Gene R. Kearney wrote one of the first made-for-TV movies, How I Spent My Summer Vacation, as well as the movie Night of the Lepus and scripts for several TV shows like Night Gallery and Kojak. He was joined by Merwin Gerard, who wrote the TV horror film The Victim and several episodes of One Step Beyond to create this 1974 TV movie.

It was directed by Pittsburgh native Burt Brinckerhoff as well as an uncredited Dan Curtis, who was also the producer.

Carol Enders (Meredith Baxter from Family Ties) is having more than a bad day. No sooner than her boyfriend tells her that he can’t be engaged any longer, a man emerges from the woods and attacks her. She ends up in the hospital, where the spirit of a dead woman named Diana Bernard must find her ex-husband Dr. Peter Bernard (Charles Aidman, who narrated the 80’s Twilight Zone reboot) to figure out who killed her.

Fans of Italian genre cinema should check this out, as Christopher Connelly (Night of the Sharks, Atlantis Interceptors, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Manhattan Baby) and Tony Russel (The Secret Seven, The War of the Planets) both appear in this movie.

Dark Shadows fans will also be pleased, as John Karlen (Willie Loomis from that Gothic soap opera, as well as Daughters of Darkness) plays David Hastings, the angry second husband of the dead woman and prime suspect.

I love the look of this movie, which was shot on video and has a very soap opera feel. It’s like a self-contained Dark Shadows arc, which you can get through in a little over an hour.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime and Tubi.