Audrey Rose

The legal system doesn’t come up against the supernatural too often.  Outside of the latest Conjuring entry, which was based on the real-life case of Arne Johnson, the two genres rarely cross paths.  But Frank De Felitta’s novel Audrey Rose (and his follow-up The Entity) went out on a limb to challenge that spirituality can be proven in a court of law…or a least pose enough doubt to earn a hefty settlement.  The 1977 film however barely creeps out of the long shadow cast by The Exorcist.

Janice and Bill Templeton’s enviable Park Avenue lifestyle is rudely interrupted by their daughter Ivy’s violent nightmares.  Doctors and psychiatrists can provide no explanation; but Elliot Hoover can.  He claims that Ivy is the reincarnation of his daughter, who died in a fiery car crash, and insists he be allowed to play a part in her life.  The Templeton’s, particularly Bill, suspect some sort of shakedown.  But when Ivy’s mental state continues to deteriorate – and coincidences start to pile up – Janice begins to suspect that Hoover might just be her daughter’s only hope.

 

Directed by Robert Wise, who does his best to make the sets and studio spaces as cinematic as possible, Audrey Rose was doomed to be dismissed as an Exorcist clone, showcasing yet another innocent victim whose upper-class parents refuse to accept a truth that lies beyond their shallow, materialistic lives.  But these borrowed elements aren’t what make the film tedious; it’s the poor pacing, uneven acting and laissez-faire script. Wise shoots for a spiritual awakening…while Friedkin was happily dragging us through the mud.

 

Anthony Hopkins can make almost any character sympathetic.   Even cannibals.  But his role as the woebegone Elliot Hoover is alternately arrogant and straight-up creepy.  Which leaves the audience with Marsha Mason’s pampered housewife to root for, a woman who collapses during every crisis and fails her daughter both physically and spiritually.  The film doesn’t offer up any protagonist worth defending and eventually settles on simply sermonizing about the superiority of Indian philosophy (complete with stock footage).  Audrey Rose is the perfect example of a movie made with unquestionable professional competence, but, ironically, somehow lacking a soul underneath it all.

 

Featuring a brand-new 2K restoration from a 4K scan, Wise’s film has that gloriously foggy look of ‘70s film stock that just screams celluloid.  Extras include a new commentary, interviews, featurette on the NYC locations and archival interviews with De Felitta and Mason.  The first pressing also contains an illustrated collector’s booklet.      

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