The Dead Will Tell (2004 TV Movie) User Reviews

small ghost story

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 12 September 2016]

Emily Parker (Anne Heche) is a lawyer in New Orleans. She accepts a marriage proposal and an antique ring from Billy Hytner. Her assistant Jeanie (Eva Longoria) senses something weird about the ring. She starts to be haunted by a ghostly woman and encountering past transmissions of the moon landing. She meets Billy's parents (Kathleen Quinlan, David Andrews) and his mother is not supportive. Emily starts researching the origins of the ring.

There is nothing scary. It tries to be a spooky little ghost story. It's functionally made. There are fine actors. They actually shoot in New Orleans which is nice. It's a flat little TV movie and nothing more.

Talented people in a film that doesn't do much new in its genre

[The Amazing Sharkboy · 24 October 2004]

I wanted to like this movie. I did really. It tried hard. And why shouldn't CBS give us a spooky Sunday movie near Halloween?

Still, with a feminine heroine in a new marriage, learning another family's secrets, it just seemed reminiscent of a classic Gothic novel (maybe it should have been a period piece - naw, everyone thinks those cost too much).

There's a real effort in the direction to give an unsettling atmosphere, but it had a little too much quick cutting (to keep people interested who have short attention spans?).

Anne Heche gives a more honest and effective performance than other actresses that might have opted for this project. But many in the cast - such as Christopher Guest and Jonathan LaPaglia - are playing characters that were not written with much originality.

The plot makes sense, and there are the obligatory scenes of hallucination. Nice set design and photography. Yet Kathleen Quinlan and David Andrews seemed too young to be playing Jonathan La Paglia's parents.

A distraction, a good effort, not bad - but not much that's different.

If you like ghost movies with a murder mystery like this I suggest:

David Koepp's "Stir of Echoes" (1999) with Kevin Bacon - based on Richard Matheson's novel (overshadowed because it was released near the same time as The Sixth Sense)

or

Sam Raimi's "The Gift" (2000) co-written by Billy Bob Thorton - the unexpectedly solid performances from a rather varied group of actors - Cate Blanchett, Giovani Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Greg Kinnear, Hillary Swank and the late Michael Jeter - make this unique.

Television's 'Sixth Sense.' (spoilers)

[vertigo_14 · 1/10 · 25 October 2004]

Doesn't anyone get tired of making these stupid movies? The ones where someone is contact by a ghost who was horribly murdered and this random person is expected to go throughout the picture, trying to convince people that she's been talking with this ghost and demands answers from total strangers (often neurotic strangers) who may know how she died or where her remains lie. It's a boilerplate story these days, and after the success and the thrills of the 'Sixth Sense,' is it really necessary to keep making these things?

Kathleen Quinnlan, probably the only tolerable actress in the bunch (and Chris Sarandon as the widow of the dead girl) as the sinister mother-in-law-to-be were completely wasted in this predictable mess. Anne Heche, of course, took the lead and showed off her awful acting abilities as Emily Parker, host to the dead girl. The ending was pretty stupid. What a waste.

Same IL' Thriller

[SalemWriter · 3/10 · 25 October 2004]

Like a previous reviewer, I really wanted to like this movie. I tuned in because the promos mentioned James Van Praagh as the source for the storyline, and I was hoping to get some good and intelligent treatment of spirit communication.

What a letdown.

This was the same IL' thriller that almost totally ignores the real story, the story that should be told, the life after death story. I have seen very few movies that have the guts to go beyond the ordinary "bang-bang you're dead" plot and focus on what happens to the murder victim after the funeral.

James Van Praagh has made a life (and one presumes a great living) out of talking to dead people, writing books about talking to dead people, and taking rich people on expensive cruises to exotic places where he talks to more dead people. That's cool for him, but I expected more out a movie about dead people that he produced.

So why does this movie act like an ordinary yawner of a murder mystery that gives us absolutely diddly insight into the spirit of the victim? Couldn't we for once have a more intelligent treatment of this subject? If there are spirits, and as far as this movie was concerned, there are, then the spirit in this movie has a great story. She survived murder! So we really don't have to spend two hours in a melodrama to figure out who killed her. Let's get to the good stuff.

What was murder like when she left her physical body? What happened when she realized that death was a transition, not a termination? What did she learn about being murdered after she realized that murder didn't kill her? I am so surprised that James Van Praagh gave his seal of approval to this annoying waste of time.

