6. Lady in White (1988/Shudder)
Lady in White is the story of a boy who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He gets locked in a school closet by bullies, where he sees the ghost of a little girl that was strangled in that closet years ago. Unfortunately, that's not the worst of his troubles, as the killer returns and almost kills him as well. With the help of the girl's ghost, he tries to find the child strangler before he strikes again.
For a movie starring a 9 year old boy, this gets pretty dark. I imagine a lot of kids watched this thinking it would be geared towards them and then it gave them nightmares. I liked how it didn't pull any punches, but I wish the story was tightened up a bit.
Its pretty silly that the child murderer would return to the scene of the crime 10 years later to retrieve evidence nobody knew existed. The filmmakers could have made it a recent crime to be more plausible. I also wish the main character, Frankie, was more proactive. He finds clues to his attacker's identity and knows the dead girl wants to be reunited with her mother, but keeps this information to himself for months. There's also a subplot about the black janitor wrongfully arrested for the kid's attack that doesn't really connect with the rest of the movie.
Despite these issues, Lady in White is still a compelling murder mystery with supernatural elements. The main character and his family are relatable and even funny at times. The killer's identity was pretty obvious to me, but I enjoyed how unhinged he got at the end. The movie has its flaws, but I think it's mostly successful.
Lady in White is the story of a boy who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He gets locked in a school closet by bullies, where he sees the ghost of a little girl that was strangled in that closet years ago. Unfortunately, that's not the worst of his troubles, as the killer returns and almost kills him as well. With the help of the girl's ghost, he tries to find the child strangler before he strikes again.
For a movie starring a 9 year old boy, this gets pretty dark. I imagine a lot of kids watched this thinking it would be geared towards them and then it gave them nightmares. I liked how it didn't pull any punches, but I wish the story was tightened up a bit.
Its pretty silly that the child murderer would return to the scene of the crime 10 years later to retrieve evidence nobody knew existed. The filmmakers could have made it a recent crime to be more plausible. I also wish the main character, Frankie, was more proactive. He finds clues to his attacker's identity and knows the dead girl wants to be reunited with her mother, but keeps this information to himself for months. There's also a subplot about the black janitor wrongfully arrested for the kid's attack that doesn't really connect with the rest of the movie.
Despite these issues, Lady in White is still a compelling murder mystery with supernatural elements. The main character and his family are relatable and even funny at times. The killer's identity was pretty obvious to me, but I enjoyed how unhinged he got at the end. The movie has its flaws, but I think it's mostly successful.