The Nesting (1981) Horror Ghosts

The Nesting (1981) - This is the story of a agoraphobic writer Lauren (Robin Groves) drawn to a house to write only to solve the mystery of the house's history and her own as well. Lauren is experiencing agoraphobic anxiety attacks whenever she leaves her house. You have to like her attitude though, she is attacking the problem with her therapist and thinking about getting out of the city where the attacks are more common. So whatever is going on emotionally for her she is seeking solutions and in this case she heads out to a small town Dover Falls and rents a house where she can complete her book. Surprising to her is when she gets to the house it is the same one that is on the cover of her last book. An Octagon shaped place so unique that it couldn't be a coincidence could it? In real life the place is called the Armour-Stiner House and is just a beautiful piece of architecture.  We can glean from her therapy sessions that she has had some kind of trauma in her past. She is reluctant to be romantic with her friend Mark (Christopher Loomis) a wise cracker who is so in the friend-zone he does not stand a chance with Lauren.
 John Carridine) and managed by his grandson Daniel (Michael David Lally) the house has been empty for years so renting it out to Lauren seems reasonable. When she meets Col. LeBrun he takes one look at her and has a stroke. Later we learn this stopped him from saying who she looks like. So we have a haunted house, a woman with a mysterious past and an old man who has his own secrets.

In the cold open we see the house back in the 1930s or some such time and know from that scene that some murders took place there. So this appears at this point to possible be a haunted house movie?  If it were that simple I suppose we would all be very disappointed. This is a house with a history, once a brothel it is owned by Col. Lebrun (
  As haunting kinds of things happen in the house, Lauren who is still fighting her fears is sort of stuck there. Her plan might not have been the best when it comes to a house full of ghosts. I mean its scary when you are standing in front of the mirror admiring your own breasts and a pair of ghostly hands decide to cop a feel. That freaks her out enough to get her therapist Dr Webb (Patrick Farrelly) to rush out to the house. He finds her frantic on the roof of the house, its a story of how she got there but while trying to help her Webb is accidentally killed.
  The dying and the haunting does not stop there, it continues revealing to the audience the nature of the brothel. We see Lauren as part of the brothel workforce? Is that really her, is she losing her mind? All this is answered and more but first a bit of masculine hostility. After being rude to the handyman Frank (Bill Rowley), Lauren invites him to tea to apologize for her behavior. Well Frank being a horrible human makes it clear that if she talked nice to him she must want his cock in her. Lucky for Lauren the ghost intervene before Frank can get too far, frightening him out of the house and eventually to his demise.

  There are holes in this film and on IMDB it is only rated at a 4.8 of 10 still it tries to present a cohesive story. It's not that the film is bad but it weaves a tale that does not always make sense. In all this is a story about how Lauren returns to the house she was born in and this event initiates the ghosts of the former brothel get revenge on the men that slaughtered them. Lauren's arc is overcoming her fears and learning her own personal history. For the Colonel, Frank and Abner (David Tabor) it is about paying for your misdeeds in this case against their wills. The spooky is not spooky enough (One good birds jump scare early on), the crazy closer to being up to par. Especially Abner the murderous louse who chases Lauren in cars in what has to be the strangest car chase I have ever seen, it reason is so small for such a big event. In the end though I did not come away thinking this movie was anything special so I am not going to recommend it.