For Always – A Simple but Attractive Ghost Story

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 26 April 2007]

In New Orleans, the lawyer Emily Parker (Anne Heche) meets the handsome Billy Hytner (Jonathan LaPaglia) by chance; they date and fall immediately in love for each other. One month later, Billy proposes her and gives an engagement ring he bought in an antiquary shop. From this moment on, Emily has visions of a weird woman and she decides to investigate about the previous owner of the antique ring. She discovers that the woman that is haunting her is Marie Salinger (Leigh Jones), who disappeared in 1969, and the police had found only her severed finger with the ring. Her fiancé Paul Hamlin (Chris Sarandon) was accused of the murder but considered not-guilty by the jury. Meanwhile, Emily meets Billy's parents and is not accepted by her future mother-in-law Beth Hytner (Kathleen Quinlan). Emily continues to investigate the murder, disclosing the truth about Marie's death.

"The Dead Will Tell" is a simple, but attractive ghost story. The cast is excellent, and Anne Heche is very beautiful in the role of a woman obsessed for the truth. This low-budget television movie has a good screenplay, nice locations, very few special effects and I liked this romantic supernatural story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Quando os Mortos Falam" ("When the Dead Speak")

Restless Spirit

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 3 December 2010]

***SPOILERS*** It's when young New Orleans attorney Emily Parker, Anne Heche, got an engagement ring from her soon to be husband, whom she only knew for about a month, Billy Boy Hytner, Jonathan Lapagila, that the dead or murdered of long ago were suddenly awakened. It wasn't long that Emily started seeing things in the form of this ghost-like woman who started making ghostly appearances only to her everywhere she went! As it turned out it was the engagement ring that was the reason behind all these strange events in Emily's life. That together with Emily having been institutionalized at an early age, after her parents were tragically killed in a car accident, which somehow had her become psychic because of her mental illness and be able to pick up vibrations as well as images of dead people!

As Emily gets clues from her contact from the world beyond she soon finds out that the person is the disembodied sprite of Marie Slanger, Leigh Jones, who disappeared back in 1969 with only her ring finger and engagement ring being recovered in the woods by a teenage couple who were, this at the hight of the free love era, busy making out! The biggest surprise comes much later when Emily in uncovering a photo of her future mother-in-law the boozy, and she is for a good reason, Beth Hytner, Kathleen Quinlan, which has her and Marie Salnger in it!

Emily following the clues that the ghostly Marie is giving her tracks down her former lover the former flower and love child, now in his early 60's, Paul Hamlin, Chris Sarandon, who was the prime suspect in her death or disappearance! Having been let off the hook by a jury because of lack of evidence Paul has lived with the suspicion by everyone involved in his murder case that he got a lucky break in that Marie's body was never found.

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** It when Emily sees the reclusive Paul that she realizes there's a reason that Marie's ghost guided her to him. It was through Paul that Emily connected the dead Marie to her fiancée's parents! In fact it was Billy Boy's old man John Hytner, David Andrews, who was getting it on hot and heavy with Marie back in the late 1960's just before she disappeared! Something that Mr.Hytner's old lady Beth knew about and was the reason for her having hit the bottle ever since!

Pretty good made for TV movie with an outstanding performance by Anne Heche good enough for her to have gotten an Academedy Award nomination, if the film was theatrically released, as Emily Parker the girl with the sixth sense! The ability to see dead people! The only thing about the film that let it down a notch or two was the what looked like 30 or so year-old Billy Boy Hytner parents John & Beth Hytner! They were so young looking that you could have easily mistaken them for Billy Boy's brother and sister instead of his mom and dad!

Let the Dead Rest in Peace!

