The Changeling

Rating:
Summary: One of the best ghost stories ever
Review: Along with The Haunting (1963) and The Uninvited, I think this is one of the top 3 scariest ghost movies ever. You have to be a pretty tough cookie not to shudder during the seance scene -- and the scene where the voice not heard during the seance comes through on an autiotape. This movie has a very satisfying plot, with a well-structured murder mystery as a bonus. Needless to say, with George C. Scott, you get great acting too. His portrayal of a grieving husband and father is truly heartbreaking.

Rating:
Summary: Irritating premise
Review: This movie tries to be moralistic... but the message in this movie was ridiculous. The politician who was adopted to replace the murdered boy is made out to be a villain. How in the world would an orphaned six-year-old child be to blame for accepting the family that adopted him? The conclusion is supposed to represent some form of justice againt the politician, even though both the politician and the ghost were victims. Absurdly moralistic and overrated.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting for the third shoe to fall
Review: I saw this movie on television in 1982 alone with my older sister.
I came into the room and started to it when George C Scott came into this attic bathroom on the third floor of the house.
Fittenly,but not convieniently for me it was dark out by the time the film ended,
and so I ended following my sister around for the rest of the evening, afraid to walk down the hall or even go into the bathroom. My skin was crawling.....
The "hide and go spook" stradegy of this movie to me was simply the eriee piano music and the remote feeling camera point of veiws which would have you going down a hall way or staring up a stairs that fades inevitably into the dark back ground.
The scariest premise of the film I thought was the idea of sleeping alone in this enormous house on the second floor only to have another set of stairs that asends to a darker unit of wierd shaped attic bed and bathrooms along with a closet which like the film may have a boarded off door with yet another stairs that asends to an even darker isolated room.
The film`s camera work makes you feel alone in the house, like in one scene George C Scott is playing a haunting melody on the piano, and immediatly you are peering down a dark quiet stairwell as you hear the piano faintly playing in the distance from the other side of the house.
What you notice about George C Scott`s character is that he shows a sherlock holmes curiousity rather than a morbid hostilaty towards the house`s murky enviroment.
The fact that this film was made in 1979 adds to the musty dated atmosphere through out the film.
This is the spookiest movie ever.

Rating:
Summary: Great Classic Horror Film
Review: Other than "Nosferatu" and a handful of other movies, The Changeling could be ranked as the best horror film of all time.
It is truly a great movie. I'm not a George C Scott fan, but he was great in "Patton" and acceptable in "The Changeling."
I will not spoil any of the film, but he is not the right actor for the first half of the film, but finishes strong in the second half. I'm sure there was more to the special effects than what there appears to be, but it really doesn't have the special effects that you see in today's movies....and it doesn't need them....the filmmakers knew what they were doing. They learned what most haven't, you don't always have to see it to be scared of it. Have fun with this one and buy it now.

Rating:
Summary: Very Underated!
Review: It's good to know that there is many positive reviews about this film. The reason the film has been overlooked for many years was because it was released during the time when many horror films like Friday The 13th,Halloween,Zombie,Dawn of the Dead,Maniac,Texas Chainsaw Massacre,etc,etc,were roaming the theaters. Plans for a remake of this film is scheduled to begin soon, which is great since it failed to attract attention years ago. But I'll doubt it'll be more effective than the original.

Rating:
Summary: 3.5 Stars! Pretty good horror film!
Review: The Changeling is a dated ghost story, but there are enough scary scenes to keep you interested. The problem I had with the film was with George C. Scott's character. He seems nonchalant about there being a ghost in the house and doesn't seemed scared at all. He wants to find out what it wants. If a normal person felt a ghost was in the house, wouldn't they be fearful and leave? This was just bad scriptwriting. (This is Neve Campbell's favorite horror film.)

The movie, however, is worth a view if you like ghost stories. "Ghost Story" and "Amityville Horror" are better films, but the scares provide us with enough entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT film
Review: I was probably 8 years old when I first saw this film, after which my brother convinced me my wheelchair was going to come after me! I hesitantly watched the film again after becoming a George C. Scott fan in my teens. While it no longer bred the same fear of runaway wheelchairs, myself and the adult who was staying with me while my parents were away both jumped about two inches off our chairs when our home phone rang at the spookiest part of the movie! As others have said, I completely agree that this movie beats out most movies of today which rely on violence, blood and special effects for their "fear factor."

