Director: Robert Wise (started by Gunther von Fritsch but finished by Wise when Gunther ran over budget)
Year: 1944
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological
Plot:
Trying to help his shy daughter, a man's efforts to give her a friend result in her conjuring her mother as a playmate and spending more time with her, where they find the dark truth about her mother's past and try to stop her before she gets to the child.
Review:
There isn't a whole lot to this one. One of the better points for the film is the general plot line. It's a little original and does offer up some potentially disturbing ideas here of the dead mother coming back to her daughter as an imaginary friend, though that tends to fall off quite easily in here. Every now and then, this pops out a pretty nice suspense scene, as the initial walk-through of the house does get some good moments in, as there's a really creepy air going through the place from the large amount of furniture and other objects found to the darkness of the place really makes for a creepy sequence. What also works is the latter scene where she's startled in her sleep from the howling wind, mainly for adhering so closely to horror conventions over the years.
The only other thing that works here is the final chase, as the run through the snowy forest looking for her friend, the dogs on her trail, and finally finding shelter at the house here for a big final confrontation. These here are the only right parts, but as much good as there is, there's the same amount of bad. This is due to there not being a whole lot wrong since there isn't much at all to the film. Nothing much happens at all in the way of scares, suspense, action, or even jumps, and at times very rarely feels like a horror film. There's a bit of potential due to the original plot, but the fact that nothing at all happens really destroys this one. That is the main and central flaw with this one, which is just as bad as its other one, where it rarely feels like a horror film. This is due to the film really failing to make any real threat associated with what's happening here, as though everyone here knows who she is and what happened to her that doesn't come across over to this one.
This really could've done something by hinting that the daughter could've started to act like her mother once they let her in on who her playmate really is when she was still alive, but instead, this one utilizes the time showing her shyness with other kids and treats the whole affair like a story told by a child with an overactive imagination. This is a really damaging part here, as this not only devalues a lot of what happened in the original but really keeps the film from really embracing what kind of film it really is, with the avoidance of being a horror film so much a part of this one. Likewise, the other part that makes no sense here is the relationship of the two women in the house who are given a status to each other but continually deny it without saying why, and the entire point here is lost and quite confusing. These are the main strikes against it.
Overview: 0.5/5
Barely constitutes a horror film with a slew of immensely problematic issues, this one has quite a lot wrong with it that tends to hold off the few enjoyable elements that are present here. This is mostly for fans of the era of genre fare or who are fans of the original, as almost everyone else should be aware of the tone and style present before giving it a shot, even if you ultimately avoid it altogether.
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