Lady in White
Director: Frank LaLoggia
Cast: Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, Alex Rocco
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
If you are like me, then you will always think of Lady in White as kiddie horror. I’m not remarking on the quality yet, I’m only commenting on its perceived target audience. And I don’t know why I think that. I mean, it is R rated, so by that it shouldn’t be for kiddies, right? Maybe it’s because its lead is a child and the movie is shown through a child’s eyes, but the same can be said about many coming-of-age horror stories. And yet, my thought of this as being kiddie always remains with me when I think of this movie. Then I watch it again, as I did when I got this in for review on Blu-ray from Scream Factory, and I am impressed with how good, and how adult it is. So if you think of this movie and remember it being something akin to Goosebumps, you are remembering it wrong. But is it any good? Well come with me, let’s stay after class, and find out.
The story is told in flashbacks (as many of these kids vs. horror stories do) by a writer remembering back to 1962 and life in his small hometown of Willowpoint Falls. It is Halloween and things are about as Norman Rockwell as you can get, until young Frankie, played by an equally young Lukas Haas, gets locked in the school’s coatroom overnight by the local bullies. As the night passes, Frankie sees a ghostly vision of a redheaded little girl being attacked by someone. Then, in the present, someone comes into the coatroom looking for something. We can’t see who it is in the dark but Frankie is soon discovered and choked into unconsciousness, yet otherwise left unharmed. Of course, this being the 60s, the black janitor is blamed for the attack, but Frankie isn’t sure it was him. And when he starts to dig a little deeper into his hometown’s history, he discovers a rash of child killings have been going on for some time. What follows is a murder mystery with supernatural elements as our young hero is determined to find out who the child killer is, and continues to have haunting visits from the dead girl asking him to find her mother.
So yeah, this isn’t exactly kid stuff here, but it should be said that the movie isn’t overly graphic or too extreme. There is no gore, no gratuitous nudity, and no Rob Zombie levels of profanity, but this movie can be wonderfully dark at times and deals with some very serious subject matter. So while I don’t think this is a kiddie fright flick, it could be a family friendly one if the kids are at the level of maturity to handle such subjects. I mean, I saw this movie at a young age and look how fine and well-adjusted I turned out.
First and foremost, there are three — yes, three — versions of this film on this two-disc Blu-ray set from the always amazing Scream Factory. There’s the theatrical version, the director’s cut, and the extended director’s cut. That’s pretty damn impressive. On the original director’s cut there is also a commentary track with writer/director Frank LaLoggia. There is an introduction to the movie by the director, some behind-the-scenes footage (also with a Frank LaLoggia introduction and commentary track, should you want it) that runs 16 minutes. There is a collection of deleted scenes with, you guessed it, an intro and commentary by LaLoggia, and that runs 36 minutes. There is an extended behind-the-scenes featurette that’s an hour and 13 minutes. There is a short film made to promote Lady in White that’s 7 minutes long. There is also the theatrical trailer, a collection of alternate trailers, TV spots, radio spots, a collection of behind-the-scenes photographs, and an extended photo gallery. So yeah, that’s a whole lot of bang for your buck here.
Lady in White is a good creepy film, full of charm, Americana, and that coming-of-age feel that most love. I know I do, and for all those reasons I can easily and highly recommend this movie for all the horror lovers in your home. Get it when it comes out September 27th.
