Independent filmmaker Frank LaLoggia's (FEAR NO EVIL) long-awaited second feature is an impressive, if overly ambitious, semiautobiographical ghost story that rejects gore in favor of genuine gothic chills.
Surprisingly rich in character, period, and place, LADY IN WHITE begins on Halloween, 1962, as the youngest son of a widower (Alex Rocco), young Frankie (Lukas Haas), is locked in the school cloakroom by pranksters who leave him there for the night. Resigned to his fate, Frankie climbs up on the
top shelf and tries to get some sleep. Suddenly he is awakened by the ghost of a little girl (Joelle Jacob) about his age who was murdered in the cloakroom many years before. To his horror, Frankie watches as the murder of the child is reenacted before his eyes. Then, a real man, whose face is
obscured, enters the cloakroom. It's the killer, and he has returned to the scene of the crime to remove the girl's hair clip, which fell down the heating duct during the murder so many years before (the school plans to install a new heater the very next day). Unfortunately for Frankie, the
intruder notices the boy and tries to strangle him. Frankie survives the attack, and the police soon after arrest a drunken janitor and charge him with the attempted murder of Frankie, suspecting him of being the child killer who has plagued the town for several years. Frankie knows the man is
innocent and sets out to find the real killer with the help of the little girl's ghost.
An intensely personal film, LADY IN WHITE is an incredibly ambitious low-budget effort that attempts to combine a good ghost story with a childhood reminiscence about growing up during the early 1960s. Fortunately, LaLoggia pulls off this unlikely combination, although his narrative is a bit too
diffuse at times. Instead of using encounters with ghosts to escape the realities of everyday life, LaLoggia's film is firmly rooted in the real world--child murders, racism, and cruelty share the spotlight here. LaLoggia shares his unique vision with the viewer through an imaginative and
innovative visual style that flows skillfully from traditional naturalism into surreal dreamlike fantasies and back again without ever seeming gratuitous or clumsy. A remarkable film. leave a comment
