Shadow play (film)
| Shadow Play | |
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| Directed by | Susan Shadburne |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by | Susan Shadburne |
| Starring |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
Shadow Play is a 1986 film that can best be described as an obscure ghost story starring Dee Wallace and Cloris Leachman. Morgan Hanna (Dee Wallace) is a playwright who has lost her fiance seven years prior in the film's timeline. She begins having reoccurring dreams about his death and suffers from writer's block. This film features heavily a lighthouse and many subtle lighthouse attributes. They are constant throughout this film.
Plot
Morgan Hanna wakes up in the middle of the night after having nightmares involving the sudden death of her fiance Jeremy, seven years ago. Struggling to write a comical play and struggling to find inspiration, she talks to a therapist who informs her that this is all just beginning. In his wisdom he expresses that it's not over judging by the way she is still heavily affected by his death. The nightmares continue to haunt her.
After receiving a heartfelt letter from her would-be mother-in-law inviting her back to the Northwest where the tragedy took place, Morgan opts to face what she's running away from and stays with Jeremy's mother who is also affected by his death as well as her own husband's death. While settling in, Morgan begins to formulate a play about the loss of her beloved and the text takes on an almost supernatural tone. Morgan begins to see Jeremy's reflection in windows and mirrors.
Jeremy's brother John still confirms that Jeremy took his own life as he was the only one present when Jeremy fell from the lighthouse. Everyone has been made to believe that is what happened.
The five actors who read for the play are all playing different parts of the same character. At first the character appears to be Morgan herself, but as it progresses it becomes more the character of Jeremy from beyond. Jeremy is the one writing the play from beyond the grave.
As the underlying drama unfolds, Morgan begins to unravel thinking she is losing her mind. As the play progresses it takes on a far more supernatural feeling and John uses her vulnerability to seduce her while Jeremy uses John's body to be with Morgan again. Morgan becomes even more distraught and finally breaks down and lets out all of her pain. She is determined to finish the play, and the ending now takes on the meaning that she will end her own life as she believed Jeremy had done. She hands the finished script to her five actors and sits through the full reading of the play. Satisfied and moved by the performance, she heads for the lighthouse to jump to her death. John follows her, desperate to stop her. As John tries to explain that Jeremy wouldn't want this, she starts to stir from her catatonic state. He tells her that Jeremy never took his own life and that she didn't fail him. That it was truly an accident that he caused when he attempted to take his own life and Jeremy fell in the process of trying to stop him from jumping.
Now fully aware that everything she was lead to believe was a lie and that she wasn't at fault, her own spirit is freed in a sense. She flees from the lighthouse, relieved of years in doubt. With the newfound resolution, she tells her agent over the phone that she is returning home. Waiting for her in her room is Jeremy's last words to her from beyond. Telling Morgan to be free and happy.
DVD & VHS Release
Shadow Play as of yet has never been released officially on DVD except in a collection entitled; Horror Collection Extravaganza: 6 Terrifying Movies on September 4, 2012. The VHS format was released in October 10, 1991 by Starmaker/Anchor Bay. It was aired often on cable TV during the 1980s.