Piper Laurie follows her success in Carrie with another supernatural horror, Ruby, in which she plays gangster's moll Ruby Claire, who, sixteen years after witnessing the cold-blooded shooting of Nicky (Sal Vecchio), the father of her unborn child, finds herself menaced by his vengeful spirit. Believing that he was betrayed by his lover, Nicky's ghost proceeds to bump off the ex-gangsters now employed at her drive-in theatre, using his mute daughter Leslie (Janit Baldwin) as a conduit, before finally confronting Ruby herself.

Opening with the wonderfully dreamlike murder of Nicky in a bayou, Curtis Harrington's Ruby is not without atmosphere and style, the director making effective use of his rundown drive-in location and its eerie, foggy swampland surroundings. Sadly, despite the creepy ambiance, several creative kills (ala The Omen)—hanging by film stock, impalement to movie screen, death by drinks vending machine—plus a couple of fun possession scenes clearly inspired by The Exorcist, the overly talky nature of the script prevents the film from being a complete success, the dull dialogue frequently bringing the action to a standstill.

"Ruby" follows an ex-gun moll in 1951 Florida who employs a bunch of her former mobster peers to run a drive-in theater adjacent to her house. Unfortunately for Ruby, the spirit of her deceased husband has come back to haunt her, the drive-in, and her mute daughter.

This is a film that has been on my radar for years, but I've never caught it until recently; and boy, what a strange cocktail it is. At times, "Ruby" is a quasi-mob flick; at others, it's a supernatural horror film riffing (rather sloppily) on "The Exorcist." In some moments, it's a chamber drama. The end result is truly baffling and the tone inconsistent. But is it all bad? Not really.

The glue that holds it together is star Piper Laurie, fresh off her critical acclaim from "Carrie" (it's a mystery why she agreed to do this low-rent grindhouse flick). Even though her role is much less exciting than that of Margaret White, she plays the oddly amoral Ruby in a way that evokes Norma Desmond from "Sunset Boulevard." Her gun moll past is at times overshadowed by her failed "career" as a singer and actress, and she spends a fair amount of the film lamenting her nascent glory days, strutting around her house in extravagant costumes and playing her sole record on a jukebox in a makeshift dance hall. It's all very bizarre, and director Curtis Harrington never even attempts to elucidate the context.

It's probably this utter weirdness and lack of clarity that left me mildly amused by "Ruby," because there is more that doesn't make sense about it than there is that does. As the film ramps up to its finale, featuring full-blown poltergeist madness and Linda Blair-esque contortions, it serves up a ridiculous conclusion that is oddly befitting. Given how silly and utterly strange it all is, the "Scooby Doo" ending makes sense.

Overall, I found myself consistently entertained by "Ruby," though it is not a good film, nor is it a film for everyone. As a horror film, it is rather dull and apes snippets of its contemporaries--but as an utter anomaly, "Ruby" deserves some street credit. There truly isn't much out there that is quite like it. A haunted gun moll running a haunted drive-in? The people who will enjoy this know who they are. 6/10.

This effective shocker manages to combine the possession themes from THE EXORCIST with the supernatural deaths from THE OMEN into a workable mixture, heavy on the atmosphere and nostalgia; smattered with enough bizarre incident, cheap deaths, and harassed acting on the part of the main performers to make it worthwhile. The best thing about the film by far is not the fragmented plot, but rather the direction of cult favourite Curtis Harrington, who fills every moment with enough suspense, tense atmosphere, and shuddery chills to flesh out a dozen later horror flicks. The setting of a dead-end drive-in (forever playing ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN) is a perfect one, with supernatural incident after supernatural incident taking place in the creaking, derelict, and run-down old buildings. Bodies are impaled to the giant screen, hanged with film reels, and disappear inside Coke machines, and there are enough low-budget blood and grue effects to please the graphic horror fan no end, along with a little macabre humour here and there.

The scripting is character-focused for a change, giving a chance for the main performers to develop their roles before being offed by the unseen spirit, which is a plus because the casting is excellent. Taking the title role is Piper Laurie, hot on the success of CARRIE, playing another eccentric character whose fate is inexorably bound up with that of her dead lover. She's just as good here as she was in Brian De Palma's hit, even if her character is deeper and more subtle than there. The underrated Stuart Whitman also turns in a fine portrayal as Vince, the ageing helper with an affection for Ruby, who may or may not be doomed to die at the hands of the vengeful spirit.

As the possessed child Leslie, Janit Baldwin is exceptionally creepy; with the aid of some eye make-up she easily transforms from looking like an innocent child into a creature of evil, and hers is the scariest performance in the whole movie. Finally we have Roger Davis, as the spiritual doctor brought in to sort out the whole mess, and he too contributes a solid and flawless performance. High on horror and creepy shudders, RUBY skilfully combines old-fashioned atmosphere and suspense with new-fangled bloodshed and violence, and the end result is an unfairly forgotten yarn which is not without flaws, but for the most part one to watch. Also be sure to check out the CARRIE-style shock ending, which is one of the best I've seen.