Victim of the Haunt

In the deep dark 70s, there used to be a subgenre in horror known as the TV movie. These were highly anticipated events that scarred many a child for life. By the 90s, TV movies were most likely to be based on a true story of one woman's struggle with something boring as hell to anyone who's not fascinated with medical problems and spousal abuse. Victim of the Haunt combines these categories to make a solid night's entertainment.

Pattie and Charles Johnson (Sharon Lawrence and Beau Bridges) have just moved their little family (Emily Bridges and Alex D. Linz) to a new town and a house of their own. Former apartment dwellers, they're thrilled to see their big two-story with the picturesque backyard looking out on a lemon orchard. But if you caught the beginning of the movie (which they didn't, since it took place 75 years before) you know they are in for some scary shit. Their new home is the site of an old home where a creepy dude drowned his son in the tub before being blown to pieces by his angry, battered, shotgun-wielding wife.

Pattie just lost a baby at seven months, so when she and her son start seeing pretty lights in his closet and finding someone playing with the child's toys, they think their visitor is the baby. In truth they are seeing the murdered child from the prologue. And his daddy, of course, is the menacing presence that haunts the bathroom, and he wants to kill Pattie's son. Of course, Pattie must be crazy in a post-partum way, right? She enlists the help of local psychic Delia* (Shirley Knight) to oust the bad ghost and help the good one move on, but is thwarted by the skepticism of Charles and her shrink. Will the bad ghost get their son before Charles removes his head from his ass?

I enjoyed this movie, but I swear, we don't need a Poltergeist remake because in Victim of the Haunt we have already had one. There's some closet hijinks, desecrated graves, a suburb, neighbors who won't believe, lights all over the place when a character returns to the house to rescue everyone else, a kooky psychic, some kitchen stacking action, and even a station wagon! (Not driven by Pattie, of course; she has a badass classic convertible, but still). I won't say it's better than Poltergeist, because that would be blasphemy. But I will say the ghosts' motivations are clearer. It's okay to like ripoffs, in my opinion, but that may be because I'm such an Italian horror apologist. Also, in this case, the cheese factor is offset by the fact that I'm a huge fan of Beau Bridges. The man was in Honky Tonk Freeway!

Oh, I almost forgot. Like most TV movies centered around a lady, this one is based on a true story. The book the real victim wrote actually sounds like a good book to me. It's called The People in the Attic: The Haunting of Doretta Johnson and centers around a psychic who accidentally causes poltergeist activity in an old hotel she has bought.

Yeah, the TV movie genre is geared towards women and children. So what? It's still enjoyed by many people as a guilty pleasure. I may not be interested in watching shows about cancer; however, there's always room for a tale in which the love of a family conquers evil spirits. For whether or not you believe in ghosts, anyone can be at least figuratively haunted by the past.

*I have never met anyone personally who was named Delia, but in the movies they are always kooky, aren't they? Do you know a kooky Delia in real life?