"The Haunting of Helen Walker" (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 2) spends an hour and 55 minutes building a 19th-century Gothic horror story toward its climax.
Then that climax arrives in the final five minutes and ruins the entire movie. What a huge disappointment.Not that the first part of the movie was anything great, by any means. It's a rather slight adaptation of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw," in which a governess (Valerie Bertinelli) takes charge of two young children in an English country manor. But she's no more than arrived when she sees her first ghost, and soon she discovers a couple of specters who are not only haunting the place but ruining the lives of the children.
It has its scary moments. Ber-tin-elli - the most likable actress in television - is always nice to have around. Young Aled Roberts is remarkably good as the young boy under the influence of a demon.
And there's lots of utterly gorgeous scenery, both indoors and out.
But what might have been a pretty good TV movie turns out to be a waste of time at the end. Without giving anything away, the climax is first silly, then remarkably annoying.
If you insist on watching "The Haunting of Helen Walker," maybe you should turn it off about 9:55 and think up your own ending.
BY THE WAY: Don't forget Sunday's airing of "Bye Bye Birdie" (7 p.m., Ch. 4), a really good adaptation of the Broadway musical.
And don't forget that it runs three hours, if you're setting that VCR.
Also, if you're interested, the soundtrack is already out on CD. Check your local music store.