'LADY': AN ENDEARING HORROR MOVIE San Francisco Chronicle (c) 1996 Chronicle Publ. Co. All rts. reserv. 04532586 'LADY': AN ENDEARING HORROR MOVIE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (SF) - FRIDAY June 24, 1988 By: Judy Stone, Chronicle Staff Critic Edition: FINAL Section: DAILY DATEBOOK Page: E5 Word Count: 846 TEXT: RATING: (ALERT VIEWER) LADY IN WHITE: Suspense. Starring Lukas Haas. Directed by Frank LaLoggia. (PG-13. 112 minutes. At the Kabuki.) -------------------------------------------- A 10-year-old boy who writes a story called "The Beast That Destroyed London" and the spirit of a murdered girl crying for her mother are the key characters in "Lady in White," an offbeat mystery that melds small-town life with the supernatural in an unusually intriguing combination. It opens today at the Kabuki. The sense of terror is strongest when the film suggests that the fantasy elements exist solely in young Frank Scarlatti's vivid imagination rather than in the special effects, which have the children flying through the air or the lady in white floating over the cliffs where her daughter was killed. Certainly nothing ominous is in the air, even though it is time for Halloween. The gently rolling hills of upstate New York are ablaze with autumn colors as a taxi makes one stop at the request of his passenger, an old-time resident who has become a famous Hollywood mystery writer. Presumably he's the stand-in for Frank LaLoggia, who directed and wrote this script incorporating some autobiographical memories into the plot. At the local cemetery, the driver asks him, "You don't really believe all that spooky stuff you write about, do you?" As the story goes back in time to 1962, the town doesn't seem like a place haunted by old murders. The sweet shop is filled with traditional black and yellow candy corn. Toothy grins are carved on the pumpkins. Little Frank, with a ghoulish mask on his face and a pumpkin on his bike, is carried away by the excitement of the day. He's undaunted at being sprayed with water from a garden hose, chased by high-spirited dogs - or dumped into wet cement by his older brother, Geno, who can't resist doing tricks. The brothers live with their widowed father, Angelo (Alex Rocco), a welder, and his immigrant Italian parents. Grandma cossets the kids and is forever scolding her husband for sneaking cigarets. The parents also had raised Angelo's friend Phil (Len Cariou) after his parents died. He is like another member of the family. Frank, the winsome Lukas Haas (the young witness in "Witness"), has a shy and stalwart quality. When he reads his monster story in class, he thrills a solemn girl with braces on her teeth and irritates two little red-haired devils. The boys plot a revenge on this teacher's pet: They persuade Frank to go back to school late in the day to retrieve his cap and they lock him in the dark cloakroom. The frightened youngster finally falls into a sleep troubled by nightmares of his mother's funeral and then has a vision of a little girl singing "Did you ever see a dream walking?" She is carried off by an unseen person who then returns and chokes Frank. When the boy is revived, police arrest the school's black janitor, who was drunk and had fallen asleep on the job. He seems like a perfect scapegoat to charge with the unsolved murders of several children, including the mysterious Melissa, who had floated into Frank's imagination. It turns out that she had been murdered in that closet 10 years earlier, the first victim. The film moves - somewhat uneasily - between the warm family relationships to Frank's moments of communion with Melissa and his attempts to figure out the meaning of a brooch and a ring that might be clues to the identity of her murderer. LaLoggia is more successful in directing the action of the children early in the film, rather than in later fantasy sequences. He adroitly establishes the mob spirit of most townspeople when the janitor is arrested - although Angelo has doubts about whether he is the guilty party. The arrest is set against a TV newsreel indicating the atmosphere of the times: James Meredith, surrounded by state police, who are trying to keep the first black student from registering at the University of Mississippi. In general, the film has a thoughtful quality not generally associated with the horror genre, and the special effects take a back seat to the story line. It was independently financed and produced by LaLoggia, following the pattern he established with his first feature, "Fear No Evil." As the film moves towards its denouement, LaLoggia wanders off into melodramatic sequences that militate against the tension that he has built. The killer's miraculous escapes from death are not particularly convincing. Furthermore, the scenes of rocky cliffs and stormy seas (actually shot in Kauai, Hawaii) are totally out of context for a film that is supposed to take place in upstate New York. Nevertheless, it's one of the most gentle, endearing horror films I've ever seen. It's too bad that LaLoggia settled for a pinch of melodrama instead of trying to examine the mystery that lies in the heart of those who murder children. CAPTION: PHOTO Frank Scarlatti (Lukas Haas) encounters the spirit of a murdered girl when he's locked in a closet in 'Lady in White' Copyright 1988 The San Francisco Chronicle DESCRIPTORS: MOVIES; REVIEW; LADY IN WHITE (MOVIE)