Shadow Play

If you have ever suffered a loss you may find this to be an intriguing film.

I saw this film shortly after I lost my mother to a tragic accident; although this was sometime ago, the line in the film ..."you will not leave until you are ready, the spirit has unfinished business"... has a certain resonance for anyone who has experienced the tragedy of accidental death or suicide.

This was one of those small films on cable in the late 80's; sometimes they were good; sometimes not; it was a mixed bag, but this is a film I have remembered from quite a long time ago. It has a certain cadence.

It is ethereal, and reminiscent of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir"; Dee Wallace is very good, and I am pleased to learn that she still has an active career. This is a film worth renting (if you can find it). A shame they don't show this on cable anymore. 9/10.

"Shadow Play" is mostly a corny movie, but it's still pretty enjoyable. Dee Wallace -- Elliot's mom in "E.T." -- plays a playwright who returns to Orcas Island, Washington, near where her lover lost his life some years earlier...but did he totally go away? And what role does the island's lighthouse play? The movie isn't exactly frightening. It's more about the woman's almost fanatical obsession with her lover. And besides, we get to see some great shots of the Puget Sound (if you've never been to the San Juan Islands, you should definitely go there). It's basically the sort of movie that you rent if you want to pass time. But don't get me wrong, it's still pretty fun. Also starring Cloris Leachman.

Though billed as a horror film or mystery, Shadow Play is much heavier on the drama which would be fine if the drama itself had an urgency to it, but it just goes from scene to scene with no tension or escalation in the stakes. At first, it lulls you into thinking it'll be a slow burning, but competent thriller that's leading up to an exciting final act, but that never happens.

The acting is good, but then again, when have Dee Wallace or Cloris Leachman ever disappointed in that arena? The film is also well shot with some very nice images here and there, but it doesn't add up to much when the story is so lacking.

"Shadow Play" follows struggling playwright Morgan Hanna, who is still reeling from the apparent suicide of her husband seven years ago, in which he leapt from a lighthouse on his family's property in the San Juan Islands of Washington. At the urging of her former mother-in-law, she decides to spend the summer there to get some writing done...but quickly finds a number of distractions, such as her ex-brother-in-law pursuing her, as well as the ghost of her dead husband appearing to her in reflections.

This little-seen late '80s supernatural thriller has all the cornerstones of a good made-for-TV movie, even though it isn't one: An unsolved death, tarot cards, an ominous lighthouse, ghosts, chain-smoking writers, hazy flashback sequences, an overwrought synth score, and a steamy sex scene in its center. Taken on those terms, the film delivers with more melodrama than you could ever possibly need. The problem? It's just not that eventful. Writer-director Susan Shadburne's script has some musings within it about the writing process and how grief is sublimated into work, but the narrative follows a rinse-and-repeat formula: Dee Wallace's character struggles to write, sees her husband's reflection, is terrified, finds comfort in his brother--repeat innumerably, and you have the crux of this film.

Despite this, there is plenty of fun to be had here for viewers who enjoy movies of the Lifetime ilk, and I will admit that I was taken by the nostalgia of it. The film also bolsters atmospheric locations in the San Juan Islands that are familiar to me as a native of the Pacific Northwest--the natural landscape is drenched in fog, and the familial home in which the bulk of the feature takes place is also appropriately atmospheric. Dee Wallace gives a solid if not overwrought performance here, and Cloris Leachman is great in what is essentially a throwaway role.

All in all, "Shadow Play" is a fairly redundant and uneventful film that feels undercooked at times; however, it is also a great time capsule of the period and epitomizes the melodramatic supernatural thriller/romance that one would often catch on television. A minority amusing, sometime moody, and atmospheric throwback. 6/10.

I had no expectations when I saw this film. I knew absolutely nothing about it. The theater didn't even have a poster and none of the staff had seen it. The opening scene shows a dark, windswept lighthouse. I thought, "oh no. probably a stupid, low budget, horror film." On the contrary this is an intelligent and thoughtful film. There is poetry read during the film that mirrors much of the action. I judge a film by how long it sticks with me afterward. This film has stayed in my head a very long time.