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The Changeling

The Changeling

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.24
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A quality horror movie
Review: This movie is one of the best horror movies that I have ever seen. If you are sick of really cheezey horror movies, but still enjoy a good scare then this is the movie for you. The cast of this film did a great job acting, especially George C. Scott. For you special effects lovers be warned that this film is very light on special effects. Despite this Changelings will be sure to give you goose bumps because of its good acting and quality plot. A must see for all those that like haunted house movies.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: NOT PARTICULARLY SCARY, BUT GEORGE C. IS GREAT!
Review: With the exception of the rather tame wheelchair scene and the seance and resulting audiotape, this movie was not particularly frightening. I'm not sure how to classify it - mystery? thriller? horror? It had some elements of each. There were several "loose ends" in the plot which were left hanging with no explanation. Also, the average viewer could disect the plot and guess the ending about halfway thru the film. I would not classify this as a classic in any sense though there seem to be many reviewers who revere it as such. It is well-acted and I did enjoy the treat of watching the superb George C. Scott and his then-wife Trish Van Devere in a rare film match-up. For this reason I would rate it 3-1/2 stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: what a shame
Review: Back 20 years ago or so i was reading a magazine called fantastic fims when i came across an artical called the changeling, a nice little thriller that was ignored, it deserved better.This is how i came to find out on this side of the world how this film exissted. ihad tried for many years to see this film but icould not find it on video, and although it did play very rarely on tv ihad given up trying to see it until i spoted it at amazon needless to say i put my order in on the spot. After seeing it for the first time all ican say is what a shame they dont make them like this anymore. The film itself is fantastic, along with the woman in black and the haunting original version the changeling is trully one of the best ghost stories ever made.What a shame it did not get the the recognition it deserved when first releasd,but like so many great films in this genre the film gains a following many years latter. all ican say is buy this its more than worthy of anybodys collection.it is scary well made movie about a murder, but not just any murder, but the worst kind of murder the murder of an innocent child for proffit how this is done will both disturb and sicken you, do not watch it alone. The dvd itself is clean the colours are great and the film for its age looks like new, there are no features not even a trailer but in this case its the film which is important and at this price wow, even if i had to pay twice as much becouse our aussie dollar is so low it was a bargain for this film

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This is a great horror film that you won't soon forget about. The acting is great and the climax of the film is amazing. A must see!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not scary
Review: I recently ordered The Changeling dvd from Amazon because of all of positive reviews it received. After reading other customer's reviews, I thought that this would be a truly horrifying movie. Personally, I thought that the movie wasn't scary at all. It was extremely boring. I was hoping that this would be an intelligent horror film that was truly scary, but I was proved wrong. The lead character spends the majority of the movie researching the family that once lived in the house.

Unless you are terrified by a child's empty wheelchair (the wheelchair is the main "scare" in the movie), I would recommend skipping this movie. There are no scares, and the characters aren't interesting. If you want a horror movie that is both intelligent and scary, I recommend "The Ugly".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They don't make em like this anymore
Review: One of the best ghost stories ever put to film, " The Changeling" is a hands down winner over most of the tripe that passes for horror in Hollywood these days. If you like an almost sensual building of suspense and terror then this is the film for you. For maximum effect turn the lights off and save this one for the stormiest night of the year and you won't regret the experience.

I first saw this one when I was about 14 years old and after seeing it, with some convincing I coaxed my 2 best friends into coming along for my 2nd trip. It was the first and last time I ever saw someone fly 2ft out of their chairs as one my friends went airborne at one of the most chilling moments.

This is a film that today's horror screenwriters need to school themselves in. The subtle yet powerful buliding of an atmosphere of tension and characters that are actually unique and part of the horror not merely victims to be decapitated, disemboweled or splattered across the screen make " The Changeling " a masterpiece of horror. And all done with nary a drop of blood spilled and no cheap camera angle scares. Sadly , they don't get any better than this.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Classic shocker offers some genuine scares
Review: With its highbrow aspirations and classy production values, Peter Medak's elegant ghost story "The Changeling" (1979) ranks alongside the likes of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1941) and "Portrait of Jennie" (1948) as one of the most accomplished ghost stories ever filmed. It opened theatrically in 1980 amid a glut of low budget shockers which dominated US theaters at the time, and was quickly lost in the shuffle. But good movies never die, they simply bide their time, and "The Changeling" is now widely recognized as a bona fide classic by fans and novices alike. Now, the film has been preserved on home video in a definitive DVD presentation, courtesy of HBO.

The late and much-lamented George C. Scott plays a classical composer who is recovering from the death of his wife and daughter in a terrible accident. Having taken a teaching job in Seattle, he rents a brooding old mansion where he hopes to rediscover the meaning in his life, but his plans are interrupted by a restless spirit which makes its presence felt and reveals the details of a horrific crime which took place at the turn of the 20th century in an attic room at the top of the house, a crime which implicates a powerful local politician (Melvyn Douglas) whose career was constructed on the foundations of murder...