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 26 October 2004]

Enjoyed this film and its location in New Orleans, Louisiana, with its historic old buildings, old homes and their antique furnishings. This film deals mainly with the spiritual world and a lost soul who is trying to communicate with a young girl, Kate Jennings Grant(Claire) and also manages to involve her boyfriend, Michael Arata. If a person's life is cut short, the spirit needs to advance to a higher spiritual level and this poor soul was definitely not Resting in Peace and caused all kinds of problems for everyone! If you like films dealing with Ghosts and the supernatural, this is the film for you, and especially around Halloween! ENJOY

One finger had a ring. The other finger points to murder.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 16 April 2023]

The sole piece of missing person Marie Sallinger remaining is the ring finger, complete with ring, and when bride to be Anne Heche gets this ring for her engagement, it leads the spirit of Marie to her to resolve her story. Fiancée Billy Hytner is supportive of Heche's interest in the case, but his mother Kathleen Quinlan makes her disapproval known. It's not just the apron string refusing to let go, but dark secrets of the past coming out. Toss in Chris Sarandon, one time fiancee of the late Marie, living with the accusation of killing her and let go due to a lack of evidence. As the mystery becomes more complex, Heche begins to have even more bizarre visions, some quite horrific in nature as her ability to visit the past during her waking hours reveals the truth but puts her in danger.

Very compelling and nicely acted, this TV movie was much better than expected, showing a more serious side of the supernatural and never lacking in a speedy pace and frenetic photography that works for a change rather than annoying. Eva Longoria doesn't really get much to do as Heche's friend, while David Andrews is good as Quinlan's husband who may know more than he's telling. The always reliable Quinlan is chilling and Sarandon is superb, while Heche is quite likeable and Hytner supportive and romantic. Definitely one of the better supernatural TV thrillers, and lost in the mix of hundreds that come out each year, most of them forgettable.

Enjoyable Ghost Story

[ladymidath · 8/10 · 21 February 2023]

This is an interesting little ghost story made for the small screen. Anne Heche plays Emily Parker a young woman who meets artist/photographer Billy Hytner played by Jonathan LaPaglia. He gives her a ring that was last owned by a young woman who was brutally murdered, her finger having been found by a couple in the woods. It is after she is given the ring that she starts to see and hear strange things.

This is not just a ghost story but a mystery as well and it meshes fairly well here.

The rest of the cast are all very good, Chris Sarandon as Paul Hamlin is great as always. David Andrews and Kathleen Quinlan as Billy's parents give good reliable performances. The film manages to build suspense without too many jumps scares, there are a few but thankfully it's not overdone.

Not a bad little film for a rainy night.

Decent and enjoyable ghost story

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 9 September 2015]

After receiving an antique engagement ring from her fiancée, a woman's visions of a ghost following her lead her to discover a startling secret about the past and its rightful owner and races to put an end to the haunting.

This was quite an enjoyable and interesting Lifetime Channel effort. This one manages to get a lot right here detailing the ghostly activity, which is first given quite a nice build-up here of the visions and encounters around town before going into the thumping footsteps in the different floors, controlling the atmosphere around her or fixating on the TV shows from the 60s that sets this one up quite nicely. These here are enough to work a fine atmosphere here when this one manages to bring about quite thrilling ghostly encounters are brought along early in here which makes for a really quick, breezy pace throughout here. That the first encounter, seeing her out on the streets just after the engagement comes about is nicely due to the quick time here, a later scene in her house where she follows the watery footprints to the window where she has a great encounter that turns out to be the film's highlight scene, another one of the car going out of control on the streets and a rather impressive series of scenes at the ruined studio which comes off rather well here in making the supernatural action work here. As well, the finale is really enjoyable here with the modern-day action nicely mirroring the flashback revelation of the actual crime as there's some rather fun times trapping her there and the stalking makes for quite a fun time. These here are helped along by the other big point here in the actual mystery which comes across rather well as the start with the appearing ghost following her, showing up in photographs and finally interacting among her life which spurs the discovery of the connection to the past by putting it all together and getting some rather suspenseful times here. These are enough to hold off the few small flaws in this one. The biggest issue to this one is the rather downbeat investigation of the actual mystery which tends to offer up an engrossing angle but is badly executed. There's little interest here in how the murder gets solved since it tends to run through the usual manner of spotlighting scenes mainly as a way to give her screen-time which is a big channel requirement. It's not as though the scene are all that bad but are just not filled with any kind of supernatural attacks or even ghostly activities throughout here, replaced mainly with scenes of her crying out for others or being tormented by the case which really lowers the amount of time here on the horror. It easily could've infused a few more encounters along the way to help out in that regard and still keep the same results which is what makes this a little disappointing. The only other flaw to this one is the rather lame story here that follows many of those elements simply to show that, from the family hospitality to her and the attitude of the cop that's all rather cliché enough to give this that familiar feel without doing anything else for it. Otherwise, this one was rather fun.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and Language.