The Vengeful Female Ghost: Ghost Story (1981)

Since ancient times and across many cultures, the myth of the vengeful female ghost or spirit has haunted folktales and legends. It seems that the phrase “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” can be inferred to include ladies who return from the afterlife to seek retribution. Ghost Story (1981) based on the novel by Peter Straub takes that legend and then twists it in a way that is different from the book but still quite creepy. 

Women who have been abandoned or betrayed by men are typically the makings of folklore ghosts. However, there is the Celtic banshee who apparently is associated with specific families of Irish heritage who appears to warn of their impending death. Rather than vengeful, she seems to be a symbol of mourning and grief.

The Japanese snow spirit Yuki-onna does not have vengeance in her origins but has been said to be capable of snatching children she catches playing outdoors. Of course, there is the ghost of Anne Boleyn who is said to haunt the Tower of London. If she is not precisely a vengeful ghost, she must surely be at least disgruntled with her fate.

Cinematically, the vengeful female ghost has been a successful plot device that directors turn to again and again. But ghost stories don’t have to be all shrieks and scares. In Blithe Spirit (1945) based on the play by Noel Coward and directed by David Lean, a ghost can be comical, even if still vengeful.

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In The Uninvited (1944) is an atmospheric gem that features a wailing female ghost that borrows from the restless spirit of Catherine in search of Heathcliff. Wuthering Heights (1939) has perhaps one of the most famous female ghosts in literature or cinema, but it is not a story of the supernatural. 

Ghost Story (1981) takes the tradition of the great moody and foreboding films of the 1940’s through 1950’s and tries to do a modern spin. The plot of the book is simplified to focus on four elderly gentlemen who meet together to tell each other ghost stories. But these are four just happen to be some of the greatest names in Hollywood.

Interestingly, two of the four had previous experience in the horror genre. Melvyn Douglas starred in The Old Dark House (1932) directed by James Whale among many other films in his long career. John Houseman created the Mercury Theater which adapted the notorious radio version of War of the Worlds starring Orson Welles in 1938. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Fred Astaire were of course, legendary. These four men were more suited to a less graphic but still effective kind of horror film.

All that was needed after their casting was a powerful actress to play the ghost and a radiant, delicate yet deeply disturbing Alice Kruge delivers. The way her eyes go blank as she seems to stare right through her victims and her small smile that is as seductive as it is cruel make her a chilling, vindictive spirit. She is the pent-up rage of a woman scorned personified but the film suggests that she may be more of a supernatural force of nature when the characters mention that no one ever questioned her disappearance after her death.

This harkens back to the plot of the book and will not be spoiled here. Overall, Ghost Story is a deliciously spooky treat just slightly dated by outmoded special effects and a score that is a tad too bombastic when a more subtle approach would have better suited.