I don't think this is an terrific film as commonly catalogued. It's a fable about reincarnation as believed in Hindu religion and not so badly conceived although contains a basic failure. Audrey Rose, a little girl eleven years old has disturbing nightmares that worsen progressively. Furthermore his parents are alarmed because a man are watching her. The explanation is this man had years ago a daughter killed in a car accident and he believes Audrey Rose is truly a undue premature reincarnation of her daughter and these is the origin of the strange crises Audrey suffers. Audrey isn't posessed by any devil, simply she expects a better life. Well I find one uses to think things from beyond the grave can't have these defects more own of carnal, human incapacity.

Audrey Rose. Who or what is Audrey Rose? Is it a demon? Is it a ghost? No. Audrey Rose a little girl. A little girl who died a tragic death and maybe living in another body of another girl......

Meet the Templetons. Janice and Bill. They live in a high-class New York apartment building with their 11-year-old daughter, Ivy. Suddenly, Ivy's personality has changed. She's not acting 11. But acting like a 5 year old. And she's been having a sleepwalking problem too. She'll get up (though, obviously sleeping) and run around her room screaming "Mommydaddymommydaddyhot!hot!hot!" and has even scorched her hands on some invisible hot fire.

Enter Elliot Hoover. A middle aged mysterious man who follows Janice and Ivy home from school every day. But he stays far behind them. Every day, Janice worries that the mysterious man is going to attack her.

One day, Elliot finally gets the chance to tell Janice and Bill something that has been bothering him. He believes that their daughter Ivy is a reincarnation of his dead child, Audrey Rose. You see, she was in the car that his wife was driving when it skidded off the road and into a ditch below where it caught on fire.He tells them that he moved into town around around the same time that Ivy has had her night fits. Suddenly, from the upstairs of their apartment, Ivy has another fit, screaming "Mommydaddymommydaddyhot!hot!hot!" The Templeton's are horrified to discover that the only way to calm her down is for Hoover to say "Audrey! Audrey Rose! It's daddy! It's daddy!" until she falls asleep peacefully. The Templeton's tell Hoover not to return to their apartment and to leave them alone.

After countless attemps to contact the Templeton's, Elliot kidnaps Ivy and is arrested. During a court battle, Ivy is taken away from her regular school and is brought to a Catholic Elementary where there will be no reports covering the possible "reincarnated girl". During that time, Ivy is upset because all the girls tease her after sneeking in a newspaper with Ivy on the front. During a special holiday event at the school, the children build a gigantic snowman and dance around it singing "Old man winter go away! Don't come back till Christmas day" Ivy is forced by Audrey Rose to walk into the fire and kill herself, but is stopped by a nun. Meanwhile, the trial is still going on and a witness who was in the car accident (the trial is now about reincarnation and if Elliot was right) said the last words she heard Audrey Rose say was "Mommydaddymommydaddyhot!hot!hot!".

Ivy is taken out of the school and Janice believes that Ivy is really Audrey Rose from the second she was born. Bill doesn't. Elliot is found "Innocent" and Janice agrees to Elliot's decision to put her under hypnosis to see what she can remember. It is done live on tv. Suddenly, Janice is startled when they go back in Ivy's memory to discover Audrey Rose yelling "Hot!Hot!Hot!Hot!Hot!Hot!Hot!Hot!Hot!" constantly. They try to take her off the hypnosis quickly, because if she doesn't snap out of it soon: she'll die.

RECCOMENDED TO FANS OF:
The Exorcist (1973)
The Omen (1976)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)

CAST

Marsha Mason......Janice Templeton
John Beck.............Bill Templeton
Anthony Hopkins..Elliot Hoover
Susan Swift..........Ivy Templeton

THE MOVIE 3/4

THE PICTURE QUALITY: 6/10: Some sparkles. It's presented in a matted 1.85:1 widescreen transfer.

THE AUDIO QUALITY: 6/10: Mono soundtrack. There is Spanish and French language tracks, both mono as well. Dolby Digital.

THE SPECIAL FEATURE: A teaser trailer. Too bad it wasn't a full trailer however, it uses only a few seconds of scenes from the movie. Runs about 19 seconds long.

SUBTITLES: French and Spanish.

I read the book this movie is based on and the book is really good and so is this movie which is quite faithful to the book with maybe a few minor changes that really don't matter any way and I recommend this movie with it's fascinating reincarnation plot! Susan Swift was excellent as Ivy and the rest of the cast is good too!

The great director Robert Wise who brought us "The Haunting" produces an original but muddled film about the theory of reincarnation.

A stranger starts to follow a schoolgirl around the place much to her parent's distress. During a confrontation with the stalker he explains that he believes that their daughter is in fact the reincarnation of his dead daughter who died in an automobile accident and asks them if he can spend a little time with the girl so that he can get to know her. The girl's farther dismisses the man as a lunatic but the mother is not so skeptical and after her daughter starts to experience nightmares and hysteria she begins to believe that the stranger is telling the truth. Cue lots of set pieces involving domestic problems, kidnapping, custody battles and a little girl who is plagued by unknown forces.

All in all this is more family viewing than a horror film and certainly not in least bit terrifying as it would have you think. The story also borders on the ridiculous at times, even though it is supposed to be a film about the supernatural. This is also one of the early works of Anthony Hopkins and you get to see him here as an actor on the up-and-coming. Overall, worthy of Sunday afternoon entertainment, but little more.

Audrey Rose is an outstanding movie about reincarnation, one of the things I like about the movie is that it's a little scary but it's not too scary that it gives you a total wiggins where you get scared when you turn the lights out at night and it has a great cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Marsha Mason, John Hillerman, John Beck, Norman Lloyd and Susan Swift.

Oh BTW: This is not an Exorcist Spoof, it's about reincarnation, life after death, not demon possesion.

Movie is definitely recommended!