Lady in White is a movie with a mish-mash of ideas from social commentary to supernatural thriller to crime mystery and in none of those respects entirely works. However, the performances are pretty good headlined by Lukas Haas and despite sluggish pacing, the film managed to keep me entertaining until the end.
Lady in White
(1988)
Genre(s): Supernatural, Suspense, Drama
Shout Factory | NR/PG13 – 118 min. / 126 min. / 113 min. – $29.99 | September 27, 2016
Date Published: 10/02/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 3.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Frankie Scarlatti (LUKAS HAAS) lives in a small town with a deadly secret. For a decade, a serial child killer has eluded police, and the death toll continues to rise, Then, one night Frankie gets locked in his school and witnesses the ghost of the first victim being murdered. Now, aided by the girl’s restless spirit, Frankie takes it upon himself to bring her assailant to justice. But in a town with no strangers, the killer may be closer than he knows.
Quick Hit Review: Lady in White is an interesting little film. An independent production from 1988, it’s an odd mixture of genres: part supernatural, part crime, part fantasy, part family and part social commentary. This gives us some interesting elements but culled together, none of it quite works with focus all over the place. I also question what kind of audience this was aimed at. It’s too cute at times for adults, too scary for young kids and too serious to be fun. And yet, despite all that doesn’t work, I at least found it to be a fascinating, if not unusually paced, flick with a finale that at least resonates on an emotional level while the proceeding 50-minutes kind of dragged and the ultimately culprit wasn’t hard to spot. The young Lukas Haas turns in a nice performance, never becoming overly precocious and had good range. Produced, Written and Directed by Frank LaLoggia, Lady in White was only his second film following the, from what I’ve read anyway, rubbish Fear No Evil and then 1995’s direct-to-video horror-thriller, Mother. This is an ambitious film no doubt and while it does have many issues, least of which some laughably shoddy visual effects (even by 1980s standards) and yet it’s entertaining and compelling enough to keep one’s attention, though for younger viewers (I’d say <10), it might be too frightening given the plot involves child murders.
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SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.5/5 |
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This release is pretty light on features, but there is an Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Frank LaLoggia; an Introduction with LaLoggia (0:46; SD) recorded for the 20th anniversary; Behind-the-Scenes Footage (16:21; HD) comes with an intro with LaLoggia and is basically raw footage and there’s even an optional commentary that comes with it… for some reason; Deleted Scenes (36:13; HD) again with an intro and an optional commentary; Extended Behind-the-Scenes (1:13:21; HD) with some more raw footage from production and post production; Promotional Short Film (7:18; HD); Theatrical Trailer (1:57; HD); Alternate Trailers (7:10; HD) which are really raw; TV Spots (1:34; HD), Radio Spots (2:21; HD); a Behind-the-Scenes Photo Montage (2:30; HD) and an Extended Photo Gallery (1:55; HD). On the second disc, there are two more cuts, one is the Extended Director’s Cut which runs about 8 minutes longer and the other is the original Theatrical Cut which is 5 minutes shorter than the Director’s Cut on disc 1 (which is the version I watched). |
VIDEO – 3.5/5 |
| Shout Factory, through their Scream line, releases Lady in White onto Blu-ray with a 1080p high-definition transfer and presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio. It’s nothing spectacular or anything and does have some decent detail and colors appear nicely balanced, but I did notice some minor specs or dust marks. Otherwise, and considering this was an independent release from 1988, it’s not a half bad transfer. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
| The included DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (a 2.0 option is also available) is fine but not exactly extraordinary. Where it does excel is with the dialogue which sounds clean coming through the center channel fairly well while other elements, like when the thrills or score picks up, it’s not entirely dynamic. On the other hand, the depth isn’t too bad with the LFE channel kicking in and although it does get a tad heavy in spots, it was a pleasant surprise. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, Lady in White is a movie with a mish-mash of ideas from social commentary to supernatural thriller to crime mystery and in none of those respects entirely works. However, the performances are pretty good headlined by Lukas Haas and despite sluggish pacing, the film managed to keep me entertaining until the end. The Blu-ray released through Shout is a tad weak in terms of features but the video and audio transfers were passable. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.