lady in white

Director: frank laloggia

Actor: lukas haas,len cariou,alex rocco,katherine helmond

Data Published: Fri Apr 22 1988

Genres: Fantasy,Horror,Mystery,Thriller

Key Words: ghost,1960s,year 1962,bullying,child in jeopardy

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095484/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_in_White

Description: Lady in White is a movie starring Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, and Alex Rocco. An author tells the story of how, as a young boy growing up in a 1960s small town, he was haunted after witnessing the murder of a little girl.

Plot: In a flashback, horror author Franklin "Frankie" Scarlatti tells a story on the way to his hometown, Willowpoint Falls. On Halloween 1962, Frankie, then 9 years old, is tricked by school jokesters Donald, and Louie. Frankie and ends up locked in the school's cloakroom after the last school bell has rung. Trapped well after dark, he witnesses the ghostly scene of a brutal attack of a red-haired little girl. Suddenly, he is attacked and strangled by a dark figure. Losing consciousness, he again sees the girl, and she mysteriously asks for his help to find her mother. Without warning, Frankie is revived by his father, Angelo, and rushed to the hospital. The police arrest the janitor, Harold "Willy" Williams, believing him to be the attacker. As Frankie recovers at home, Frankie's brother, Geno, brings him a newspaper article about the attack, and he learns it was linked to the deaths of eleven other children, all apparently at the hands of a child serial killer. The name of the girl he met is also revealed to be Melissa Ann Montgomery. She continues to haunt Frankie, and the two form a tenuous friendship. Striving to help her, he returns to the cloakroom to investigate. Remembering that his attacker began unscrewing the grating over the air vent prior to the attack, he removes the cover to discover several dust-laden objects, including a few toys, a hair clip and a high school class ring. He pockets the hairclip and ring, then leaves. Later, Frankie overhears the chief of police talking to his father, who reveals the case against the janitor is crumbling, and that the cloakroom is also the scene of Melissa's murder. After considering this new information, Frankie confides in Phil Terragarossa, a family friend, that the class ring likely belongs to the killer and that he thinks the killer returned to the cloakroom to retrieve it as the air system was due to be replaced soon. Unbeknownst to Frankie, the ring, which had accidentally fallen out of his pocket earlier, has been found by Geno and hidden away again. Later, Donald and Louie lure Frankie out to the nearby cliffs, where they encounter a ghostly lady dressed in white. All three boys take off running and Frankie collides into Geno within the surrounding forest. Frankie tries to explain the link between Melissa, the attacker and the lady in white, but is unsuccessful. One evening, Melissa appears to both Geno and Frankie. The town clock begins to chime and Frankie realizes that her nightly death re-enactment is about to commence. They follow her ghost to the school then wait until her lifeless body reappears, which is then carried by an invisible figure out of the school and onto the cliffs. At the last minute, she awakes and begins screaming as she is thrown over the cliffs. A pale, red-headed woman dressed in white then comes out of the cottage. Upon seeing Melissa's lifeless body on the rocks below, she flings herself off the cliff and also plunges to her death. The ghostly scene ends and the brothers head home. Finally, Frankie understands the source of Melissa's anguish. He vows to help her bring her killer to justice. Willy finally has his hearing, but a grand jury fails to indict him due to insufficient evidence. Outside the courthouse, the distraught mother of one the murdered children fatally shoots him. Geno begins to research the class ring he found. Using one of his father's old yearbooks and class ring, he realizes that their father and the killer wore the same type of class rings. Angelo's yearbook reveals that the initials on the ring, "MPT", belong to Michael P. Terragarossa. Geno quickly deduces that the "P" stands for Phillip—as in their family friend Phil—and he rushes to tell his father. Frankie happens to be with Phil at that same time, and Frankie realizes Phil is the killer after he begins whistling "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?", Melissa's song. Phil realizes that Frankie has deduced his secret and attacks him, but Frankie escapes and runs to the cliffs. Phil catches him and confesses to the murders just before he starts to strangle Frankie again. Suddenly, Phil is struck from behind and they both collapse to the ground. Regaining consciousness, Frankie finds himself in Melissa's old cottage with Amanda Harper, and learns that she was the one who saved him from Phil, and that she was the lady in white Frankie earlier saw when he was with Donald and Louie. Amanda reveals that she is Melissa's aunt and has been living in the cottage since the deaths of her sister and niece. She takes the hairclip that Frankie has been carrying with him all this time, and replaces it alongside its twin on Melissa's dresser. Without warning, Phil attacks and kills Amanda, setting the building ablaze in the process. Pulling Frankie from the burning cottage, Phil attempts to throw him over the cliff. However, Frankie drops safely to the ground when the ghostly lady in white suddenly appears and frightens Phil, causing him to tumble over the cliff's edge. Melissa emerges from the burning cottage and the two ghosts happily reunite, ascending into the sky in a cascade of light. As Frankie crawls away from the ledge, Phil grabs his ankle. Angelo, Geno, and the police arrive and save Frankie. Angelo also tries to save Phil, but overcome with shame, Phil lets go and falls to his death, despite Angelo's pleas. Everyone watches the cottage burn to the ground as the snow begins to fall.