Audrey Rose

In the same evening, I watched two movies that feel bifurcated: We Have A Ghost and this. The former, for all its faults, is still enjoyable. Audrey Rose, however, goes off the rails hard and never comes back. The premise taps into the supernatural and children thing going on in horror in the 70’s, only the horror isn’t from Heaven and Hell. Young Ivy was born on the same day, two minutes later, than another girl, Audrey Rose, died. Audrey Rose’s soul is in Ivy, struggling to … something. Get out, assert dominance, it’s unsure. The movie never settles on what it’s doing, only that it’s there. Audrey’s dad finds them and wants to help by … something. It’s unclear how he even can, and what little the movie attempts to explain how he can help is pathetic; he can “watch over” and “pray” and something something reincarnation two souls (or is it one, the movie isn’t clear here either) girl may die. Ivy’s mom wants him to help (except when she doesn’t) and thinks he’s the only one who can, but since he never says how he can help … ???. That’s a big problem with this movie: being unclear about EVERYTHING. Does Ivy have one soul in her or two? How is this killing her? When Ivy has one of her Audrey’s-getting-out episodes, she burns her hands on a cold window, much like how Audrey died in a car fir? How does this work? Why does Ivy get drawn to walk into a bonfire when Audrey is afraid of fire? Audrey Rose doesn’t present these questions as a mystery for interpretation; it has written itself into a corner and has given up. Another great example of this movie’s indecisiveness is Ivy’s mother, who literally goes from afraid of Audrey’s dad to sort of believing him to thinking he’s a criminal to thinking he’s the only one who can help to thinking he’s a criminal to exonerating him to the police. She’s not presented as someone with strong convictions or beliefs and is struggling to reconcile them; she’s just ping-ponging between alignments as the scene requires it. Audrey’s dad, too, is inconsistent, going from creepy to caring to a kidnapper to a concerned parent as the plot demands. The movie is dead set on telling a story, regardless of if it makes sense and how it manipulates the characters into betraying themselves. And there’s that bifurcation I mentioned. Around the halfway point, Audrey’s dad kidnaps Ivy and is arrested and put on trial. Suddenly, this is a courtroom drama. And then there’s medical tests on Ivy, so it’s also a medical drama. The first half, while never nearly as scary as it wants to be (it wants to be The Exorcist or The Omen so bad), at least is different and kind of interesting. All that comes to a halt as there’s testimony and sidebars and personal drama between Ivy’s parents, and it sucks all tension out of the movie and makes it feel more like a 70’s TV movie of the week than a supernatural horror movie. It all climaxes with a hypnosis session, which is exactly as exciting as it sounds. And then there’s the biggest sin of the movie; it flat out declares, in no uncertain terms, that this is reincarnation. It doesn’t present it as a maybe; this is it. All the suspense, all the mystery and wonder is sucked out of the movie because of this. If it was left up in the air until the end, then you’re wondering if Ivy is just crazy, if she’s possessed, if she really does have two souls, or something else. Nope, it’s reincarnation. There’s no joy in getting the answer at the beginning. It leaves the rest of the movie cold. It’s a shame, because all of this bogs down what could’ve been an interesting supernatural story. Instead, it drowns the mystery by screaming the answer at you, it flip-flops motivations while not answering questions it raises, and tacks on an episode of Perry Mason in the second half. What could’ve been a disturbing movie about madness touching an innocent child is so muddled, so incoherent, and so inconsistent, the main character is little more than a Macguffin in her own movie.