Lady in White

1962, a small town in New York state. Frankie is nine and a boy who invents things; he reads his stories aloud in class. On Halloween night two boys lock him in the school storeroom. There he sees something: the ghost of a small girl and the repetition of a murder that happened there years before. Then someone comes into the room. Frankie cannot see who it is but is attacked. From then on the boy is looking for both the ghost and the killer; there are unsolved cases of missing children in the town going back years. Frank LaLoggia writes, directs and composes the music. Lukas Haas plays Frankie. The film joins horror to a childhood narrative; little violence is shown and the narrative rests largely on atmosphere. There is another strand inside it: the man accused in the town is black and the community convicts him without any evidence. The film works that strand openly. It is independent and low budget; the effects carry the limits of the period. The family scenes take place in a household of Italian origin and are built in detail; they are the warmest side of the film. Its limits are length and register; the moves between horror and nostalgia do not always settle. It drew little interest on release and became a cult film in later years. Who it is for: viewers who like eighties horror and thrillers seen through a child's eyes. Who it is not for: the effects are old, the pace uneven, and the resolution slides into melodrama.