Audrey Rose (1977)

If The Exorcist is the child of Rosemary's Baby, then Audrey Rose is the granddaughter. Like her distinguished ancestors, Audrey Rose has a story to tell about a clash between modern sensibilities and ancient religious belief. Also as with those films, the centerpiece of that story is a child who is linked with spiritual forces beyond the control of a terrified and increasingly frantic mother. Unlike either classic, though, Audrey Rose barely even tries to be a good horror film or thriller.

If nothing else, however, Aubrey Rose deserves at least a mention in any book about the horror boom of the 1970s, just because its plot is so damn odd. We open with a wealthy urban couple, Janice and Bill Templeton (Marsha Mason and John Beck), and their adolescent daughter, Ivy, who has sleepwalked and has had violent nightmares since she was a toddler. When the film starts, Ivy and her parents are being stalked by a middle-aged man, Prof. Elliott Hoover (Anthony Hopkins!). Eventually Elliott approaches the couple and tries to convince them that Ivy is the reincarnation of his daughter Audrey Rose, who died in a burning car after an accident. Elliott claims that he was led to Audrey by psychics and that, after immersing himself in Hindi spiritualism, he has become convinced that Ivy may have truly been reincarnated. The Templetons are skeptical, to say the least, until they find that Elliott is able to calm Ivy in her sleep delirium just by reciting the name “Audrey Rose.” Janice's stance begins to soften, but, as Ivy's sleep rages worsen, things between the parents and the interloper become tense. Elliott becomes worried that Ivy might injure herself or even relive Audrey Rose's death to the point that she dies too. When Bill reacts to Elliott's intrusions with violence, Elliott resorts to taking and barricading himself with Ivy. And then...

Well, this is precisely where the film veers off the highway...

The legal conflict between Elliott and the Templetons explodes into a publicized legal case where Elliott sues for custody of Ivy on the basis that she is the reincarnation of his daughter. Since this is apparently a bizarre reflection of our world, rather than an accurate facsimile, this line of argument is accepted and the trial becomes a debate over the existence of reincarnation and a case of Indian mysticism versus Western empiricism. (I couldn't help but be reminded of yet another “The Simpsons” episode, “Lisa The Skeptic”, where a judge decides that a case represents the dispute between science and religion and rules, “Religion must stay five-hundred yards away from Science at all times.”) Unfortunately, we don't actually get that far, as efforts to scientifically prove that Ivy truly has Aubrey Rose's memories turn tragic.

It's easy – and perfectly understandable - to write off Audrey Rose as a lukewarm thriller with a dry, pretentious script riddled with problems that should have been ducked by even an amateur screenwriter. Characters, particularly Elliott, often speak in sermons, not real dialogue, and act in predictable, simplistic ways that clash with the serious, weighty tone the film tries so desperately to reach. The Templetons are pure paint-by-numbers characters that verge on being insulting to both women and men; Bill is little more than a bully who resorts to anger and violence almost instinctively when threatened while Marsha is at every single turn the soft, nurturing parent who is swayed with relative ease by Elliott. As for Elliott himself, he is handed sainthood as the script makes its clumsy, ham-fisted endorsements of Indian mysticism. Any effort to make the film a supernatural thriller as advertised fall to the wayside or are half-heartedly made. For the sense of menace being built in the film's opening act to work, the character of Professor Elliott had to act in ways completely inconsistent with the way he is portrayed in the later two-thirds of the film. At the same time the scenes where Ivy experiences her night terrors are at first effective, especially because of their unusually blunt depiction of a child in terror and pain, but whatever power these scenes have are soon spent since we learn early on their cause and there's no further mystery left.

What makes the proceedings all the more dreary – even insulting – is the moral struggle at the core of the film. “The West”, as represented by Bill Templeton and other characters, is a cold, materialistic society (one of the film's interesting but frustrating points is that it never mentions Western spiritual systems, as though the society the Templetons inhabit is completely atheistic). The civilization Elliott represents, on the other hand, exudes nobility and truth that would lead any willing person to total self-fulfillment, if only they could break away from the influence of Western nihilism. At times the whole thing feels like the Buddhist or Hindi equivalent of a Christian fundamentalist film or an actual manifestation of what conservatives accuse liberal intellectuals of thinking about Western civilization.

This is a shame, since Audrey Rose does have a sincere and worthwhile point to make about how spirituality and open-mindedness still have places in modern society. In a way, that's the same moral behind The Exorcist, although there it was presented in a much darker way. In fact, that's the other remarkable thing about Audrey Rose: the entire film manages to be as earnest and benevolent as the character of Elliott Hoover himself. As flimsy as the characters of Bill Templeton and Elliott Hoover are, the script never hints that either of their intentions are anything but benevolent. All in all, the audience is given an uplifting film with a flimsy horror wrapping. There's something unusual and even welcome in the understated optimism of the film, in spite of its genre presentation and the downer ending.

Sadly, none of this is enough to make up for the film's many missteps. The court case “plot twist” is just plain silly and the film's stock characters and limping plot cannot hold up the weight of the attempted gravitas. Anthony Hopkins goes a long way toward salvaging something, turning the one-and-a-half dimensional Elliott into a believable character who has suffered a horrible tragedy but has found the means to rebuild his life through spiritual growth. Even though the climactic scene, where Elliott acts to try to save Aubrey's life, is too melodramatic for even a soap opera, Anthony Hopkins manages to inject some real depth into it. Unfortunately, while the rest of the cast is quite good, none other than Hopkins really triumph over the cliches built into their parts. Even without Hopkins' performance, Audrey Rose would still stand out, but simply because of what it is – a genre film that quickly rejects its own rules in order to convey a moral and philosophical treatise – not because of anything truly exceptional.

Cast Connections

Director Robert Wise has had an incredibly prolific career, having directed The Andromeda Strain, The Sound of Music, The Haunting, Helen of Troy, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and The Body Snatcher (the Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff film, not to be confused with The Invasion of the Body Snatchers). After this film, he also directed Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was unfortunately his last major film.