Ghost story themes and literary analysis

Ghost Story, starring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Alice Krige, Patricia Neal, and Craig Wasson pits four elderly men and a pair of twin sons, against a female ghost who is looking for revenge. The movie is based on the book, "Ghost Story," written by Peter Straub. While many horror novels have been turned into well-made and successful movies, (think Steven King), this movie is not one of them. Ghost Story was painfully dull and predictable, failing to instill any sense of suspense or horror.

The premise is that four successful older men living in a small New England town, Melbourne, meet regularly to tell ghost stories while enjoying snifters of brandy and being elegantly attired in tuxedos. They call themselves "The Chowder Society," (not because the screenwriter is a chowder head I would guess). They try to top each other with their horror stories, but all four refuse to ever tell the story of Alma, a woman from their younger days who was killed in a fluke accident by these same gentlemen many years prior.

Of course the four men never considered answering for their accidental killing of Alma and have covered their tracks from the long ago murder. They vow silence forever on the issue. This is supposed to set the stage for Alma's vengeance from the grave many, many years later. The four have spent the intervening years making a good name for themselves and enjoying the fruits of their labors. Suddenly, without warning, all of the men begin to experience horrible personal and/or sleeping nightmares that torment them even further while retelling their tales to each other. Their torment begins when Edward Wanderly's son, David is killed in a gruesome "accident," crashing through a plate glass window in a high rise New York City building. His twin brother returns to Melbourne to be by his father for the funeral where for the remainder of the movie all the men experience a terrible fate at the hands of the vengeful Alma.

Why Alma waited 40 years to exact her revenge is never explained. Part of the plot twist is that she reappears in life as a flesh and blood mystery woman that the two sons are attracted. At the same time, she is a rotting corpse who haunts the four former suitors into their graves. What was the point of waiting until the four men were old enough to be measured for coffins before she comes back to exact her revenge? The movie never explains why her revenge would also include Wanderly's sons.