Audrey Rose: sad and eerie.

How many times have you wondered why you have a trait that doesn't appear in anyone else in your family? A phobia? A talent? Whatever it is, it may have made you wonder about your "past lives."

Audrey Rose died in a tragic accident when she was just a small child. Her helpless, frightened soul cried out.......and was still crying whenever it entered into the body of a newborn girl. Her grief-stricken father,(Anthony Hopkins), searched for years, believing her soul had found a new home in another child.

The movie is dramatic and fascinating because it shows us this "new child" having the inexplicable horrifying sensations that were Audrey Rose's final moments. And the parents whose love of their child(ren) were caught in the emotional tug of war, which culminated in........ Uh-uh-uh, I can't tell you that much.

Two other movies that I enjoy about reincarnation are: "Somwhwere in Time" and "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever". But these are more lighthearted and comical glimpses of the reincarnation theme, and I do not like them as much as the wonderfully bone-chilling atmosphere of Audrey Rose. This movie is tops in this catagory.

Anthony Hopkin's acting is superb, as usual, and the film's dramatic effects will send those little tingles up your spine. It's fun to watch in a darkened room, whenever those "bumps in the night" are apt to give you a real chill.

Whether it's the demonic possession of a child, as in "The Exorcist", or I-see-dead-people experiences in "The Sixth Sense" and "Stir of Echoes", or the reincarnated life of "Audrey Rose", we are terribly attracted to the helpless children depicted in these stories, the ones who are unwilling victims of forces they cannot control. Whenever innocents are threatened, we are drawn toward them, even if it's just a movie and we can't help them. This point is stressed in the huge success of these films.

Audrey Rose is certainly a "must see" for those who haven't done so yet. For those who have enjoyed the movie before, or the book......it's just as good as ever. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone under 12, though, because it does have some scenes which may be upsetting for younger viewers.