This is a not a bad TV thriller starring Sela Ward as Sarah Hardy, who is haunted by the suicide of her mother when she was 12 years-old. After Sarah moves in to her childhood home with her new husband, she experiences voices, apparitions, and noises in the house, thinking it was from her mother's spirit.Some good thrills and suspense here, with a very unpredictable second half of the movie. Acting was good for the most part, but there were some plot-lines left unaddressed. Grade B-

This is a TV movie thriller masquerading as a ghost story, and it's as dim as it sounds. It encapsulates everything terrible about the American TV movie genre of the 1990s (although it narrowly missed that decade by a year): horrible scripting, a lack of decent characters, routine acting, and a storyline that thinks its something special when in actual fact it isn't.THE HAUNTING OF SARAH HARDY attempts to build a decent Gothic atmosphere along the line of Du Maurier's REBECCA but attempts at building suspense are destined for failure. Instead, this becomes a piece of strictly routine hokum, with characters supposedly sent out of their wits by mysterious hauntings and spooky goings-on. The main issue I had was with the predictability of the storyline, which meant I knew exactly what was going on and guessed the twist well in advance. That makes for a very boring viewing experience.There are no actors of note in the production, just the kind of faces that appear in this particular genre and never anything else. The lead, Sela Ward, would go on to appear in the horror remake of THE STEPFATHER some 20 years later, seemingly not having aged in the meantime, but given her lacklustre acting on show here you wonder how she ever had a career in the first place.

The movie starts with the funeral of Sarah's father. Sarah's mother is being cruel to the girl. Later, Sarah's mother goes from cruel to insane. Miss Stepford, who takes care of the house, provides the poor girl some comfort.15 years later, Sarah is marrying Austin at a little church next to the cemetery where her mother's gravestone is. The mother's body was never found. Lucy, Sarah's best friend as a child, is a soap actress whose role is being discontinued. Allen, a shrink who was also a friend, is not happy.Sarah moves back into the mansion known as The Pines, on the Oregon coast, where she has not lived since her mother ran into the ocean and never came back. She seems happy with her new life until she starts hearing her mother's voice again. Then the harpsichord her mother used to play ... only no one is there. Then things really start to get weird.Sela Ward has a reputation as a quality actress, and I saw potential here, though I wouldn't have said she was that good just from seeing this movie. Morgan Fairchild was better than I expected, and Polly Bergen was fine as Miss Stepford.This wasn't a horror movie in the classic sense, but more of a mystery with some interesting plot twists, including some that I didn't see coming. As the movie progressed, I liked it better than I thought I would.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS 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?Like the reviewer below, I think we either need a sequel or to have this one re-released with the Director's cut. But 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!!