Nightmare Alley

sol-kay

***SPOILERS**** Having her best friend Jane Halloran, Jacquine Macinnes Wood, kill herself 17 years earlier while attending Douglas Boarding School Courtney Snow, Sara Rue at 35 & Amber Borycki at 19, became obsessed with her and later wrote a best selling novel about Jane. It was the success of Courtney's novel that later brought Jane back to life to haunt her over the circumstances of her suicide. Getting a teaching job at her Alma Motta the Douglas Bording School one of Countrey students turned out to be 18 year old Laura McAvory, also played by Miss. Wood, who not only is the spitting image of Jane but knows things about her as well as Courtnety that only Countrey knows about! Even more strange Laura insisted to be assigned the very room where Jane killed herself!

The film gets a bit confusing in it switching back and forth in time in trying to piece together what happened back then when both Courtney and Janes were students at Douglas and the present in Courtney coming to grips to what was the real reason behind Jane's tragic death; If in fact it was a suicide. It takes a while to unravel but the missing piece of the puzzle to all this is Jane's boyfriend back at Douglas Bratt Ramsey, Kevin Smith at 35 and Sabastian Secki at 18, who also happened to be the son of Douglas Bording School's Dean of Admissions Mr. Ian Ramsey played by Duncan Regehr.

It seemed that Bartt was cheating behind Jane's back with non other then her best friend Courtney Snow! This could be the reason that Courtney became so obsessed with Jane's killing herself feeling that she in some way was responsible for it! And what did young Laura have to do with all this! Why was she so much like the dead Jane Hallonan? The only person who knew the truth Ian Ramsey wasn't talking but was determined to keep all that secret even if he has to resort to murder to do it!

***SPOILERS*** Modern ghost story without any ghosts, in spirit or in the flesh, but with something that was left behind and now, some 17 later,came back to hunt those responsible for Jane's death. The ending isn't all that surprising in that you saw it coming from as much as 10 miles away. Yet it still was effective in trying all he loose ends together in this very confusing and a times disjointed movie!

score 6/10

sol-kay 20 April 2012

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2600825/