1977/Color/113 Min./MGM/UA Home Video & /Not Rated

Director.........Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, West Side Story)

Screenplay.......Frank De Felitta

Music............Michael Small

Producers........Joe Wizan & Frank De Felitta

Executive Producer.....

Janice Templeton....Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl, Max Dugan Returns)

Elliot Hoover.......Anthony Hopkins (Magic, Silence of the Lambs)

Bill Templeton......John Beck (The Big Bus, Rollerball, Sleeper)

Ivy/Audrey Rose.....Susan Swift (Harper Valley P.T.A.)

Dr. Steven Lipscomb.Norman Lloyd (Amityville 4, Dead Poets Society)

Scott Velie.........John Hillerman (Chinatown,Magnum PI, Ellery Queen)

Brice Mock..........Robert Walden (Blue Sunshine, Lou Grant)

Judge Langley.......Philip Sterling (The Death of the Incredible Hulk)

Mary Lou Sides......Ivy Jones

Russ Rothman........Stephen Pearlman

Maharishi Prodesh...Aly Wassil

Mother Veronica.....Mary Jackson (Terror at the Red Wolf Inn)

Policeman #1........Richard Lawson

Critique: Sure starts with a bang! The opening scene of the little girl struggling hopelessly in the burning car is, as so many scenes involving perishing children at once gripping and haunting. Anthony Hopkins' performance is, as usual, swell as is Marcia Mason's. The pace of this psychological drama is intense enough to satisfy even hard core horror fans, but without all the mess.

The heathen ritual at the catholic school is a strange twist, if plausible enough, and underlines the struggle of beliefs involved in the reincarnation problem for Ivy's parents.

* No Blood * Not Violent * No Strong Language * No Nudity *

* No Sexual Situations * No Gore *

Plot Summary: Audrey Rose and her mother are killed in a head-on wreck. Trapped in the burning car, Audrey Rose struggles for several minutes before she is burned to death at 8:20 am on October 3, 1965. The camera takes us to a happy family frolicking in Central Park and other scenes from the life of a very happy 11 year old girl named Ivy, all with one disconcerting distraction - a very grim looking Anthony Hopkins standing around in the background of each scene. After a while the mother and father start to notice it too. Ivy, meanwhile, is haunted by recurring nightmares. When the mysterious man begins trailing the father, the parents seek police help. When he calls the home to see how Ivy is doing they become terrified and paranoid. Finally the stranger reveals himself to be Elliot Hoover, the father of Audrey Rose who had died 11 years earlier. A psychic told him the details of the life of his daughter, who she claimed was alive. Another psychic told him Audrey Rose had come back and gave specific details. Mr. Hoover then spent time in India learning the truth of reincarnation. The scoffing parents are convinced that his story is true when Ivy relives Audrey's death at the mention of her name during Mr. Hoover,s visit, suffering burnt hands on a cold window. Her doctor not only treats her hands, but suggests she see a psychologist.

As much as the parents would like to see Mr. Hoover simply go away, the girl's problem will not and Hoover is the only one who can calm these terribly destructive nightmares. When he can no longer stand watching, Hoover takes Ivy to his apartment, safe from the ignorance of her father. A high-profile kidnapping trial follows that depends upon an Indian philosopher's testimony to the effect that Audrey Rose and Ivy share a soul. The defense finds a better witness in Ivy's mother who believes that Mr. Hoover is her child's only hope. The desperate prosecution proposes a dangerous hypnotic psychological test that will decide not only the case, but Ivy's fate.