With a title as vague and dull as "Ghost Story", your film must be pretty darn amazing and suspenseful to be memorable! Alas, this 1974 TV-production is weak altogether, and I guess that's why nobody has ever heard of it. The story, setting and atmosphere certainly hold a lot of potential, but the film is too talkative and slow-paced, with unlikable characters and too many plot-aspects that don't make any sense. Three former college mates gather at an old gothic and remote mansion that one of them inherited, supposedly for a reunion, but they clearly never were close friends. That already causes for a big dent in the plausibility. Through sleeping in a room with an eerie porcelain doll, Talbot - the nerdy one of the bunch - gets a spiritual connection with Sophy Kwykwer; a woman who used to live in the mansion. Sophy was emotionally tormented and eventually submitted to a mental asylum by her no-good husband. A handful of sequences, some involving the doll and some taking place at the uncanny asylum, are noteworthy, but "Ghost Story" isn't worth purchasing. The two most famous names in the cast, namely Marianne Faithfull and Barbara Shelley, hardly have any screen time. Before this film, I only knew Faithfull from her fantastic song "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan". The story and dramatic tone of this four-minute chant is already a lot more intense and impactful than this entire movie.
Review of Ghost Story
