The Forgotten One (1990) is an out of the ordinary supernatural tale about jealousy, murder, and love from beyond the grave from Phillip Badger, who both wrote and directed this straight to video feature.
Bob Anderson (Terry O'Quinn) is a writer trying to finish his new novel, which he can't seem to do. To get a fresh start he decides to move to Denver from his home in Kansas. Once there he moves into an interesting old house that he finds and peculiar things begin to happen right away. This house has a mysterious and ominous past, there is some strange force there too, bound to this home by a horrible secret. Bob is immediately overwhelmed with the feeling that he is not alone in the house and that his life is endangered, that feeling continues until one night he sees an apparition of a women that had once lived in the home. Her spirit leads him to the basement where he discovers a false wall, a well-hidden grave from a murder that had occurred there a century earlier. Evelyn James (Blair Parker) was a beautiful young bride married to a well-to-do but often neglectful and abusive husband. Enraged after discovering his wife in an affair he murdered her by walling her up alive in the basement of their home (à la Edgar Allan Poe), a silent tomb that kept it's horrifying secret for nearly a century. Back in present day, 100 years after the brutal murder, Bob uncovers this disturbing crime and with the help of his neighbor (Kristy McNichol) he decides to give the woman's body a proper burial in hopes that her suffering will come to an end. But now free her spirit has other plans for this man, a man that is much like the one man she truly loved.
Terry O'Quinn stars in this interesting tale of the unnatural; he does a very good job in this production, which is not the normal ghost story. Although the film begins like many others of it's type by the second half of the film it goes off in an unexpected direction and ends quite differently than you might have thought. The unusual story, fine acting all around, and some genuinely creepy moments all help make this production an effective little supernatural thriller. Kristy McNichol plays a supporting part as his neighbor and romantic interest, she also acts as the story's narrator. She does a very good job in this part, which would be her final feature film role.
Buying note: This film is only available on full screen VHS tape, it has been out of print for many years but still should be easy to find on the internet or at other used video outlets.
6-27-2007
