Watch Woman Who Came Back For Free

The Worst Film Ever

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK is a 1940s-era spook fest with much in line with the Val Lewton horrors of the era. It's a low-key, atmospheric production about a woman who arrives at a small town in Massachusetts and is the only survivor of a bus crash (shades of UNBREAKABLE). Once she settles down in the town, the superstitious locals begin to suspect that she's possessed by the spirit of a vengeful witch.It's fair to say that not much really happens in this movie, and nor does it need to. THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK is a short, thinly-plotted story that's more about building a sense of mood and place than anything else. It's quite expressionistic in style, with lots of shadowy scenes and spooky, half-explained moments. The cast are certainly adroit and the only thing that really lets it down is the ending, but until that point? Lewton himself would be proud.

Great spooky visuals open this story of a small Massachussats town whose past comes back to haunt them in this supernatural thriller. Nancy Kelly is the descendant of the judge who sentenced a bunch of people to death on the suspicion of being witches. She is returning home after having run out on her fiancée (John Loder) and while on the bus, she is joined by a spooky looking old lady (the always wonderful Elspeth Dudgeon) who claims to be a witch from centuries before. The bus suddenly careens off a bridge into the river below and of the dozens killed, only Kelly survives. The town doesn't exactly welcome her back with open arms as her ex-fiancée's sister (Ruth Ford) is mysteriously stalked, Ford's daughter's fish are accidentally poisoned by Kelly (accidently picking up poison instead of fish food), and a mysterious doberman stalks Kelly everywhere she goes. After her nervous housekeeper (the prickly Almira Sessions) quits, rumors of her being a witch start to spread, and Kelly's own behavior begins to make Loder question whether or not this is true. Only the town's reverend (Otto Kruger) has any doubts of what's going on, and even his faith will be tested as well.There's so much potential in this Republic horror movie that is totally a let down with its Scooby Doo like ending. Certainly, there's enough evidence presented in the various character's research of their own town's wretched history to have given the opportunity for this to take on some maudlin twists rather than the let down which happens at the end. In fact, you can see that coming, and what is at first entrancing you with its mystery becomes more obvious towards the end. Elspeth Dudgeon had several similar roles years before in some Warner Brothers mystery that gave the opportunity to create a character for which she would be long remembered, but other than her spooky appearance at the beginning, she is only mentioned afterwords. Certain plot elements give way to the fact that this is going to end in a more satisfying angle, and had somebody like Val Lewton or Tod Browning been behind its creation, it certainly could have gone down that path.How would I have ended it? Certainly, the character that Nancy Kelly is playing seems to be under some sort of curse. Even if Dudgeon's character had not been a witch, her spirit could still have roamed the earth in search of revenge, and with the letter that claimed she would be around for a 300 year period until her death was avenged, it really seemed as if Kelly would be possessed by this bad seed that caused her to do witch-like things and arise the townspeople's suspicions. A "Frankenstein" chase at the end between the townspeople and Kelly under Lewton's camera eye would have ended with her falling over a cliff and when her corpse is discovered revealed to be Dudgeon's long-dead character instead. Like the same year's "The Body Snatcher", that would have given the viewers a thrill in addition to the chill, but what does happen at the end is a chilly reaction to how these writers chose to end a missed opportunity rather than making it into the classic it could have become.

THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK (1945)Kind of a seldom-seen movie. I saw it a long time ago and forgot how boring it was. An old hag of a witch who was burned at the stake 300 years earlier returns to take over the body of a young woman. The catch is, her great-something grandpa was actually the judge who condemned the witch!Too bad the movie crawls along at a snail's pace, because it's got a good premise and a strong opening. But unfortunately, this thing just gets hopelessly tedious as it trots along.* out of ****

The Woman Who Came Back is a largely unknown little forties horror film; but it's a rather good one also. The film focuses on witchcraft, and in particular the idea of a witch coming back to avenge her death. This idea would of course go on to be used in many, many films after 1945; but this is one of the earlier examples. The Woman Who Came Back is an eerie horror film that mostly relies on its atmosphere and inventiveness in order to deliver the chills, and this works quite effectively. The plot focuses on a young woman named Lorna Webster who catches a bus back home to Eben Rock. She finds herself sitting next to a cackling old woman, and before she knows it; the bus has been involved in an accident and Lorna is the only survivor. She then goes back to her old house and is reacquainted with her old lover; but she's haunted by the old woman on the bus who told Lorna of an old town legend regarding a witch that swore vengeance on her executioner. One thing leads to another, and Lorna comes to believe she is the reincarnation of that witch...The film is very short at just sixty eight minutes, but this time is used very well and the film doesn't feel rushed or underdone for most of the duration. The plot flows very well too and director Walter Colmes keeps his audience interested by constantly feeding us with new ideas and pieces of information. There isn't a great deal of films about witchcraft (compared to other subgenres) and that's a shame really because it certainly is very interesting. This film manages to get most of things that most people would associate with witchcraft into it; including spells and the witch's familiar, which helps to make the proceedings more interesting. The performances are all very strong; with Nancy Kelly giving a particularly convincing performance in the central role. It's the atmosphere that is the real star, however, and a sequence midway through with a storm is a real standout. The film is good for about the first hour but unfortunately it's let down more than just a little bit by the ending; which does wrap things up a bit too quickly. However, this is still a very good little film and one that I'm sure will please most people with a mind to see it.