The Ghost (1963) by Riccardo Freda

Director: Riccardo Freda

Year: 1963

Country: Italy

Alternate Titles: Lo spettro; The Spectre

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

Trying to maintain their relationship, a woman and the doctor treating her ailing husband see the perfect opportunity when their plan to let his condition worsen to the point of finally dying, but when they see the chance to start over the belief of his corpse returning to torment them starts to drive her insane.

Review:

There’s quite a lot to like with this one. Among the brighter aspects of this one is the rather enjoyable setup at play that has some intriguing Gothic sensibilities. Working with the idea of the doctor trying to utilize these risky experiments as a means of treating the strange disease while conspiring with his wife in a clandestine affair to kill him off so they can be together, the whole idea of this one plays so heavily with the typical setup for these kinds of films. The back-and-forth melodrama that emerges as the need to keep their relationship a secret behind his back while waiting for the perfect opportunity to let his condition naturally take hold so he can die and allow everything to resume as normal afterward is all steeped in the kind of ambiance and storytelling at the heart of the genre which provides a fantastic starting point.

Likewise, the second half sends this one into a rather fun series of setpieces that hint at the familiar trope of the new couple being tormented by the whims and wishes of the now-deceased husband. The aftermath of the funeral and reading of the will that forces him to greedily head off to the crypt where he’s buried starts everything off quite well as the earliest hints of the psychological unrest she suffers from for the rest of the film as the constant hallucinations and visions of his decaying corpse showing up accomplishes this quite well. It gets to the point where the eventual snap is accomplished quite nicely as it leads to some well-deserved and earned sequences where the psychosis is the cause of several impressive twists and reveals that become more than enough to hold this up overall.

This does have a few minor drawbacks that hold it back. One of the biggest issues is the rather overlong finale that spends way too much time on speeches for the reveals and twists that become somewhat redundant in the end. As all of the revelations come about at quick glimpses, it’s all expected to happen but this type of major info dump is at the wrong time as it’s all coming about at this particular point in the film and not all of it makes cohesive sense with the rest of what’s gone on in the film. The other issue here is the equally overlong but less invasive beginning where it feels like an eternity before the murder happens and the plot kicks off as this wallows around quite heavily in an inane melodrama about their relationship and it gets tiring as a result due to this one taking so long to get started. Beyond these factors, there’s not much to dislike here.

Overview: ****/5

A standout if slightly flawed Italian Gothic Horror effort, there are a lot of positives on display with this one to keep this one going even if there are several parts here that are sluggish to get through and hold this down slightly. Give this a shot if you’re an ardent fan of the Italian Gothic Horror cycle, appreciate this era in general, or are fans of the creative crew while most others should heed caution