Woman Who Came Back

After a two-year absence Lorna Webster (Nancy Kelly) is returning to her hometown. Beside her on the bus is a crone looking woman, Jezebel Trister (Elspeth Dudgeon,) who is also traveling to the town to get revenge on the descendent of the Webster that burned her as a witch 300 years ago. The bus veers off the road in crashes into the lake. Only Lorna survives and the body of the old lady is not found.

Was there an old lady? Or was it an imaginary figment? This and other strange coincidences are convincing Lorna that she is being possessed with whtchyness and the town is going along with her.?

Will she and her little dog too, dispatch the town's people one by one or will they have the courage to do unto her first?

As a psychological thriller, some may want to compare this film to Val Lewton. I think more in the line of She-Wolf of London (1946) with June Lockhart.

THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK is a 1940s-era spook fest with much in line with the Val Lewton horrors of the era. It's a low-key, atmospheric production about a woman who arrives at a small town in Massachusetts and is the only survivor of a bus crash (shades of UNBREAKABLE). Once she settles down in the town, the superstitious locals begin to suspect that she's possessed by the spirit of a vengeful witch.

It's fair to say that not much really happens in this movie, and nor does it need to. THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK is a short, thinly-plotted story that's more about building a sense of mood and place than anything else. It's quite expressionistic in style, with lots of shadowy scenes and spooky, half-explained moments. The cast are certainly adroit and the only thing that really lets it down is the ending, but until that point? Lewton himself would be proud.

Lorna Webster (Nancy Kelly) is a young woman returning by bus to her home town of Eben Rock. Just outside of town, the driver swerves to avoid hitting an old woman and her dog. The woman boards the bus and sits next to Lorna, claiming she is a 300 year old witch and knows the Webster family history. Lorna, who has descended from a judge notorious for burning innocent women at the cross hundreds of years ago, understandably freaks out. The bus goes over a cliff and Lorna is the only survivor. She goes back to the empty house she inherited, and gets back in touch with the lover she walked out on two years ago. The townspeople don't take well to Lorna's presence, as she is a woman who both left and returned under mysterious circumstances. Strange things start to happen to around her, and Lorna convinces herself that she has been possessed by the spirit of the woman who sat next to her on the bus. Before long, others in town start to believe she is a witch and mass hysteria ensues.

I had never heard of this movie until I watched "The Bad Seed" last month. I was impressed with Kelly's performance as the tortured mother of the fiendish child. I decided to check to see if she did any other work in the genre and stumbled across this interesting film. Her performance is just as strong and believable as the confused and tormented Lorna Webster.

The film is rather eerie and beautifully filmed. There are creepy scenes with excellent lighting and shadow play, where Lorna is alone in her family's dark mansion, thinking about her ancestors' history, haunted by nighttime sounds and shadows. The dog that belonged to the woman on the bus seems to follow her wherever she goes and has a very ominous presence. Is Lorna going crazy, or is she really possessed by a witch? While the movie tries to straddle this line between psychological and supernatural, and is effective part of the time, it works best as a statement about mass panic and judgment. The townsfolk know that Lorna is descendant from a judge who condemned innocent women as witches, yet are quickly thrust into the 17th century themselves as soon as Lorna shows that she's a little off-kilter. The movie works on another level, as Lorna is a small-town woman in the 40s who asserts her independence by leaving her home and her lover without explanation. She is secretly reviled by everyone upon her return for these reasons, as well as being the only survivor of the bus accident, which is probably why they are so quick to jump to conclusions about her presence.

The film is rather short and the ending is sort of a groaner that in that it is wrapped up too easily and makes some of the earlier scenes seem questionable. But overall, this is a good, eerie film with a strong lead performance.

Extremely atmospheric at times... eerie, dark and suspenseful. I loved all the film minus the ending. Eerie Halloween costumes, creepy dolls, a very protective - almost evil - German Shepard, strange happenings in the town of Eden Rock, Massachusetts, dead roses, a scary old lady, a witch in town - yea this film has everything needed for a great horror film if they would have kept it that way in the ending.

I really liked Rev. Jim Stevens he's a really good character and his church sermon was scene was great - if you have seen this film you know the scene I'm speaking of - really outstanding.

The dead roses scene at the beginning of the film would have been good IF John Loder, who plays Dr. Matt Adams, would have acted shocked about the fresh roses being dead when he gave them to Nancy Kelly (who plays Lorna Webster). He almost ruined that scene with his wooden performance - at least Nancy Kelly continued with grace.

I would have rated this film 9/10 if it wasn't for the ending - the film is great but I was disappointed with the ending.

7/10

The Woman Who Came Back is a largely unknown little forties horror film; but it's a rather good one also. The film focuses on witchcraft, and in particular the idea of a witch coming back to avenge her death. This idea would of course go on to be used in many, many films after 1945; but this is one of the earlier examples. The Woman Who Came Back is an eerie horror film that mostly relies on its atmosphere and inventiveness in order to deliver the chills, and this works quite effectively. The plot focuses on a young woman named Lorna Webster who catches a bus back home to Eben Rock. She finds herself sitting next to a cackling old woman, and before she knows it; the bus has been involved in an accident and Lorna is the only survivor. She then goes back to her old house and is reacquainted with her old lover; but she's haunted by the old woman on the bus who told Lorna of an old town legend regarding a witch that swore vengeance on her executioner. One thing leads to another, and Lorna comes to believe she is the reincarnation of that witch...

The film is very short at just sixty eight minutes, but this time is used very well and the film doesn't feel rushed or underdone for most of the duration. The plot flows very well too and director Walter Colmes keeps his audience interested by constantly feeding us with new ideas and pieces of information. There isn't a great deal of films about witchcraft (compared to other subgenres) and that's a shame really because it certainly is very interesting. This film manages to get most of things that most people would associate with witchcraft into it; including spells and the witch's familiar, which helps to make the proceedings more interesting. The performances are all very strong; with Nancy Kelly giving a particularly convincing performance in the central role. It's the atmosphere that is the real star, however, and a sequence midway through with a storm is a real standout. The film is good for about the first hour but unfortunately it's let down more than just a little bit by the ending; which does wrap things up a bit too quickly. However, this is still a very good little film and one that I'm sure will please most people with a mind to see it.