Audrey Rose (1977)
MGM DVD (region 1)
d. Robert Wise; pr. Joe Wizan, Frank De Felitta; scr. Frank De Felitta; novel. Frank De Felitta; ph. Victor J. Kemper; m. Michael small; ed. Carl Kress; cast. Anthony Hopkins, Marsha Mason, John Beck, Susan Swift, Nomran Lloyd, Hohn Hillerman (113 mins)
The blockbuster horror hits of the 1970s introduced a number of themes that were easily exploitable.
The Exorcist highlighted the theme of possession and was soon followed by numerous rip-offs as well as other earnest works which sought some sociological context for their gory atrocities. On a related vein were a number of films dealing with a then topical subject: re-incarnation, long a belief in Eastern religions and finally a brief American vogue in the 1970s. Whereas the majority of possession themed films were often luridly sensational efforts, the higher profile re-incarnation pictures were often determined to not only accept the spiritual validity of the concept but to subsequently justify it to skeptical Christian audiences. Such was certainly the case when respected director Robert Wise took on Audrey Rose, adapted by author Frank De Felitta from his popular novel, which literally took the subject to a dramatized legal trial and remains the most prominent of films in this brief horror movie trend. Indeed, the film may seem insistently dedicated to goading the audience into accepting the premise of re-incarnation and for most viewers and critics either succeeds or fails on this question of credibility. Arguably too earnestly topical, the film is nonetheless intriguing for its place within the evolving horror genre, even if the filmmakers deliberately sought to avoid such a generic label, and for Wise’s questioning of the script’s intent.
The film begins with a car accident and a little girl trapped and burning to death in the wreck. Cut to: many years later.
Marsha Mason and John Beck play the parents of a young daughter, Ivy (Susan Swift), at eleven years old poised to enter puberty and menstruation. Mason drops her off at school and notices that a strange man (Anthony Hopkins) has been following them and seems unusually interested in the girl. Beck also later sees this man and they think that he may be some kind of sexual predator. Beck goes to the police but they can do nothing about it until / unless Hopkins acts. Soon, the couple receives a phone call from Hopkins who wants to meet them. They agree and on their meeting Hopkins tells them an incredible story of how he lost his daughter but learned through psychics that she was still alive, but in another body, and of how his search for his lost daughter Audrey Rose led him to them. He believes that Swift is the re-incarnation of the dead girl. Beck dismisses him as a potentially dangerous lunatic and seeks legal advice. However, when Swift has a nightmare and burns herself on cold glass, responding only when Hopkins calls her by the dead daughter’s name, Mason begins to think otherwise. Soon, the events get out of hand and Beck thinks Hopkins has kidnapped his daughter. Hopkins’ actions eventually result in the matter being brought to trial.
Like the possession-themed film, the issue of personality transference and re-emergence is dominant throughout. What the film has trouble resolving nevertheless is the extent to which Swift is entirely herself, has developed an independent personality or is only just now becoming aware of what might be termed the heritage of her soul.
Wise cleverly begins the film thus by suggesting that Swift has just entered a pre-menstrual or initial menstrual stage of adolescent female growth and that her subsequent nightmares and trauma may be explained in such developmental terms. But Wise arguably makes Mason’s plight dominate the film, as a mother unable to adapt to changes in her adolescent daughter, changes which may prove to be beyond natural, biological or psychological origin – her recourse is spiritual, out of a fear of losing a beloved child. Nevertheless, Wise feels the need to at least suggest the role of puberty in Swift’s dilemma, as if in the nature of re-incarnation, puberty is the trigger which brings a personality into possible awareness of its former life, even if at first it cannot truly comprehend the ensuing personality dilemma. Few films attempt to explore the concept without ridicule. Like many films of the 1970s though, the film is full of fear (and loathing?) at possible adolescent developmental psychosis, driven to rationalize it in supernatural terms: this is almost unique to horror in the 1970s.
While the film is almost determined to dramatically, legally and religiously scrutinize the notion of re-incarnation, hence the trial sequence, it stops just short of an absolutist final statement.
The key to the doubt in this film, such as it is, is Wise’s treatment of Hopkins as an obsessive father who simply cannot get over the loss of his daughter in such a horrible manner and so has come to believe in re-incarnation because it would both give her a second chance and, perhaps more importantly, give him back the role of father denied him. It is no wonder that real father Beck resents Hopkins’ relentless intrusion in his family. The potential tragedy of loss thus becomes the central theme for Wise, ultimately more important than the validity of re-incarnation although he is somewhat bound by the script on this issue. Voguish and subtle psychological nuances thus battle throughout an earnest but frustrating movie wherein the ultimate fate of Swift is arguably ambiguous, giving the film a possible tragic dimension as Mason’s gradual surrender to Hopkins’ beliefs is tainted with the same human need to cope with the loss that comes in reaction to a loved one’s personality change (or development) and thus reveals a retreat into supernatural spirituality – again a similar dilemma to Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist and even Lee Remick in The Omen, all films notable for being in part about maternal doubts and fears.
DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The matted widescreen visual transfer is functional at best although preserves the film’s autumnal look, earthen colors and textures. Melancholia wafts through the film until the psychologically provocative ending. Sometimes hot and cold colors alternate and lighting correspondingly intensifies at key moments. This cinematographic emphasis is carried in the transfer, although at times works against the overall trend towards absolute authenticity and speaks of the irresolute conviction intended by the producers but against which the director sometimes struggles. The print has frequent speckles and sparks throughout, although these are not in the end a major artifact problem. Photographs are used well at one point to imply the evolving link between a person in the past and in the present. Swift’s eyes are eerie and she is well cast. Wise’s retracting camera nicely captures Mason’s increasing emotional isolation and builds to the desperation that underlies her final convictions. The trial sequence seems an imposition, complete with documentary footage of life in India (as a more spiritual place) and a direct address to camera by an Indian spiritualist called as an expert witness in the case. It is an unusual trial, but overwrought at times and verging on silliness, although a final hypnosis sequence is quite effectively played, culminating in a nice use of reflections and shattered glass as a symbol of the girl’s personality crisis.
Sound
Just as the visual transfer can be called functional, so too the Dolby Digital mono sound transfer just manages to get the necessary job done, without adornment, but with something approaching indifferent flatness. Indeed, it is a very talky film that risks becoming ponderous and dreary; and the sound (for both the score and the voices) has a somewhat tinny quality at the high end. Although Wise has on at least one previous occasion openly voiced his dislike of cinema and home theatre surround-sound effects as gimmicky distractions from the image, the work on Audrey Rose still seems far less than ideal. What is used for remarkable effect, however, is what may be termed dove-tailed sound – where the sound of dialogue from an upcoming scene plays over the current scene until the visual cut catches up – although this is used sporadically (at its best in the freeze-frame of an arrested Hopkins over which is played the defense lawyer’s statement almost as it is that of the filmmakers talking to the audience about the direction the film is now to take). This is a memorable technique and well-deployed, even an arguable alienation device, Wise drawing attention (and criticism?) to the script’s intent. There is a nice use of natural silences and minor background sounds although a low hiss works against the needed clarity. Towards the end of the film the music has a sinister quality and turns effectively shrill.
Special Features
The only special feature is a theatrical trailer, which makes the film seem a horror movie and features the spooky original poster art modeled on Swift’s face and eyes. Ideally, this poster art should have featured on at least a removable insert scene-selection list page within the DVD case. Audrey Rose is an intriguing film wherein one senses the desire to imply more psychological ambiguity than was perhaps the intent of the original script. It only partially works.
