Audrey Rose (1977)

A simmering, stylish horror film, AUDREY ROSE tackles themes of reincarnation and the grief associated with the loss of a child with subtle, dignified finesse. Successful New York advertising executive Bill Templeton (John Beck) and his wife, Janice (Marsha Mason), are leading a happy, intellectual existence with their daughter, 11-year-old Ivy (child actor Susan Swift in a tremendous performance). There is one nagging cloud over the family, however: ever since infancy, Ivy has been troubled by terrible nightmares, usually occurring on her birthday, that she can never recall upon waking. Soon Janice and Bill notice that a strange man has been closely observing Ivy when she walks to school. After she receives an expensive purse from the stranger, a biography from WHO'S WHO arrives in the mail describing the man, Elliot Hoover (Anthony Hopkins), an eminent metallurgist whose wife and five-year-old daughter--Audrey Rose--died in a fiery automobile crash 11 years previous. The Templetons and the Hoover eventually meet--then collide--in a series of eerie situations in which it becomes clear that there is a lot more to Audrey Rose than the Templetons know. The film, deeply ominous, delivers chills and suspense in a cool and steady path to an unnerving conclusion.