentlemen friends (Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Melvyn Douglas) meet up on a weekly basis in the snow sprinkled town of Milburn, New England in order to exchange scary stories. Self-dubbed ‘The Chowder Society’, they challenge one another to come up with something truly unsettling. Good natured entertainment takes a sinister turn when a dastardly secret that has lain dormant for more than 50 years rears its terrifying head. Drawn helplessly from sweat-sodden nightmares into a living nightmare more frightening and deadly than anything conjured up in their yarning sessions, the comrades’ collective fate falls to the hands of a seemingly unstoppable entity hell bent on revenge. But revenge for what? What could the friends have possibly done all those years ago that was so terrible?

Now wait just a moment... Fred Astaire made a horror movie?! Indeed he did. And a pretty decent one it is at that. As he had done for a number of then-recent non-musical roles (among them The Towering Inferno and A Purple Taxi), the legendary song and dance performer shelved his top hat and tails and signed up for this effective little terror tale of retribution from beyond the grave. 

In a review I pencilled some time ago I perhaps unfairly labelled 1981’s Ghost Story as "average". However the passing of time has been very generous to the film – either that or I'm going soft – for a handful of viewings in the intervening years have gradually elevated it in my opinion. Though by no means a top-ranking classic of horror cinema, I now readily acknowledge it as an efficient little chiller that benefits hugely from the gravitas afforded it by its combined star power. The four leads may not seem the likeliest of go-to names for a director mounting a horror movie, but their united seasoned talent forges a level of dramatic credibility that (almost) makes the fantastical elements of the story feel plausible. A modern audience needs to be aware that these guys were pretty big Hollywood players in their day; imagine the likes of Clooney, Pitt, Cruise and Cage getting together for a spook show in 30 years’ time and you'll get the measure of the men. Furthermore, and most pleasingly, what could have been a wince-inducing exercise in cashing in on past glories is actually anything but. For all except Houseman Ghost Story would also be their final big screen appearance. A very worthy epitaph it proved to be.

Clocking in at just shy of 111-minutes in length, the story does feel a shade drawn out. But if its screenplay – fashioned by Lawrence D Cohen (scripter on Brian DePalma's 1976 classic Carrie and the respectable 2013 Kimberly Peirce remake) from a 1979 bestselling novel by Peter Straub – is occasionally a tad ponderous, it at least never strays from narrative relevance; it's certainly testament to the time invested in establishing the diverse individual personalities of the characters portrayed by Astaire, Houseman, Fairbanks Jr and Douglas that they are immediately identifiable in their younger "flashback" incarnations (Tim Choate, Ken Olin, Kurt Johnson and Mark Chamberlin, respectively). Meanwhile Craig Wasson gets to toy with dual roles as Fairbanks Jr’s twin sons (and delivers a moment of frontal nudity, something possibly less taboo – albeit still uncommon – today, but extremely scarce in mainstream cinema back in 1981) and, also playing two characters, Alice Krige brings to the show a performance that is excitingly provocative and icily malevolent in equal measure.

Director John Irvine (The Dogs of War) moulds some potently emotive imagery, abetted immensely by some marvellously gruesome (and suitably squishy!) special effects and the lush – if occasionally a tad overwrought – orchestral compositions of Philippe Sarde.

There's something curiously enticing about spectral fiction set against crisp wintry snowscapes, intrinsically suggestive of the perfect winter evening movie fare, inviting you to settle comfortably in front of the fire with the lights out and a glass or three of port to hand; if that sounds like an appealingly cosy scenario then you need look no further than Ghost Story for your viewing of choice.

USA release from Scream Factory.

The film arrives on both Region 2 DVD and Region B Blu-Ray (for the first time in the UK) from Second Sight. In North America, the Blu-ray is available with the same supplements on Region A Blu-ray through Scream Factory. The Blu-Ray delivers a very nice transfer of the 34-year-old film showing only negligible traces of print damage – the odd blemish here, occasional vertical scratches there – with the sometimes soft image being a faithful representation of the intended aesthetic of the film. Supplements are exceedingly generous. Director John Irvine provides an informative commentary to accompany the feature. There’s a 40-minute piece in which author Peter Straub talks at length about his writing style and the novel on which the film is based. A trio of half-hour featurettes comprise interviews with Alice Krige, scriptwriter Lawrence D Cohen, producer Burt Weissbourd and matte photographer Bill Taylor (who discusses late colleague Albert Whitlock’s impressive visual effects on the film). Rounding all this off is an original release trailer, a TV and radio spot, plus a slideshow (comprising an expansive collection of production stills that depict imagery from in front of and behind the cameras, lobby cards, and artwork), which runs in the company of selections from Philippe Sarde’s score.

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