Dominique (1979) (UK)

aka Avenging Spirit/Dominique is Dead 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ah, the affluent. God bless ‘em. The idea of just parting with a portion of their amassed wealth in a messy divorce is something they can’t seem to fathom. They always get up to some scheme… the kind of scheming that usually ends in death. It’s even worse when some shady fella is after the others hefty chunk of change. David Ballard (a mustachioed Cliff Robertson) is said shady fella and his wife is the titular woman of the hour. He wants her fortune and he’s set a sinister plan in motion to get his hands on it. Dominique is already a little mentally fragile following a fall down the stairs, the scares her husband has been laying out to frighten her in their expansive mansion are not helping a damn thing. The unfairly gorgeous Jenny Agutter is hanging around the house as Mr. Ballard’s half sister (an artist who lives nearby) and she and a few other familiar faces may also be playing a dangerous game of “let’s make some money”. That breakdown happens and the poor woman ends up taking her own life. Her suicide note stated she be buried with her Etruscan bracelet (oh boy) and that her will not be read until the day of their wedding anniversary… October 31st (double oh boy). Now, there’s nothing to do but enjoy the wealth that all their awful and hard work has secured. At least that would be the case if David wasn’t beginning to see his dead wife. He’s convinced she may not be as dead as believed and now there’s a plot in the works to get back at the man who originally started plotting ridiculous things. The exhumation of the wife’s grave and the discovery that her corpse is till in there puts his mind on a far more terrifying train of thought. Even by this point in time the whole plot was completely familiar and one will not have a hard time guessing where everything is going. At least, until a murder goes down and David is given an expiration date by his deceased wife. Theres plenty of familiarity but fortunately the cast is wonderful and it even manages some small bits of macabre splendor on its way to the final twist. Think of an enjoyable episode of Night Gallery that runs just a little too long for its own good.