Rating:
Summary: Spare Change
Review: The late great actor George C.Scott is mostly remembered for playing General George Patton. While there's no question that he was born to play that role, I contend that Scott was also very good in two other films after winning his Oscar for Patton, Hardcore and the thriller The Changeling. The film is an atmospheric frightfest of a ghost story.

John Russell (Scott) is a man trying to cope with intense grief. After he loses his wife Joanna (Jean Marsh) and daughter Kathy (Michelle Martin) in a tragic accident, the composer and music teacher moves into an old mansion unoccupied for twelve years. But a child-like presence seems to be sharing the house, and trying to share its secrets, with him. He starts doing some research to investigate the house's past and thanks to a seance, Russell discovers a terrifying secret out of the house's past. It's a secret that the force from beyond will no longer allow to be kept silent.

Director Peter Medak creates a fair amount of suspense from the story by Russell Hunter and screenplay from William Gray & Diana Maddox using minimal, yet effective tricks. That is to say that I was more creeped out by how Scott reacted to the strange occurrences as Russell than what was there on screen. While Scott is at the center of the action, to be sure, he aided by a fine supporting cast, including Trish Van Devere as Claire Norman, the Oscar nominated Melvyn Douglas as politician Sen. Joseph Carmichel, and one of my favorite charater actors--the late great John Colicos who's quite a prescense as De Witt. The twists and turns are genuine if you've never seen the film before and the scares are plot driven as opposed to show off any effect for the sake of showing off the way some "modern" thrillers do.

The only extras on the DVD are a few notes about cast and crew. That's a shame. The overseas version includes an audio comentary with Medak It's time that track were made available in the states don't you think?

The lack of extras aside, if you are looking for a good case of goosebumps and like to be entertained, The Changeling is a good way to spend your time. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: No ketchup here~
Review: Truly terrifying; one of the best modern supernatural movies. The whole concept of house-holding-displaced-spirits is handled with humanity instead of special effects, resulting in utterly believable events. The actors are all the more believeable in their very ordinariness--even as well-known a face as George C. Scott's becomes unfamiliar, any man you pass on the street.

Even the house is forced to play its part well below the melodrama level any elaborate, lowering mansion can bring to a film, and the effect of all this restraint evokes panic, denial and absolute believability in the watcher. Although OK, OK, it's admittedly great fun to parody with friends (especially the psychic scene), watching this movie in the right atmosphere can produce a frisson unequalled by profuse bloodshed or preposterous makeup.

My only disappointment in this film is my discovery a few years ago that one of its most dramatic, memorable moments (involving a ball and a bridge) was cribbed from a French film. As the motif is one of my favorite moments in film, I was stunned to see it there, intact, in an undeniably preexisting film. Tsk. Nonetheless, a wonderful choice for an intelligent Halloween thrill.


Rating:
Summary: "Did you die here, Joseph?"
Review: "The Changeling" is one of those rare haunted house films that they simply do not make anymore. It actually has a plot and provokes some emotion from the viewer, not having to utilize retarded special effects, goofball celebrities, and senseless gore.

I would characterize this film as a mood piece, and it works well. George C. Scott does an astounding, irritable job as always, playing a composer who has lost his wife and child to
a horrendous car accident. Then, in a convenient turn of events, he moves into a house with an unpleasant history.

Melvyn Douglas seems to have a knack for playing creepy old men with horrific secrets. He's got that stern, angular face, the kind of look a stingy old grandfather would have while scolding a child for something petty.

As it turns out, the house that Scott moves into was formerly inhabited by a handicapped boy who was drowned for money. The scene in which Scott tries to evoke the spirit of the boy in a seance is unforgettable. The only problem with the film is the ridiculously quick pace at which the intricacies of the plot are revealed. Scott is barely living in the house for two days before he is heading to the department of psychical research and telling his friends that a ghost is trying to communicate with him.

Two objects play a serious part in the film: the ball which Scott's deceased daughter used to play with, and a creaky old wheelchair. The ball just won't stop rolling down the stairs, and the chair won't stop wheeling around in supernatural rage.

What makes the movie is Scott's performance. He lends credibility to a somewhat murky and confusing plot. His rage at the injustice done to the boy, and by extension his determination to reveal the Senator (Douglas) as the "changeling" is also an attempt to make sense of the death of his wife and child. This is a scary film, despite it's faults.