Introduction
Welcome to my corner! This week, I'm sharing my thoughts on the film Audrey Rose. The TCM television channel played Audrey Rose as part of their 'Strange Occurrences' lineup on October 3, 2025. Enjoy!
Audrey Rose
Audrey Rose is a 1977 American psychological horror drama film directed by Robert Wise and starring Marsha Mason, Anthony Hopkins, and John Beck. Its plot follows a New York City couple who are sought out by a stranger who believes their 11-year-old daughter is a reincarnation of his deceased one. It is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Frank De Felitta, who also adapted the screenplay.
Plot: Husband and wife Janice (Marsha Mason) and Bill Templeton (John Beck) lead a pleasant life, residing in New York and sending their daughter, Ivy (Susan Swift), to a good school. Things change, though, when the odd Elliot Hoover (Anthony Hopkins) arrives and tells the couple that, after spending time in India, he believes Ivy is the reincarnation of his daughter, who died years later. The Templetons scoff, but ensuing supernatural events soon turn their lives upside down.
Acting: Susan Swift played Ivy Templeton/Audrey Rose. This was her breakout role. To her credit, she did an amazing job as a young, inexperienced actress. Not to mention, Audrey Rose wasn't any ordinary role either. It had to be emotionally demanding for her. She did well. Her four most notable titles are Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Audrey Rose, Burned at the Stake, and Harper Valley P.T.A. She has only 12 credits to her name, the last of which was in 1995 for Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. I haven't seen any of her other work.
Marsha Mason played Janice Templeton. I felt she portrayed the movie's complicated emotional states very well. Her four most notable titles currently are The Goodbye Girl, Cinderella Liberty, Chapter Two, and Nick of Time. My favorite titles she's appeared in is the Netflix television series Grace and Frankie. She plays a friend of the titular duo, a minor character.
Anthony Hopkins played Elliot Hoover. Hannibal Lector himself. His four most notable titles currently are The Silence of the Lambs, Hitchcock, Nixon, and The World's Fastest Indian. He's in so many movies; some I didn't even realize he was in. One example of this is also my favorite of his titles, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). I didn't realize he was the narrator. On a side note, I need to watch Hitchcock sometime. Anthony Hopkins AND Helen Mirren? It has got to be good.
John Beck played Bill Templeton. Like everyone else, he did a great job of acting in this movie. Beck appeared in a lot of television. His four most notable titles are Rollberball, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Sleeper, and Black Day Blue Night. He appeared in one of my favorite television series, Murder, She Wrote.
Technical Aspects: Director Robert Wise began an extensive search to cast the title role, initially auditioning young actresses in major cities such as Los Angeles and New York. Susan Swift was eventually cast in the role after auditioning in Austin, Texas. The film marked her feature debut.
Principal photography of Audrey Rose began on July 26, 1976, on sound stages in Lost Angeles and Culver City, Calif. Filming continued through November, when the production moved to New York City, where exterior sequences were shot on location. The film had a production budget of approximately $4 million.
From TCM: Brooke Shields screen tested for the title role.
According to Joe Fischer's book The Case for Reincarnation, the screenplay for Audrey Rose was inspired by an actual incident in the author De Felitta's life. Hearing expert ragtime piano coming from his family's music room, he was astonished to discover it was being produced by his six-year-old son, who had never had a music lesson. "My fingers are doing it by themselves, Daddy!" the boy said. "Isn't it wonderful?" The experience set him to contemplating the possibility of reincarnation.
"I don't think we're going to prove reincarnation in this picture, but I'm very open to the whole possibility of the supernatural, the possibility of dimensions out there," Wise commented during filming in 1976. Anticipating a heady task in persuading his audience of these concepts, Wise took an unprecedented approach to production: he built in one week of rehearsal for the four leads prior to shooting. "It is always a big help when you have a chance to do that, the director stated in Robert Wise on His Film. "Not just read through the script but actually rehearse the scenes to see how they play. The reason you don't get to do that in movies is because it costs money... That's very hard for studios to accept. In this instance, it just meant paying those four [Hopkins, Beck, Mason and Swift] for an additional week. Audrey Rose is the only film in which I had a full week of rehearsal before shooting."
Audrey Rose was met with both praise and criticism upon its release; even almost 25 years later, critics struggle to decide whether it was a triumph or a failure for Wise. Certainly, the film had some overt competition at the time of its release: Audrey Rose was a markedly different child character than those found in The Exorcist (1973) or The Omen (1976). And Wise was not seeking to shock his audience; instead, he was inviting them to explore a darker side of the unknown.
Final Thoughts: Audrey Rose was certainly an interesting movie to watch. I was surprised by the ending, which I won't spoil. It's marked as a horror movie. I don't really think of it as horror, but I can see how it fits the genre in the '70s. The horror genre today relies more on gore and jump scares. Audrey Rose isn't about the onscreen scares; it's about things that can't be easily explained.
The film explored the idea of reincarnation. It's a recurring theme in stories that I read. No one can really say what happens to us after death, but I certainly hope that there's peace for everyone after death, no matter what form it may take.
Where to watch it: According to Google, Audrey Rose is currently available on Tubi, Pluto TV, MGM+, fuboTV, The Roku Channel, Philo, Sling TV, and YouTube TV. You can also purchase or rent a digital copy for a few dollars. I've also donated a DVD copy of the film to the Emil M. Larson Public Library in Clark for you all to enjoy, if you choose.
That's it for this week! What were your thoughts? Feel free to share them with us! You can call us, email us, visit us at the office, leave us a comment or message on Facebook, or even mail us something. Keep the comments, suggestions, questions, submissions, etc. coming our way! We'd love to hear from you!
