Haunt-tober 2024 is here and it’s time to dive into the macabre, the strange and the frightful during this beloved time! Join me as I spend the month discussing new and classic films.
Lady in White is a movie that lives frozen in time for me. It was one that was delicately sweet while remaining chillingly eerie. In many ways, this is an underseen and underappreciated horror film that remains one of the greatest ghost story films I’ve ever seen.
This is a film that has ghosts that seem not only believable, but familiar. They are also not the real terrifying part: it’s the humans, and the horrid things they do.
Lukas Haas is Frankie, the youngest of an Italian family with brother Geno (Jason Presson) and father Angelo ( Alex Rocco) and his grandparents. There are also some close family friends including, Len Cariou as Phil. It’s 1962 in rural NY on Halloween Night.
After a Halloween prank by some mean kids, he is stuck in a school cloakroom after dark. There, he witnesses a young girl’s Melissa Anne Montgomery (Joelle Jacobi) murder in a ghostly vision, and nearly perishes himself when the killer returns to the spot to retrieve something he had lost.
This killer of children has been uncaught for ten years and after this experience Frankie continues to see Melissa and looks to uncover the truth of who is behind it.
Frank LaLoggia wrote and directed Lady in White, and it’s a timeless horror that still hits me bone deep.
The tonal elements are beautifully worked. LaLoggia is excellent at capturing a moment: sometimes joyful and hearty, other times angry or insidious. The coming of age scenes and moments of jovial family love are nearly as effective as the moments with scares. The film embodies the feel of fall and has a haunted quality that resonates and has since I saw it 30+ years ago.
While sometimes truly creepy, especially given the subject matter of something that happens in real life, there is also an ethereal vibe that wraps around the film, holding it close and yet making it feel larger than life.
Lady in White captures what it’s like to be a kid, especially one who loves horror, and to experience true terror in life. It’s magical and horrifying all at once.
More Haunt-Tober to come!
What did you think of Lady in White? Let us know in the comments below!