Four members of 'The Chowder Society' meet on a monthly basis to tell scary stories. As we meet them, they're drinking brandy by firelight, as Sears James (John Houseman) binds them in his spell, an eerie tale of premature burial. It couldn't be a more astute set-up, beautifully photographed (as is the entire movie) by veteran cinematographer Jack Cardiff, evoking the scary stories and campfires of youth. Yet, the old gents fail to tell each other the scariest story of all, the one in which they're all the target of an angry ghost.

We wouldn't want to give away any surprises, just get ready for a rotting skeleton to spring up every 20 minutes or so. As such, I actually like Ghost Story, even with its many flaws. One can't deny the quality of performances: Houseman is as dryly delightful as ever, Fred Astaire plays an 80-year-old naif with subtlety, and Craig Wasson cleans up as the twin sons of Ed Wanderly (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Alice Krige also plays two roles, infusing the screen with elfin sexuality and feminine mystery; she's haunted and perfect in the role. As mentioned, the movie also looks fantastic; Cardiff's lighting is always spot on, and the film features old school practical effects that are, while somewhat out-of-place, gloppy, creepy, and iconic. Ghost Story also differentiates itself from all the stalking and slashing of the '80s by presenting an intelligent, ambiguous story that's engaging enough despite the things the movie doesn't do well.

Peter Straub's original novel features the four elderly gents, but just a tiny bit of tweaking could have eliminated the need to cast, in what must have seemed overly reactionary fashion, the four geezers (despite their fine acting chops). Whether or not producers were responding to theaters flooding with teens watching other teens get killed, hanging your scares on a bunch of octogenarians leaves little for most audiences to latch on to. With that foundation, Ghost Story intends to move in stately manner, slowly evoking unease, and finally terror. Whether it ever could have achieved such results is open to debate, but the addition of numerous jump scares luridly displaying cool-looking slimy corpses represents surrender and the betrayal of the movie's original promise. That said, Ghost Story's odd, spooky charm still elicits a few thrills and some small goodwill.

Full of fantastic performances from actors four-times older than the kids you expect to see in horror movies, Ghost Story elicits odd, spooky charm. Meant to be a serious horror film, Ghost Story became saddled with Dick Smith's great, gooey ghosts, in order to appease the movie-going masses. Ghost Story the movie doesn't compare to Peter Straub's source novel, but as its own thing, it's failed, flawed, freaky fun. This solid Blu-ray release is Highly Recommended to wary ghost hunters everywhere.

The DVD

Video:
Shambling out of the darkness in a MPEG-4 AVC encoded 1080p resolution transfer at the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, Ghost Story looks pretty good for a ghost. The print is in decent shape and has been cleaned up to good effect. Only a few instances of speckles appear on occasion. Colors are very rich, showing off Cardiff's lighting to great effect. When not stylistically muted or altered, flesh tones are natural. Foreground details are decent for Blu-ray, but soften somewhat as depth increases. Black levels are of average depth, with good details as well in darker scenes. Film grain looks natural, and compression or transfer problems are not evident.

Sound:
A DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono Track in English is your sound option, and it is good without (obviously) being dimensionally flashy. There is not distortion or damage found either in dialog or other effects, while the spooky atmospheric soundtrack score boasts a nice dynamic range, and is nicely mixed in.

Extras:
Scream Factory scares up a number of good extras, starting with a Commentary Track with director John C. Irvin, who's a pretty relaxed fellow. The track isn't terribly scene specific, as Irving opts for more general comments on getting the movie made, working with the actors, and other items of general interest about genre filmmaking and Irvin's directorial progress in the '80s. A number of Featurettes start with 40 minutes of Ghost Story Genesis, in which author Peter Straub reads from his fantastic novel, explaining his choices for the book. It's an odd choice, relatively, since it merely points up the differences between the book and movie, or rather shows how the book quite clearly went into more depth, but for fans of the author, it's quite fascinating. Ghost Story Development is a livelier and more interesting half-hour look at the process of bringing the film to screen. Alice Krige: Being Alma and Eva allows the beguiling actress a half-hour to speak on her development as an actress, and her involvement in this, one of her earliest film roles. Albert Whitlock Visual Effects with Bill Taylor devotes another half-hour to a thoroughly entertaining and compelling look at the film's visual effects, including tons of interesting and esoteric knowledge regarding matte painting, and a little bit of discussion of Dick Smith's ghostly practical effects. Though the shock effects are/were considered the red-headed stepchild of the movie, a standalone featurette of Smith's work would have been a nice extra touch. In addition, you get the Theatrical Trailer, a TV Spot, a couple of Radio Spots and an eight minute Photo Gallery to round out the extras.

Final Thoughts:
Full of fantastic performances from actors four-times older than the kids you expect to see in horror movies, Ghost Story elicits odd, spooky charm. Meant to be a serious horror film, Ghost Story became saddled with Dick Smith's great, gooey ghosts, in order to appease the movie-going masses. Ghost Story the movie doesn't compare to Peter Straub's source novel, but as its own thing, it's failed, flawed, freaky fun. This solid Blu-ray release is Highly Recommended to wary ghost hunters everywhere.

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