The story has sort of a Stephen King/"Stand By Me" vibe going for it, touching on ghostly themes but not really approaching true horror territory unless you want to consider the human monster revealed at the very end. Young Lukas Haas is the principal player here portraying Frankie Scarlatti, the butt of practical jokes by two schoolboy friends, who inadvertently set him up as a principal in a murder mystery that unfolds with the story. Frankie begins seeing the ghost of a ten year old girl who was murdered a decade earlier, who calls out for him to help find her mother. The phantom Melissa Anne Montgomery (Joelle Jacobi) first appears when Frankie becomes trapped in his school's cloak room, courtesy of his scheming pals. The picture segues in a different direction for a bit when the school's black janitor is arrested for attacking Frankie while locked in the storeroom, as the script attempts a look at jumping to conclusions and racial injustice. A happy ending with that scenario doesn't last long, as a grieving mother makes the wrong choice to seek her own brand of revenge.
The identity of the murderer who stalked young kids over the past decade is eventually revealed when Frankie hears the man hum a tune that was associated with the ghost of Melissa. It's all the more horrible since the guy was a long time friend of the Scarlatti family. The title of the picture actually represents two different women in the story - the ghostly apparition of Melissa's mother (Karen Powell) who committed suicide over her daughter's death, and the resident of a creepy old cottage (Katherine Helmond) who has a hand in saving Frankie before he's threatened one final time. If the ending of this film looks familiar, it was utilized once again with slight variation at the finale of 1993's "The Good Son".
The identity of the murderer who stalked young kids over the past decade is eventually revealed when Frankie hears the man hum a tune that was associated with the ghost of Melissa. It's all the more horrible since the guy was a long time friend of the Scarlatti family. The title of the picture actually represents two different women in the story - the ghostly apparition of Melissa's mother (Karen Powell) who committed suicide over her daughter's death, and the resident of a creepy old cottage (Katherine Helmond) who has a hand in saving Frankie before he's threatened one final time. If the ending of this film looks familiar, it was utilized once again with slight variation at the finale of 1993's "The Good Son".