The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)

 ☆ ☆ ½

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) – J. L. Thompson

Somehow the Seventies seems the right era for melancholy supernatural fare. There’s a loneliness found in many films of the era, from neo-noir to horror, as alienation and disillusionment set in.  In this film, college professor Peter Proud (Michael Sarrazin) is suffering from a recurring nightmare where he is swimming naked at night and approached by a woman in a rowboat who abruptly kills him with a paddle. His doctor can’t help him and sends him to a parapsychologist (with a sleep clinic) who discovers no evidence of dreams at all.  A shooting pain in his hip with no organic cause just adds to the mystery.  When he sees a too-familiar New England town on TV, remembered from his “dreams”, Peter heads East to investigate. By now, he suspects that he is really remembering a past life.  After a lengthy search, he makes contact with people he believes are his former wife, Marcia (Margot Kidder), now in her sixties (with old age make-up), and his adult daughter, Ann (Jennifer O’Neill), in Springfield, Mass.  He doesn’t let them know his visions, but falls for Ann despite the hint of incest. At this point, the film starts to lose its momentum, perhaps searching for a satisfactory ending – an extended square dance sequence is the nadir – and then the end is in sight, a perfect looping back to the film’s opening scenes. But alas, whatever spooky suspense was built up in the film’s first sequences has long since been squandered (notwithstanding an extremely unpleasant flashback) and the film ends abruptly, its promise denied.