FAQ

New York executive Bill Templeton (John Beck) and his wife Janice (Marsha Mason) are stalked by a stranger, Elliot Hoover (Anthony Hopkins), who believes that their 11-year-old daughter Ivy (Susan Swift) is a reincarnation of his daughter Audrey Rose, who died 11 years ago in a car crash. However, when Ivy begins to have nightmares that only Elliot can calm and explain, the Templetons begin to wonder whether Elliot might be telling the truth.

Audrey Rose is a 1975 novel by Frank De Felitta. Felitta adapted his novel for the screenplay. He also wrote a follow-up book, For Love of Audrey Rose (1982), however, it was not made into a movie sequel.

No. The author has attributed the idea for the story to be based on an experience he had with his own child. At six years old, De Felitta's son began playing ragtime music on the piano, an instrument he had never learned to play. Convinced that his son's ability was the result of reincarnation, De Felitta began exploring the concept in his writing.

Neither. Audrey Rose is a soul that has become reincarnated in the body of Ivy Templeton and who is unable to move on.

The case of abduction goes to trial. Elliot Hoover is acquitted after Janice testifies in his behalf, admitting that she believes Ivy to be the reincarnation of Audrey Rose and that Hoover is the only one who can help Ivy. However, the prosecution has another idea with which they hope to disprove that Ivy is Audrey Rose. They plan to have her hypnotized and regressed. Bill gives permission for the procedure, but Janice is dead set against it and tries to remove Ivy from the hospital. Bill refuses to acquiesce and the hypnotism test proceeds. The hypnotism is televised by closed-circuit so that the judge, jurors, lawyers, and Hoover can watch it, but no one is allowed in the room with Ivy other than the psychiatrist and a nurse. Dr Lipscomb (Norman Lloyd) successfully regresses Ivy to her eighth birthday, then to her fourth, and finally to a baby. When he then takes her back to a time when she wasn't Ivy, she begins reliving the accident and the fire, banging on the observation window as though to get out of the car. When Lipscomb is unable to bring Ivy out of the trance, Hoover smashes a chair through the window in order to point out that she is no longer Ivy but is Audrey Rose, but it is too late. Ivy is placed on a respirator and subsequently dies, the experience of reliving her death being too much for her. At her bedside, Hoover, Janice, and Bill mourn her passing. Hoover assures Janice that it's all right: "her soul is set free." In the final scene, Janice composes a letter to Hoover, who has been acquitted and is now in India. She thanks him for taking Ivy's ashes to India and expresses the hope that their child will find peace in the afterlife and eventual rebirth to a family who will love her. The movie ends with a saying from the Bhavagad-Gita: There is no end. For the soul, there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does it ever cease to be. It is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval...

Those who have both read the book and seen the movie claim that the biggest difference between them is that, in the book, Ivy only had the terrible nightmares whenever Elliot Hoover was around (when she was two and now at 10 years old). During the time he was in India, Ivy had no problems, giving the suggestion that Hoover was the trigger. This idea is explored even more in For the Love of Audrey Rose.

The novel also spends a significant amount of narration on Elliot's time in India and his interaction with Hindu leaders. He bathes in the Ganges and it is at this point in the story that he accepts the deaths of his wife and daughter. Elliot's belief in Hindu teachings plays such a key role that a Hindu leader is called to testify at Elliot's trail to corroborate Elliot's claim that Ivy is Audrey Rose reincarnated.