Great Film overall

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Saw it in the theatre in the 70's. Just to let everyone that doesn't already know, it will be available on 4K and DVD MAY 29th.

Director J Lee Thompson is a long way from Tiger Bay, The Guns of Navarone and Cape Fear with this cheap looking, lurid, would be thriller that could be described as an ABC Movie of the Week channeling soft core porn. Even the reincarnation theme is redolent of those Movies of the Week as is the flat dialog, lack of atmosphere and perfunctory performances by a bland Jennifer O'Neil, a charmless Michael Sarrazin who looks bad or is badly photographed and Cornelia Sharpe who struggles unsuccessfully to make two consecutive syllables sound persuasive. Unpersuasive too is Margot Kidder's make-up. She plays O'Neil's mother and has a scene masturbating in a bathtub that would be at home in any porn film.

2008:After watching the fun Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om with a friend on DVD,I decided to search online for any info related to the title.To my surprise,I discovered that the movie was being credited of having been inspired by a 1975 film called The Reincarnation of Peter Proud.Finding out from a family friend that he had greatly enjoyed a novelisation of the movie that he had read in the mid 80's,I decided to search on Amazon Uk,for what sounded like a mind bending Thriller.Disapointingly,I found out,that despite the movie entering the public domain,that there was no DVD/Video of the title anywhere.Late 2013:Gathering up titles that I had spent years attempting to track down,I decided to take one last shot at tracking down Mr.Proud.Originally expecting to find nothing but the novelisation,and possibly some posters,I was delightfully caught by surprise,when I stumbled upon a DVD of the movie,which excitingly led to me getting ready to at last witness Peter Proud's reincarnation.The plot:Expireancing a recurring dream that he has had for years,where a mysterious woman murders a man swimming in a lake,who he feels oddly connected to,college professor Peter Proud is woken up by his girlfriend Nora Hayes,who tells Peter that his voice had completely changed and that he was for some reason screaming the name "Marcia".Talking to a psychologist called Dr.Samuel Goodman, (whilst also trying to deal with a strange leg injury that's suddenly appeared)Peter is told about a study taking place at his university,which involves the brain activates of people whilst dreaming being studied,Hoping that the study might be able to stop has recurring dreams,Proud signs up to the study as a "lab rat".Sadly for Peter,despite having the recurring nightmares as a "lab rat",the official results show that he experienced no dreams at all for the entire week.Sickened about getting the constant nightmares,Peter allows himself to be hypnotised by Goodman,who promises Proud that he will never experience these nightmares again.Being able to relax for the first time in years,Proud pours himself a drink,and sits down to watch a TV documentary about the US state Massachusetts.As the TV shows nears its end,footage is shown of an old church based in a small Masachusetts town.Being given the shock of his life,Peter suddenly gets a feeling that he has driven past that church decades in the past,which leads Proud to fear,that instead of being dreams,the "nightmares" are memories of his reincarnationView on the film:For the tremendous adaptation of his novel, (the bare bones of which were used for the family-friendly Om Shanti Om's inspiration)Max Ehrlich carefully weaves together Giallo Murder-Mystery,Horror, psychological chills and Romance into an amazing tapestry.Spanning a number of decades,Ehrlich shows a real precision in showing parts of Proud's "past" (some of which takes place at the possibly inspirational Camp Crystal Lake!) piece by piece,so that the viewer is allowed to make a full picture of Prouds past,at the same pace as Proud himself.Allowing the past to greatly impact upon the present,Ehrlich makes Proud's regaining memory and tracking down of "Marcia" one that is extremely nerving,thanks to Ehrlich making sure that the events in Proud's past life cast a long shadow over his current situation.Backed by a creepy score from Jerry Goldsmith,director J.Lee Thompson closely works with editor Michael F.Anderson to give the film an extremely alluring stylised appearance.For the flashbacks,Thompson and Anderson use brief,neon-lit flashes to create a disorientating atmosphere and to also create a strong feeling of the "dreams" never being able to become fully clear.As Proud gets closer to finding out about his reincarnation,Thompson and cinematographer Victor J.Kemper gradually dim the colours,and build an icy Gothic Horror chill.Giving the movie a huge shot of Gothic Horror,Margot Kidder gives a haunting performance as the elusive "Marcia" Curtis,with decades that have past since the mysterious event being something that's permanently on Marcia shoulders,which begin to take control of her life,as Marcia starts to wonder if Proud may have some connection to her past.Taking on the title role,Michael Sarrazin gives a fantastic performance,with Sarrazin making sure to always give Proud a sense of menace as he finds himself entering stranger and stranger situation.Originally making Peter to look like a good,but confused man,Sarrazin tears away the characters innocence,as it starts to get revealed that this is a reincarnation which Peter can be far from proud of.

This was a very good movie! It was one of those movies that you just can't take a break in - it was that exciting! The plot proceeds at all times and there is not a dull moment.The idea is also original. Although there are a lot of stories about reincarnation, these usually are about people who are somehow brought back to their previous lives several centuries ago. I cannot remember that I have ever before come across a story, in which the main character died only 35 years ago in his previous life. Which means that he can go to see the people he were involved with in that life, because they are still alive. It opens up for interesting moral dilemmas, such as: can you have a love affair with someone who was your child in your previous life, or is this incest..?Reincarnation is of course always an interesting theme, because it is such a fantastic possibility to contemplate!I think the category "horror" was a little wrong for this movie though, because it is not that kind of movie by which you get your thrills from suddenly seeing something scary - such as a ghost. It is more of a crime/mystery story, actually.It was not possible to foresee the ending, which is good, but I wish they had chosen an happy ending... The main character had not done anything to deserve this ending.The reason I give this movie only 8 stars instead of 10, in spite of the fact that I found it so exciting, interesting, and original, is the fact that there was too much and too explicit nudity and sex in it. You could almost call it a soft porn movie. This was of course typical of the 1970:s - but I do not like it.I think ordinary feature films which are not labeled as porn should not continue porn either, because this can be offending to some people. It can also be very unsuitable and embarrassing, if you have rented the movie to watch it in the company of for instance your teenagers or your older relatives. To be honest, I got embarrassed when I watched this movie although I was alone in the room, because I feel some things should be done in private...