Movies to put you in the mood for Halloween

By BonnieBlueFlag

The Uninvited (1944)

One of the rare Hollywood ghost stories that does not cop out with a "logical" ending. In fact, the film has more in common with British ghost tales of the period, in that the characters calmly accept spectral visitations as though they were everyday occurrences.

Ray Milland and his sister Ruth Hussey buy a house on the Cornish seacoast, never suspecting that it is a "bad" house, subject to haunting. Before long, Milland and Hussey are visited by Gail Russell, whose late mother, it is said, is the house ghost. It is further supposed that the ghost means to do Russell harm.

Russell's grandfather Donald Crisp is close-mouthed on the issue, but it is clear he knows something that he isn't telling. Sure enough, there is a secret to the manor: it is inhabited by not one but two ghosts, one of whom is merely trying to shield Russell from harm.

The Uninvited remains one of the spookiest Old Dark House films ever made, even after years of inundation by computer-generated special effects.

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