A Loucura de Sarah

This is a TV movie thriller masquerading as a ghost story, and it's as dim as it sounds. It encapsulates everything terrible about the American TV movie genre of the 1990s (although it narrowly missed that decade by a year): horrible scripting, a lack of decent characters, routine acting, and a storyline that thinks its something special when in actual fact it isn't.

THE HAUNTING OF SARAH HARDY attempts to build a decent Gothic atmosphere along the line of Du Maurier's REBECCA but attempts at building suspense are destined for failure. Instead, this becomes a piece of strictly routine hokum, with characters supposedly sent out of their wits by mysterious hauntings and spooky goings-on. The main issue I had was with the predictability of the storyline, which meant I knew exactly what was going on and guessed the twist well in advance. That makes for a very boring viewing experience.

There are no actors of note in the production, just the kind of faces that appear in this particular genre and never anything else. The lead, Sela Ward, would go on to appear in the horror remake of THE STEPFATHER some 20 years later, seemingly not having aged in the meantime, but given her lacklustre acting on show here you wonder how she ever had a career in the first place.

Well, what starts out as a suicide story, which is tragic, and possibly the best part of the movie even though it was a bit sad for me, the rest wasn't all that scary nor interesting, I mean it lacked a lot of frightening scenes and was a bit dated, though the scenes of the dead mother was a little scary, especially the phone call which reminded me of Psycho, but still, the rest of the film was not exciting at all, and the ending itself was empty, it wasn't shocking at all, maybe a bit surprising, but not in a good way, it makes you just pause then say a simple "okaaay", that's it, it's done, zip, nada, nothing, the acting okay, and the lead actress was good. Overall not very good at all.

The movie starts with the funeral of Sarah's father. Sarah's mother is being cruel to the girl. Later, Sarah's mother goes from cruel to insane. Miss Stepford, who takes care of the house, provides the poor girl some comfort.

15 years later, Sarah is marrying Austin at a little church next to the cemetery where her mother's gravestone is. The mother's body was never found. Lucy, Sarah's best friend as a child, is a soap actress whose role is being discontinued. Allen, a shrink who was also a friend, is not happy.

Sarah moves back into the mansion known as The Pines, on the Oregon coast, where she has not lived since her mother ran into the ocean and never came back. She seems happy with her new life until she starts hearing her mother's voice again. Then the harpsichord her mother used to play ... only no one is there. Then things really start to get weird.

Sela Ward has a reputation as a quality actress, and I saw potential here, though I wouldn't have said she was that good just from seeing this movie. Morgan Fairchild was better than I expected, and Polly Bergen was fine as Miss Stepford.

This wasn't a horror movie in the classic sense, but more of a mystery with some interesting plot twists, including some that I didn't see coming. As the movie progressed, I liked it better than I thought I would.

I enjoyed this movie! I didn't know what to expect. Morgan Fairchild & Sela Ward are always excellent. Polly Bergen is just so very talented. Such wonderful acting! The actors were all well cast. Watching Michael Woods was definitely swoon inducing! He has been in many films with major leading ladies: Diane Lane, Sharon Stone, Jane Seymour, Jaclyn Smith... just to name a few! I believe he has starred in another movie with Morgan Fairchild before. I also remember seeing him on Oprah when he starred on Private Eye with Josh Brolin. A very handsome & talented actor, indeed. I think I should go refresh myself and watch a few more of his films.

Initially interesting movie with a plot that held promise. Sela Ward's performance was better than what audiences have come to expect in television movies. The build up of suspense started with increasing expectancy. I felt that the ending was anti-climatic and sputtered into confusion. I give 3 stars out of 10.