Customer Reviews

Haunting of Sarah Hardy [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This one's a mixed bag--but Sela Ward and Michael Woods are AWESOME in every scene they have together. I wouldn't spend the money that this website is charging for the video, however. Seventy bucks for a made-for-TV movie? Come on. Even the hot, hot theatrical releases don't cost that much on DVD when they first come out. That's gotta be a typo. . .but I digress.

I caught this one on ABCFamily Channel the other night, and while the setting is beautiful and the actors do a great job with the material they're given, something about the whole thing was just. . .off.

Sela Ward--who stands with Jennifer Aniston and Susan Sarandon as one of the most beautiful women in show biz today--has the title role. We also see Roscoe Born--who played Joe Novak in "Ryan's Hope"--as the childhood friend who's always been in love with Sarah and still is, even though she's chosen another man to marry. And Morgan Fairchild--another beautiful lady who, alas, always gets stuck with the second banana, duplicitous friend role. Michael Woods--a man with a very familiar face, maybe from print or TV ads--is Sarah's sexy new husband. (Someone give this man a starring role of his own--he's worth watching!!) Veteran actress and former cosmetics executive Polly Bergen is almost unrecognizable here as a longtime secretary/housekeeper to Sarah's family.

This film is lovely to look at. Most of the action takes place at the mansion where Sarah grew up and has now returned to live as a newlywed. Both Sela and Morgan are elegantly dressed--although Morgan's clothing is always flashier, where Sela's is more understated and everyday elegant. And don't get me started on Michael Woods again--the man is a hunk:)

The problems with this film begin in about the last half-hour to 45 minutes. It seems as though the directors took too much time setting things up, and then had to race to the finish, leaving out some things in the process. At the end of the film, you realize that there are two main characters who simply vanished from the storyline--and this would have been out of character for them, given the established plot. This is a real problem in the final scene, when it's implied that the previous scene happened early in the day and now it's night-time. The character who does not show up in the last scene would have definitely had time to get there and possibly change the outcome. Hello? What happened? Is there something we didn't see on the cutting room floor?

This needs a sequel or to be re-released with the Director's cut. Like I said, it's just out of whack in some way. Again, I wouldn't pay anything to buy or rent it. But next time it's rerun on TV, I would watch that first half-hour or so again just to watch Sela Ward and Michael Woods in the wedding and newlywed scenes. Someone give that man a show of his own!!

"The Haunting of Sarah Hardy" may have only been a made for cable movie, but it's one of my all-time favorites! Every scene is filled with suspense and mystery, and the audience never knows what's going to occur next. Sela Ward and Michael Woods play the two main characters wonderfully, and the other cast members are terrific. It may be a bit corny at times, but I think that's what makes this film unique; it's indeed the best! I'd highly recommend that everyone watch "The Haunting of Sarah Hardy."

Yes, Sela Ward looks great. But horror fans will be disappointed by THE HAUNTING OF SARAH HARDY because this is NOT a horror film, despite the misleading title. It's a soap opera/romance/suspense tale!

To find out why, you must get past this...

SPOILER ALERT

There's NO GHOST. NO HAUNTING. Which is pretty obvious from the start, to hardcore horror film viewers. The "hauntings" look very fake.

Sela Ward plays a classic romance heroine. A beautiful young heiress, strong yet vulnerable. She only wants to find love. She thinks she finds this in the form of a strong-jawed stock broker, with classic romance hero looks.

But 15 minutes into the film, it seems Sarah is haunted by her dead mother. But the "hauntings" look fake, because they are.

50 minutes into the film, we discover that Sarah's husband, and her best friend (Morgan Fairchild), are having an affair. They want to drive Sarah insane, or kill her and make her death appear to be a suicide.

They appear to succeed. Sarah disappears, apparently drowning in the ocean (few viewers will buy this for an instant).

During the next 40 minutes, Sarah, who's not really dead (no surprise -- we saw it coming), turns the tables and appears to haunt the evil couple.

Near the film's end, Sarah's husband appears to die in a car accident, but he faked his death (once again, we saw that coming).

In the last scene, Sarah sees a man in her bed. She enters the bed, thinking it's her doctor friend. But no -- it's her husband! (Sarah is the only person on the planet who didn't see that coming.)

A dull, plodding romance/suspense soap opera. I guess if you like the genre, you might like this film, but it's not for horror fans.

If you're a Sela Ward fan AND a horror fan, I recommend CHILD OF DARKNESS, CHILD OF LIGHT.

Like THE HAUNTING OF SARAH HARDY, CHILD OF DARKNESS, CHILD OF LIGHT is a made-for-cable TV movie, made about the same time (maybe within a year of each other), but this is a REAL horror film. It's yet another "coming of the antichrist" films, but a good one.

Sela Ward plays a nun, but Ward fans don't worry. She gets possessed at one point, and gets very sexual.

It's also a good horror film.

This is a great movie. I would rather have it in dvd. But still a movie to watch.

This is not a review as much as an addendum to what Melissa pointed out about the ending. I agree that the ending was confusing and I had to think about it for a long time (the movie is supposed to be based on a book called The Crossing, but good luck finding it). I understand exactly what Melissa is saying about the final two scenes and I believe the implied ending is that the second to last is reality and the last scene is Sarah's imagination--that is, she has gone over the edge and imagines that she sees one individual when in reality she is viewing another. As Melissa stated, if you took what we view as fact it would be essentially physically impossible; the second-to-last scene would have given us an indication this was going to happen.

Other than this confusion the movie is gripping. The high point is the scene at which we discover who is the "bad guy." Very well done. Worth watching even if you come up with your own interpretation of the end.

It's about this newlywed,who witnesses her mother's suicide after her father dies. I wish she had brothers and sisters. Is it her mother's spirit come to haunt her,or her imagination or someone playing tricks,pretending to be haunting The Pines.

It is not a horror movie but rather more of a mild thriller with a love triangle. It was very slow in the beginning and took a while before anything moderately suspensefull happened. Also, the "twists" were somewhat redundant. Sarah does to them what they do to her. I don't want to give too much of the movie away incase anyone wants to watch it. The "haunting" in the title made it sound like a ghost movie to me but it is not.

Sela Ward is just beautiful in this movie. If you are wanting the "horrible" horror flicks of today you won't get it here. This is just plain scary fun. I must admit the ending was just tooooooo ?????????????? but still a great made for TV movie that I now have in my video collection.

Thriller about a newlywed (Sela Ward) believes that her mother, who committed suicide, has come back to haunt her.

This is a very good made for TV movie! I wish this movie was on DVD...the people in Hollywood need to get a clue and put all their movies on DVD so that consumers can purchase them. They mass produce all the "popular" films and over-stock the market...and do not supply the less popular films to the market for consumers who are interested. Not everyone enjoys the huge "Blockbuster" films. Hollywood producers leave little room for individual taste. MORONS!