GHOST STORY (1981)
Starring Fred Astaire and John Houseman
Yet another disappointing major studio horror film based on a best-seller (in this case by Peter Straub), "Ghost Story" isn't a total failure, but it could have been better.
Craig Wasson plays the son of an old geezer (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) who is a member of the "Chowder Society," a group of old men who share a terrible 50-year-old secret. When Wasson's twin brother dies, followed by Fairbanks jumping off a bridge, he begins to suspect that something's amiss. Apparently a shape-shifting spirit is knocking them all off, one by one, over a misdeed the geezers committed as young men. Meanwhile, Wasson finds himself cavorting with a young woman (Alice Krige) who somehow seems connected to the death of his brother—and the secret the men are hiding.
Krige would later go on to to sci-fi fame for playing the head borg in "Star Trek: First Contact." She's a great actress, but in this film she gets to walk around topless with a dazed look on her face. Wasson has never been that hot of an actor. He was just as dull in Brian DePalma's Hitchock tribute "Body Double" as he is in this, and his lack of charisma is only intensified by the presence of old pros like Astaire (in his last role).
"Ghost Story" isn't a total wash. Dick Smith did some great make-up effects for the movie (which, alas, are given too little screen time) and the flick offers a pretty good mystery. Worth watching, but nothing to twist and shout about.