''The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'' is a 1975 American

psychological horror film Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subgen ...

directed by

J. Lee Thompson John Lee Thompson (1 August 1914 – 30 August 2002) was a British film director, active in London and Hollywood, best known for award-winning films such as ''Woman in a Dressing Gown'', ''Ice Cold in Alex'' and ''The Guns of Navarone (film), Th ...

, and starring

Michael Sarrazin Michael Sarrazin (May 22, 1940 – April 17, 2011)

Margot Kidder Margaret Ruth Kidder (October 17, 1948 – May 13, 2018), known professionally as Margot Kidder, was a Canadian-American actress whose career spanned five decades. Her accolades include three Canadian Screen Awards and one Daytime Emmy Awa ...

, and

Jennifer O'Neill Jennifer O'Neill (born February 20, 1948) is a Brazilian-born American actress, model, author, and activist. She is known for her modeling and spokesperson work for CoverGirl cosmetics starting in 1963, and her starring role in the Oscar-winnin ...

. It follows a university professor who, after experiencing a series of bizarre nightmares, comes to believe he is the

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

of someone else. It is based on the 1973 novel of the same title by

Max Ehrlich Max Michaelis Ehrlich (7 December 1892 – 1 October 1944) was a German actor, screenwriter, and director on the German theater, comedy and cabaret scene of the 1930s. Ehrlich began his career in the 1920s at various theatres, including leadin ...

, who adapted the screenplay.

Plot

Peter Proud, a college professor in Los Angeles, begins having recurring dreams he cannot explain. In one particular nightmare, Peter witnesses the murder of a young man by his girlfriend, Marcia, while he swims naked in a lake near a hotel. As he screams his final words, "Marcia, don't!," she bludgeons him with an oar, and he drowns. In subsequent dreams, Peter witnesses brief vignettes from the man's life, including romances with two different women, and has visions of houses and landmarks that are unknown to him. Peter is haunted by his dreams and seeks medical treatment. He attends a sleep laboratory to try to decipher his dreams. However, the resident doctor, Sam Goodman, informs him that his dreams do not register as being dreams; in fact, they do not register at all. One evening while watching television, several of Peter's visions play out before him on a local documentary film titled ''The Changing Face of America''. He sees an arch and church in the documentary that have figured prominently in his dreams, and calls the television station to discover the location. Upon learning that the location of his "visions" is in Massachusetts, Proud and his girlfriend Nora travel there. In Massachusetts, the couple drive from town to town, but are unsuccessful until they arrive in Springfield. It is here that Proud begins to see familiar sights from his visions, such as a bridge, a church, the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

statue, and others. Nora decides to return to California, tired of Peter's relentless searching, which she dismisses as delusion. After Nora leaves, Peter continues his journey. Eventually, Peter locates Marcia, the mystery woman from his nightmares, now a middle-aged alcoholic. Peter subsequently befriends Marcia's daughter Ann at a local country club where Marcia's husband Jeff was once a tennis pro; Ann has recently returned home to care for her emotionally unstable mother. Through his research, Peter uncovers that Jeff was found drowned in the lake in 1946 under mysterious circumstances. Marcia is suspicious of Peter and curious about his motives, specifically how much he seems to know about her life. Ann and Peter quickly develop a romance, much to the disapproval of Marcia, who responds by increasingly drinking and taking prescription drugs. Peter initially has some hesitation toward pursuing a relationship with Ann after considering that she may have been his daughter in a previous life, but he ultimately chooses to continue the romance. Ann tells Peter her father proposed to Marcia. One afternoon, Marcia accompanies Peter and Ann to the country club, where they lounge at the poolside. While Ann goes for a swim, Marcia witnesses a sleeping Peter repeating the phrase "Marcia, don't!" in Jeff's voice. This horrifies her, and she flees home where she locks herself in her bedroom. Later, she masturbates to the memory of Jeff raping her after she confronted him about an affair he had while she was pregnant with Ann. The following day, Marcia confronts Peter, demanding to know his true identity. The two get into a heated argument, during which he confirms that he is a

of her deceased husband. Meanwhile, Peter realizes that by having re-enacted or visited the sites of his visions, they seem to have ceased haunting him. The lake vision of Jeff's murder is his last to be conquered. Drawn to the lake where Jeff died years prior, Peter enters the water, hoping to unfetter himself from the vision. While in the water, Marcia approaches him in the same boat she did Jeff years ago, now brandishing a pistol. Addressing Peter as Jeff, Marcia asks why he has returned to torment her, and accuses him of incest with Ann. When Peter tries to climb into the boat, Marcia shoots him to death. She watches as his body sinks to the bottom of the lake.

