Audrey Rose is one of the lesser-known, but well-acted and engaging enough supernatural family dramas-come-light horror films to appear in the 1970s. It focuses on reincarnation- where a middle-class New York family are been harassed by a stranger, who claims his daughter tormented soul is trapped in the body of their pre-teen daughter’s body. The film shifts from supernatural-often-emotional drama, darts into troubled child horror. Then moves into a decidedly wacky courtroom drama, before going to a rather down-beat-but new-age resolve. Here from Arrow Video, both in the UK and in the US, is a new Blu-Ray release of the film- and as always with Arrow- we get a great extra packed release.

Audrey Rose appeared in the year 1977. It was directed by Winchester, Indiana-born Robert Wise, who had forty credits to his name which moved through a few genres. His output went from WWII melodrama Mademoiselle Fifi (1944), courtroom noir Criminal Court (1946), classic-when-aliens-land Sci-fi The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), realistic war action adventure The Desert Rat (1953), Romantic western Tribute to a Bad Man(1956). Classic haunted house picture The Haunting (1963), musical The Sound of Music (1965), and visual stunning-if-often-drawn out sci-fi Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

The film focuses on the middle-class family the Templeton’s- taking in stay-at-home middle-aged mum Janice (Marsha Mason), her executive husband Bill (John Beck) and eleven-year-old daughter Ivy (Susan Swift). The family live in a large up-market NYC apartment- and save Ivy having the occasional bad dreams & sleepwalking issues, the family are well and happy with their lives.

When going to pick up Ivy at school, and few other occasions Janice notices a strange & decidedly sinister bearded man watching the young girl. Then one day, when Janice is late for school pick-up, Ivy has seemingly disappeared. She panics rushing out into the rain-lashed city, finding the strange man- who informs her he sent her daughter home, and that he will ring the family that night. She gets home, and thankfully Ivy is there. As promised the man rings that night and convinces Bill and Janice to meet him in a restaurant.

The pair get to the restaurant- and there is the man, who is now clean-shaven. He introduces himself as Elliot Hoover (Anthony Hopkins). He tells of his rather troubled life, as he lost both his wife and daughter Audrey Rose in a car crash- with both burning to death some eleven or so years before. He claims that he was told by two different psychics, that his daughter's troubled spirit was reincarnated into Ivy- understandably the family want nothing to do with Mr Hoover.  But from this point, Ivy's nightmares/ sleepwalk incidents get worse, seemingly suggesting burning to death in a car. And Mr Hoover keeps pop up at the pair’s apartment, seemingly calming the girl….so is there some truth in what he says or is he just a convincing liar/mentally unwell?.

As you’d expect Hopkins is excellent in his role, as the at-first shady & shifty Elliot Hoover- who is either a distressed father or unwell/ up to no good. Swift is a very impressive child actor- this was her first film role, and she really does come across as an at first vaguely troubled, to more clearly distressed and confused pre-teen. Mason is largely good/ conniving- though at times she does move close to slight overacting. The film runs five minutes short of the two-hour mark- and it largely goes by engaging enough, moving from supernatural touched family drama, light horror, and rather wacky courtroom action.

Moving onto this new Blu-Ray release- and it features a 2k scan of the film, which is suitable well defined and full with great crisp clarity.  On the new extras side- we get a nice selection of things. First off, we get a commentary track by film critic Jon Towlson- and this is well-researched and observed. He opens by discussing the clever and tight editing of the pre-credits, moving on to give a bio of Frank De Felitta- who wrote the novel the film was based on & also scripted it for the screen. We find out what influenced De Felitta to write the original novel- his six-year-old son suddenly been able to play the piano like a pro, which led them to believe he had been inspired by a previous life. He discusses the novel's great popularity, and how this led to the author getting a great deal with the film. There’s talk about other popular horror novels of the time, which also got made into films. He chats about the film's locations. Later on, he comments on the shifting tone/ mood of the film, and its themes. He talks about how many of the director's films give their women characters a voice, and much more. So, it's very well worth a play track.
Otherwise, on the new extras we get the following- Faith and Fraud (18.49) onscreen interview with Wizard/magician Adam Cardone about reincarnation and belief in film. Never birth nor death (4.27) a look at the films NYC locations then & now.  Otherwise, we get a good selection of archive extras that appeared on the Imprint release of the film- these take in I’ve Been Here Before (17.30) visual essay by Lee Gambin looking at reincarnation in cinema. Investigator: The Paranormal World of Frank De Felitta (11.37)- interview with the author. The Role of a Mother (17.55) interview with Marsha Mason. Hypnotist: Inside the score for Audrey Rose (16.56) interview with film music historian Daniel Schweiger. With the finished release features an inlay booklet taking in new writing by critics Kimberly Lindbergs and Johnny Mains.

It's certainly great to see Audrey Rose getting the Arrow Video treatment- with a nice new scan, and a good selection of both new and archive extras. For those who enjoy other 70’s supernatural family dramas- such as The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror.