Lady in White is a 1988 American supernatural horror mystery film directed, produced, written and scored by Frank LaLoggia,[5] and starring Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, Alex Rocco, and Katherine Helmond.
Set in 1962 upstate New York, it follows a schoolboy (Haas) who, after witnessing the ghost of a young girl, becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding a series of brutal child murders.
The story is based on a version of The Lady in White legend, concerning a woman who supposedly searches for her daughter in Durand-Eastman Park in Rochester, New York, from where the director hails.
[6] On Halloween 1962, nine-year-old Frankie Scarlatti is locked inside his classroom coatroom by schoolmates Donald and Louie at the end of the day.
Moments later, a man enters the coatroom and attempts to open a vent grate on the floor, but notices Frankie.
Striving to help Melissa, Frankie returns to the coatroom and removes the cover of the net to discover several dust-laden objects, including toys, a hair clip, and a high school class ring.
Later, he overhears the chief of police telling Angelo that the case against the janitor is crumbling and that the coatroom is also the scene of Melissa's murder.
Unbeknownst to Frankie, the ring, which had accidentally fallen out of his pocket earlier, was found by Geno and hidden away again.
Later, Donald and Louie lure Frankie out to the nearby cliffs, where they encounter a ghostly lady dressed in white.
However, Frankie drops safely to the ground when the ghostly lady in white suddenly appears and frightens Phil, causing him to tumble over the cliff's edge.
Melissa emerges from the burning cottage and the two ghosts happily reunite, ascending into the sky in a cascade of light.
New Century Vista acquired the film for U.S. theatrical distribution, guaranteeing $1 million in prints and ads to promote and open the picture.
Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert stated: "Lady in White, like most good films, depends more on style and tone than it does on story, and after awhile [sic] it's the whole insidious atmosphere of the film that begins to envelop us...We have been this way before in countless other movies, but not often with so much style, atmosphere and believable human nature.."[13] The New York Times critic Caryn James praised the film stating that: "Here are the bones of an ordinary ghost story.
The extended Scarlatti family—warm, funny, so real they make the characters in Moonstruck seem like impostors... Mr. LaLoggia creates an unusual, effective child's-eye-view of a sinister wide world, a restless afterlife, and the comforts of family.
"[14] Newsweek's David Ansen wrote: "'Lady in White' is uncommonly ambitious and daringly eclectic...who needs big stars and $20 million special effects when you've got a good yarn to spin and a storyteller who trusts his tale?
"[15] Pauline Kael wrote, in The New Yorker: "Lady in White is a ghost movie with an overcomplicated plot but it has a poetic feeling that makes up for much of the clutter...and there are touches that charm you: the piles of candy corn in the window of the Kandy Kitchen; the pack of dogs that chase after bicyclists but are turned back by a nun's basilisk glare...and there's endearing, giggly tom foolery between Frankie and his older brother (Jason Presson).
Bone chilling and unexpectedly moving [16] "Wonderful and potent... an enthralling movie experience," said The Hollywood Reporter.
Variety wrote "Lady in White is a superb supernatural horror film from independent filmmaker Frank LaLoggia...This probably is as good a nightmare as any impressionable boy could have and still be suspenseful enough to get most adults’ hearts going."