1977 - AUDREY ROSE, sincere attempt to discuss reincarnation sucks as a film.

Older, experienced directors like Robert Wise seemed to have trouble finding suitable material for films in the 1970's.  Audrey Rose was obviously Robert Wise's attempt to do a high class version of The Exorcist without the vomit scenes.  The film fails completely mostly because of the poor casting choices that Wise made. 

The key role of Ivy Templeton,  the reincarnation of a dead child named Audrey Rose is played by Susan Swift one of the most appalling child actors I can ever recall seeing.  Her personality is so grating that half the time you want to put a fist in her face whenever she breaks into her big phony Hollywood movie smile.  Marsha Mason plays her mother and she was never anyone's idea of a star. But thanks to her husband at the time Neil Simon, she managed to finagle her way into leading roles.  The actor John Beck is the father in the film and he's probably the only one who gives a decent performance.  This is one of the big problems with this film, these three never seem like a real family, they are just bunch of actors pretending to be a family.

Then there is the problem of Anthony Hopkins.  He is supposed to be playing the concerned father of Audrey Rose whose spirit has been reincarnated into the body of the little girl.  He comes off more as the spiritual father of Norman Bates with his ticks and mannerisms.  Hopkins acts  more like a child molester than and anguished father.  The audience should feel sympathy for him, instead no one in their right mind would let their kid anywhere near this creep.

I'm not sure what Robert Wise was thinking when he put this cast together, but his casting sense really deserted him.  He had the same problem when he filmed Star with Julie Andrews and somehow got it into his head that Andrews was one of the sexiest women in Hollywood,  you saw how well that worked out.

113 minutes written by Frank De Felitta.