BACK FROM THE DEAD (1957)

Dick and his pregnant wife Mandy are staying at a coastal town getaway house with Mandy's sister Kate, but Mandy feels uncomfortable and can't pinpoint why. One night, Dick plays a recording of eerie theremin music to which Mandy has a visceral reaction; later, she collapses and suffers a miscarriage, and when she awakens, she thinks she is Felicia, Dick's first wife who drowned years ago at this very location. Everyone takes this seriously because 1) Dick had never told Mandy about Felicia (way to start married life on the good foot!); 2) they know that theremin music was a favorite of Felicia's. Mandy has seemingly been possessed by the dead woman, a theory which is clinched when Mandy meets Felicia's parents and rattles off all kinds of details about Felicia's past. Felicia was a notorious flirt and John, an architect friend of Dick's who was present the night Felicia died (falling from a cliff in a possible act of suicide), still feels guilt over that night, afraid that his expression of disapproval of her slutty behavior may have led to her death. We soon discover that a group of Satanists, led by the mysterious Maitre Renault, is behind the possession, encouraged by Felicia's mother. Can our handful of vanilla heroes defeat the dark powers of evil and bring Mandy back?

Horror movies involving devil worship are relatively few and far between, and this one has potential. The plot sounds like the stuff of dark Gothic thrillers (it was based on a novel), and the seaside setting, the theremin music, a spot of human sacrifice, and the strong performance of Peggie Castle as Mandy/Felicia are all pluses. It doesn't quite rise to the occasion, however, thanks to dialogue-heavy scenes instead of action, a bland TV-movie visual style, and some sloppy plotting. I could never quite forgive the screenwriter (Catherine Turney, who also wrote the novel) for the odd touch of Dick never having told Mandy about Felicia, especially when they were staying a town where lots of people knew her. But having said all that, I stuck with it and was relatively satisfied, even if we never get to see any creepy Satanic rituals. Arthur Franz (Dick), Marsha Hunt (Kate) and Don Haggerty (John) are all OK. It helped that the movie kept reminding me of the junky B-classic TORMENTED, with occasional thematic strains of Dark Shadows. I think this showed up on Chiller Theater back in the day, but it's not widely available right now, so check YouTube now if you're interested. [YouTube]