Movie With Ghostly Children?

April 22, 2011 2:20 AM

Can anyone help identify this classic movie about ghostly children?

A friend of mine is trying to recall a movie she remembers from her childhood, but we friends of hers can't identify. Help us, AskMetafilter! Here is the information, as per friend:

Sometime between the years of 1979 and 1984 I saw a movie (possibly a classic?) on Saturday or Sunday morning TV, that made a rather significant impression. Over the years I have found myself wanting to watch it again as an adult, but unfortunately I don't know what the movie was. Nor can I identify any of the actors in the movie, which may or may not be well-known actors - I just was simply too young to pay attention to that kind of stuff.

What I can remember about the movie:
I remember thinking it was an older movie - I think it was black and white, although I wouldn't swear to it. If it had colour, it had to be earlier colour. I'm thinking it had to be for sure earlier than the 1970s (even if it was a more modern movie done in black and white) just due to the quality of the film. For reference, I used to watch Abbott and Costello, so it could even be circa that era.

Plot as I can recall (I was pretty young at the time):
There were two kids - a boy and a girl, who ended up living with some seriously oppressive care-givers. Not sure if they were relatives, or just people who adopted them, but something had happened to their parents and they were living with this new family (I think out in the country) and it seemed to me they were quite abusive. These kids met another pair of kids who helped them either play pranks on, or get revenge, on the couple who was abusive to them.

The end of the movie, which is the part that made the impression, ended with the two victimized children realizing that they were, in fact, dead. And the other children who had been helping them were, in fact, ghosts. And now they were free from the tyranny of their caregivers.

Subsequent discussion has determined that it wasn't the episode of The Twilight Zone titled The Bewitchin' Pool or The Innocents.

Thank you for any help you might be able to give. It was driving her crazy, and now its driving me crazy.

posted by Joey Michaels to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Response by poster: Further information: she would have been watching it in Saskatoon, SK, Canada on CBC and CTV (But CTV might have been called something else back then).
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:27 AM on April 22, 2011

As I started reading your question, I thought you were going to be asking about the 1961 version of The Turn of the Screw known as The Innocents. Then it seemed to morph into The Others. And then I went to Tv Tropes and scanned the list of Dead All Along. And found an entry for a Canadian horror show for kids.

Possible?
posted by likeso at 2:59 AM on April 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: My friends watched this in the 1979-1984 period, and that show (the classic Are You Afraid of the Dark) debuted in 1991. Sorry, but thank you!
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:38 AM on April 22, 2011

Whoops, missed the airdate. Well damn, now I'm going to start obsessing over this. ;)
posted by likeso at 4:04 AM on April 22, 2011

There have been quite a few adaptations of The Turn of the Screw. Might it be one of those?
posted by hot soup girl at 4:17 AM on April 22, 2011

Oh, it's got to be The Innocents. I loved that movie!
posted by oohisay at 5:52 AM on April 22, 2011

Shot in the dark, but Child of Glass, now conflated with other films/TV shows? I'm trying to think of a ghost movie a TV station would actually show on a Saturday morning.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:18 AM on April 22, 2011

Best answer: Could it be The Amazing Mr Blunden? It doesn't exactly fit your description, but there are some definite similarities.
posted by rubbish bin night at 8:51 AM on April 22, 2011

Response by poster: My friend writes:

The amazing mr blunden sounds like there's a really good chance it could be the one! Although that's not the ending I remember, but I was after-all, very young. Maybe that's it? I'm so excited! Now I have to find that movie!

Thank you everyone for your help!
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:19 PM on April 22, 2011