Please help me if you can! This trauma has been skirting the edges of my memory for the longest time. I have searched and searched and keep coming up with nothing. I believe it is a movie, probably made-for-tv, but it could very well be an episode of an anthology show. When you're a kid everything seems to be movie length if it's longer than the Brady Bunch.Â
I am presuming that I saw this in the mid-1970s. Even though we only had three stations back then, I can't remember what network it is. I do know that it was about possession. It featured three characters. One was an older man, then there was a younger man and a younger woman. I think she may have been the older man's daughter. I am pretty sure that this was set in New England.Â
Now this part is very vague, of course, everything else has been vague so far as well. They were renovating a property and I think they were going to turn it into a restaurant or bar. The basement had a dirt floor. After they started digging up the floor is when this possession started. Flashbacks showed these three people in historical clothing. The child me would have probably thought they were Pilgrim clothes, but I'm pretty sure we're looking at the 18th century, maybe 19th. The ghostly trio were involved in some sort of love triangle, I believe, which resulted in the death of at least one of them. As they became possessed they began acting or re-enacting the arguments of the past.Â
This is not the movie in Japan with Doug McClure, the Samurais, and the demon crabs. This is definitely set in the United States. For the longest time if you would have asked me who was in this I would have said Ernest Borgnine and Martin Milner. But I have searched their works and found nothing that sounds remotely like this. I even checked out Doug McClure. For some reason I was thinking Sally Struthers might have been the woman. But again, I found nothing on her.Â
This is really bugging me. Any help you could give would be so much appreciated. I would love to see if I could see this again just to see if I remembering any part of it correctly. Thanks for your help. Arletta in Pennsylvania
UNK SEZ: Arletta! I'm hoping I have your answer! This sounds like it has to be the 1970 TV movie CROWHAVEN FARM starring Hope Lange, Paul Burke and Cindy Eilbacher. It's got pilgrims, flashbacks and the couple with daughter you describe. I also know that it played a lot on TV back in the day and has a reputation for causing kindertrauma! Check it out on YouTube HERE! I've got my fingers crossed. I've been wrong before but this seems like a match!
Could it possibly be The House that Wouldn't Die? Something about the love triangle reminded me of this one for some reason.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065855/
I have to go back and watch Crowhaven Farm again now. Great ending!
JennyD13,
ooooh it could be that one too! Good thinking.
It is not Crowhaven. I watched that last year. The younger man/girl were in their 20s at least. I'll check out Jenny's suggestion and see if that is it.
Aw rats! Thought I had that one! Now I really got my fingers crossed for JennyD13 & The House That Would Not Die! In any case, I'm glad both of these TV movies are being mentioned today! Both are two of the best!