Z/Web

I’d never heard of this film but it stars a 1970-era Anthony Hopkins, so I recorded it. It’s got an interesting idea: a man (Hopkins) whose daughter has died, claims another couple’s daughter is his reincarnated. The “evidence” to prove this is flimsy: a psychic’s information, the new daughter being born at the same time his daughter died, and the new daughter suffering from strange visions and physical manifestations of being burned. The latter doesn’t make any sense at all, but supposedly fits because the first daughter was burned to death in a car accident, so the new daughter is flashing back to that previous memory. It’s all a little hokey and overly dramatic, but it’s seriously approached and mostly low-key, and there are some fascinating moments (my favorite was when Hopkins’ character approaches the family to explain why he’s been stalking their daughter as the tension and drama in the scene was interesting). Unfortunately the little girl in question is one of the worst actresses I have ever witnessed — she varies from looking cute and innocent to screaming insanely as she’s “possessed” by the soul of the previous girl and she can’t really pull either off believably and her screaming is unbearably annoying (I had to mute the TV at times). In the end the plot gets odd as the whole thing ends up in court where the jury will decide who’s the daughter’s father. (How many horror films are set in a courtroom?) The bottom line: an interesting piece for its time and some of the actors, but extremely uneven, a bit too strange, and definitely gimmicky.