Cast

Production

Film rights to the novel were sold to Bing Crosby Productions before the novel had been published. In April 1974 it was announced the film would star Michael Sarrazin, Margot Kidder and Jennifer O'Neill, and be directed by J. Lee Thompson. The novel came out in October - the Los Angeles Times called it "riveting". Principal photography began on 24 April 1974 in Los Angeles and Massachusetts.

Release

''The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'' premiered in New York City on April 25, 1975, and subsequently opened in Los Angeles on May 2.

Critical response

''The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'' received a mixed response from critics upon its release.

Steven H. Scheuer Steven Henry Scheuer (January 9, 1926 – May 31, 2014) was a film and television historian and critic. He edited all seventeen editions of ''Movies on TV'' published between 1958 and 1993 and wrote ''The Movie Book'' (1974), subtitled ''A Compreh ...

labelled the film as a "clunky yarn". Mick Martin and Marsha Porter awarded the film their "turkey" rating and criticized it for its "turgid direction" and "contrived plot".

Leslie Halliwell Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Film ...

also panned the film as a "hysterical psychic melodrama which pretty well ruins its own chances by failing to explain its plot". ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''s Desmond Ryan dismissed the film as "an obtuse essay into the much trampled world of the occult, and it is aptly named since it seems to take several lifetimes to trudge through the film from its modest beginnings to its silly conclusion." Some critics were more generous.

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

wrote that the film was "moderately gripping".

A.H. Weiler Abraham H. Weiler (December 10, 1908 – January 22, 2002) was an American writer and critic best known for being a film critic and motion picture editor for ''The New York Times''. He also served a term as chairman of the New York Film Critics ...

, like Halliwell, was unconvinced by the film's plot, but lauded it for its "polished ilmictreatment" and Thompson's "properly moody irectorialstyle". In a retrospective review, Michael Barrett of ''PopMatters'' praised the film's cinematography and editing, which he notes provides "a sense of propulsion to what, in other hands, might be a stagnantly paced story; either sound or image are continually pulling at us, like fate... There's something about ''The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'' that keeps it lodged in the memory like a nasty splinter."

Home media

In 2018,

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...

released ''The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'' in a special edition Blu-ray featuring a new

4K restoration 4K, 4-K or 4k may refer to: * 4000 (number) * Four kibibytes (4 × 1024 bytes, better written 4 KiB) ** 4K disk sector size (Advanced Format) ** 4K demoscene compo, a computer art competition using programs limited to 4 kibibytes ** The Java 4K G ...

of the original film elements.

Proposed remake

On November 9, 2009, it was announced that

Andrew Kevin Walker Andrew Kevin Walker (born August 14, 1964) is an American screenwriter, producer and script doctor. He is known for having written ''Seven'' (1995), for which he earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as s ...

and

David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...

(the writer and director, respectively, of ''

Seven 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

'') would work on the remake, with

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

and

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

financing the project. Filming and theatrical release of the remake were planned for 2016, but as of 2018, the project was listed as "in development". New reports of a planned remake emerged in 2021, with development and production now handed over to

David Goyer David Samuel Goyer (born December 22, 1965) is an American filmmaker, novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for writing the screenplays for several superhero films, including '' Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (1998), the ''Blade'' ...

of Phantom Four Films in collaboration with

Village Roadshow Village Roadshow Limited is an Australian company which operates cinemas and theme parks, and produces and distributes films. Before being acquired by private equity company BGH Capital, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Ex ...

, and with

Sean Durkin Timothy Sean Durkin (born December 9, 1981) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. He won the Dramatic Directing Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for ''Martha Marcy May Marlene''. His short film, ''Mary Last Seen'', on ...

serving as writer and director.

References

External links

*
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
at Letterbox DVD * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reincarnation Of Peter Proud, The 1975 films 1975 drama films 1975 horror films 1970s psychological horror films 1970s supernatural horror films American International Pictures films American psychological horror films American psychological thriller films American supernatural horror films American supernatural thriller films Films set in Massachusetts Films directed by J. Lee Thompson Films about dreams Films about reincarnation Films based on American novels Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith Cinerama Releasing Corporation films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films