Like the mansion itself, "The Changeling" is a grand and stately affair which forsakes outlandish displays of supernatural horror in favor of quiet, creepy details (a door creaking open of its own accord in broad daylight; a cluttered attic room festooned with cobwebs where a child's wheelchair stands in perpetual attendance, etc.), until Scott is fored to summon a medium after being repeatedly woken every morning by an unearthly pounding which echoes throughout the entire house (the explanation for which is both credible and deeply unsettling). While the seance itself is a memorably eerie sequence, it's actually surpassed by the scene directly afterward in which Scott listens to an audio recording of the entire episode. Here, the disc's superb 2.0 surround track transforms a simple, chilling idea into one of the most hair-raising set-pieces you'll ever see. Sound actually plays a vital role in the film's seductive charm, and sensitive viewers are advised that the film is genuinely frightening in places, especially viewed late at night in a darkened room with the Dolby processor cranked up to the max! You have been warned...

John Coquillon's restless camerawork transforms the ornate mansion into a character all its own, and the autumnal Seattle landscape provides scant relief from the sense of impending horror generated by Medak's accumulation of details. Performances are top-drawer, including Trish Van Devere (Scott's real-life wife) as the real estate agent who becomes mixed-up in the murder inquiry, John Colicos as a cop who thinks Scott's investigation of the crime amounts to little more than an assault on Douglas' integrity, and Ruth Springford as an elderly patron of the local historical society whose sullen attitude towards Scott's mansion conceals a darker truth and provides the first clue to its tragic history. Jean Marsh cameos as Scott's ill-fated wife.

Incredibly, scriptwriters William Gray and Diana Maddox were unable to match this film's artistic success in their subsequent screen work, and while Maddox' only other movie credit appears to be "The Amateur" (1982), Gray co-wrote scripts for routine offerings like "The Philadelphia Experiment" (1984) and "Black Moon Rising" (1985) before becoming a producer on the unsuccessful primetime revival of 'Dark Shadows' (1990), amongst several other TV and movie titles. Hungarian-born director Medak, who began his career with a number of critically acclaimed black comedies like "Negatives" (1968) and "The Ruling Class" (1972), later distinguished himself with the intense true-crime dramas "The Krays" (1990) and "Let Him Have It" (1991), before losing his way on the Hollywood treadmill.

Aside from the superb soundtrack noted earlier, HBO's region 1 DVD also presents the film for the first time on home video in a gleaming letterboxed (1.85:1) presentation, anamorphically enhanced. Closed captions are provided, along with optional English subtitles via the menu, and extras are confined to notes and filmographies on the movie's principal contributors. There's no trailer. The film runs 106m 32s, though the packaging incorrectly claims 115m.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surprisingly Frightening Old-Fashioned Ghost Story
Review: This made-for-TV movie is surprisingly strong, probably one of the best of the genre. The ghost bits are very psychological - it's not what you see, but what you expect to see! If you like the Haunting or the Innocents (or, in another way, Alien or The Thing), add this one to your collection.

Starring George C. Scott, the film is set in a wonderfully huge and ornamented old house, complete with strange banging noises, a secret room, scary seance session and mysterious recordings of a child's voice found on a tape. Who was he?! Watch this one in the dark with somebody near.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the reigning king of scary movies
Review: THE CHANGELING is the rarest of scary movies because it is truly scary. Not, "hey that was fun" scary, but "I'm not going to sleep well for a week, so can you stay the night?" scary. It's the type of film that brings tears to your eyes because the suspense is so great, you think you may just explode from fear. No gore, no real violence. It's just a grand ghost story about a lonely, distraught man, and a big house with a big secret. Unexplored rooms leading to ghastly visions, and seances that unveil more than you ever want to know or hear. The film twists and turns like the hallways of the house, and just when you think there is nothing more terrifying than being trapped in that big, old mansion, the movie moves outdoors and heads straight for a visual which will haunt your dreams forever. I swore I would never put myself thru this film again after I first saw it. Ten years later, I own it. But I never, and I repeat, NEVER, watch it by myself.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Scared the bejeesus outa me!
Review: I rented this film to watch at my boyfriend's apartment one night when he was out of town. When it was over, I couldn't decide if it would be scarier to stay there alone or walk the block to my own home.

This is one film that proves that big computer animated ghosties do not a scary movie make. The scariest things in this movie are a piano with a note that won't play, and a ball that just won't go away. No creeping black goo. No screaming cherub statues. No oozing smoke morphing into monsters. You all can keep your remakes of "The Haunting", I'll take "The Changling" any day as an example of truly frightening entertainment.


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