Hello people! I have watched it yesterday and was thoroughly impressed. I would like to know if there are more films like this one. Not necessarily on reincarnation, but on a similar mood and theme. This film is not only about reincarnation. It has great ambience, music, and girls! If you know other classics like this one, please let me know. I am very much interested in hunting those down.
shareGoing with the theme of reincarnation, I found twelve movies that you might look into. From my experience, the one with the closest "feel" to Peter Proud is "Audrey Rose". That was an outstanding movie.
Here's the list I found. The movies are listed based on their IMDB ratings, with the highest rated movie at the top of the list:
Dead Again (1991)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Heart and Souls (1993)
Always (1989)
Rinne (2005) (AKA "Reincarnation")
Chances Are (1989)
Birth (2004)
Tomie: Re-birth (2001) (or any of the "Tomie" movies)
Audrey Rose (1977)
Beloved (1998/I)
The Wraith (1986)
Jack Frost (1998)
Hope these help!
Sheila
Experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to...The Outer Limits
Sorry for taking so extremely long to reply. I myself had forgotten about making that post **embarrassed face**
@Sheila:
I have watched all titles mentioned by you, except the Tomie films. Many of them are comedies, which kind of spoils it for me. Making comedies about vampires and reincarnation just does not work for me :P Dead Again was pretty good, though that uncanny feel of Reincarnation of Peter Proud was marred by the hyper-dramatics. Birth was also really good, but monochromatically depressing in the end. The one film that I kind of disliked is Audrey Rose. It is about reincarnation, seemed like, but the things they said there, especially Hopkins going on and on about how 1 billion Indians could not go wrong (I myself am one) was really annoying. Most Indians do not seriously care about or believe in such things, though I admit they are somewhat easy to convince and confuse when it comes to matters of the afterlife. But in short, I did not really get the point. There was nothing creepy. Seemed like some adults, while repeating the same phrases to each other, prolonged a little girl's suffering, and ultimately killed her.
@ the others:
You guys have made some solid recommendations that I know nothing about, which is already very exciting to me :D I will find them all and watch them and come back to this thread :) I love this school of thought that lead to the making of films like Reincarnation of Peter Proud. It no longer happens now. I also feel the poor quality of the film adds to the creepiness and atmospherics. If the film could be remastered to 1080p and 7.1 surround, it would kill a lot of the creepiness. What say guys?
This is one of my favorite films. For the eerie mood factor try THE PREMONITION also from 1975 as well as a tv movie starring Barbara eden called THE STRANGER WITHIN. DOMINIQUE with Cliff Robertson was a nice surprise . For another 70s movie with phenomenal music , atmosphere and a killer ending try Brian DePalma's underrated OBSESSION also starring Cliff Robertson as well as the stunning Genevieve Bujold. All of these have been on video.
shareAlso get a look at Resurrection (1980), with Ellen Burstyn and Roberts Blossom (who played the Ed Gein character in Deranged, 1974). It's not really about reincarnation, more about the supposed afterlife. I say "supposed", as it's not theologically "orthodox", but makes an interesting premise.
shushens^
One person mentioned 'Obsession' with Cliff Robertson (released 1976), and that's a great pick.
For a similar 70's type feeling, but with not all the girls (just 'Rose' with her tight jeans and long straight brown hair) and with no supernatural themes, I like 'Aloha Bobby and Rose'. Not high-budget and has its problems, but in a camp sort of way and is a snapshot of those times -- the 70's floating- through-life ambience, innocent love, cool cars and L.A. It was released the same year as 'The Reincarnation of Peter Proud' and had a mini-cult following at the time. However, be prepared to hear snippets of Elton John's 'Benny and the Jets' more than once throughout the movie.
Also 'The Other' (released in 1972) from the same-titled book by Tom Tryon. Sinister little movie with some dark, psychological themes and that definitely has a 'creepy in bright daylight' feel to it.
my two cents -- denise1234 :)
"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois
The whole bit with pretending someone he's not while playing tennis with a hot woman was also in Fletch.
shareThe original "Stepford Wives" has a very similar atmosphere.
Also, the TV series "Ghost Story / Circle of fear" has the 70's eerieness, and some great scary stories as well. The entire series was just released on DVD and I highly recommend it if you like this sort of thing.
Its so hard to re-create the feel of scary movies of the 70's now days.
A few that come to mind immediately:
"Let's Scare Jessica to Death" (1971)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067341/combined
"The Haunting of Julia"/"Full Circle" (1977)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074611/combined
"The Sender" (1982)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084658/combined