Zurück bleibt die Angst (1981)

Zurück bleibt die Angst: Directed by John Irvin. With Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman. Two generations of men find themselves haunted by the presence of a spectral woman. When the son of one of the elderly men returns to his hometown after his brother’s mysterious death, they attempt to unravel her story.

“I initially wanted to rate u0026quot;Ghost Storyu0026quot; a fine 7/10, but I figured since I (voluntarily) had to endure watching such heavy rubbish earlier this week, Iu0026#39;d just chip in an extra point. I feel no shame about this, as the film is actually very good. At the start of the u0026#39;80s, the horror landscape was changing. Films got a lot crazier, partly due to many great sfx artists rising to the scene and otherwise because of the mindset of that era (fashion, trends, etc). Often filmmakers cared less about telling a coherent story and more about making their films go over-the-top in any way theyu0026#39;d see fit. So in a way u0026quot;Ghost Storyu0026quot; really feels like if it was one of the last u0026#39;classicu0026#39; horror movies at the time. From the orchestrated soundtrack over the slow pace of the film, relying more on mood, tension and atmosphere to the splendid performances of our veteran foursome Fred Astaire, Melvin Douglas, John Houseman and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The film is ingeniously structured, with various stories within the main story, nightmarish dream sequences and a great flashback story to the 1930u0026#39;s era. The settings provide some classic horror elements too, like the isolated snowy town, grisly frozen lakes and an old ramshackle haunted mansion. Sporadically, the film is also injected with some amusing scares provided by ghostly rotting appearances and the special visual effects by master matte artist Albert Whitlock are outstanding. Gorgeous actress Alice Krige has that icy cold mysteriousness over her that is fitting for her role. On top of that, she has more scenes with her clothes off then on. There are a couple subplots that could have been altered to make it an even better movie, but these are only minor problems. If you want a decent scary movie double bill with a classy feel to it for a dark u0026amp; stormy night, I think teaming up John Irvinu0026#39;s u0026quot;Ghost Storyu0026quot; (1981) with Peter Medaku0026#39;s u0026quot;The Changelingu0026quot; (1980) might work wonders.”