Lady In White (1988) review

(5/10)

This 80's horror flick was a pretty creepy little tale, but nothing to get too excited about. There were a few key moments that stood out from the rest. The movie wasn't bad, but just kind of bland.

PLOT:Frankie Scarlatti (Lukas Haas) is a strange student at his school. One Halloween night, a couple of boys lock him in the coat closet at school where he witnesses a ghost girl reenact the way she was murdered before Frankie himself is encountered by a violent being. After this night, strange things start happening to Frankie, including visits by the ghost girl and clues left by her to help him solve the mystery of her murder. Frankie, now interested by the mystery of the girl, starts to try and find her killer and the connection with her and the ghost of the mysterious lady in white. It's a pretty good plot executed decently.



ACTING:The performances in here weren't too good. They weren't completely terrible, but at times the acting seemed near laughable. Lukas Haas did a decent job of young Frankie Scarlatti, as did Angelo Bertolini and Renata Vanni as Papa Charlie and Mama Assunta. Not all the performances were too well done, like that of Len Cariou as Phil. His acting wasn't too convincing to me, for his facial expressions didn't seem to accurately match his emotions. There really weren't any really good performances, but the other shiners would have to be Joelle Jacob as Melissa and Frank LaLoggia as adult Frankie.

SCORE:The score in this movie was actually pretty generic horror score, but it got the job done and added a bit of a distinct theme to the movie itself.

EFFECTS:The effects were about as cheap and cheesy as any effects were in the eighties. However, the effects seemed to add more color and they made the ghosts look a bit more realistic than they do nowadays. I appreciate that much about ghost movies in the past; the effects look decently realistic.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie wasn't too well made, but it wasn't terrible either. Aside from the acting, this movie overall was just cheesy and predictable. I saw most of the twists coming. However, this movie did have a few key scenes that were either shot well or actually fairly unpredictable. There were only a few of these scenes that gave me a bit of admiration for this movie. There were a few scares that did manage to appear creepy or catch me off guard. This movie could have been so much better, but it was done well to at least a minimalist point.

OVERALL,a neutral horror movie with a decent plot, unconvincing acting, generic horror score, cheap but sort of realistic effects, cheesiness and predictability, and a few key scenes shot well with decent scares.