{"id":8477,"date":"2024-11-18T23:19:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T04:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8477"},"modified":"2024-11-18T23:19:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T04:19:43","slug":"the-changeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/18\/the-changeling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changeling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Changeling <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associated Film Distribution\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (terror, disturbing images, some violent content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Medak\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: William Gray and Diana Maddox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Rick Wilkins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Coquillon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 28, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh, John Colicos, Barry Morse, Madeleine Thornton-Sherwood, Helen Burns, Frances Hyland, Ruth Springford, Eric Christmas, Roberta Maxwell, Bernard Behrens, James B. Douglas, C.M. Gampel, Voldi Way, Michelle Martin, Janne Mortil.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $12M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Changeling<\/strong> is an old-fashioned ghost story designed to send shivers up the spine and leave hairs standing on end. I can\u2019t think of a better way to describe this mostly effective Canadian-made supernatural thriller from Peter Medak (The Ruling Class). From a technical standpoint, it\u2019s outstanding. Medak sets the action in a big eerie Victorian mansion with a troubled history. The d\u00e9cor consists of antique furniture, old books lined on shelves and a big staircase. There\u2019s also a hidden room, all dust and cobwebs, containing a child-sized wheelchair that hasn\u2019t been touched in decades.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Changeling<\/strong> has atmosphere to spare and a chilling story to back it up. If only it had a protagonist that didn\u2019t appear to have it so together. Movies like this depend on a main character losing it mentally in the face of the unexplained. They\u2019re not supposed to be as calm as George C. Scott\u2019s (The Exorcist III) character seems to be. He plays John Russell, a classical composer who loses his wife and daughter in a terrible car accident. The wracked-with-grief pianist moves from New York City to Seattle for a fresh start. Claire Norman (Van Devere, The Hearse) from the local historical society rents him a big house that hasn\u2019t been lived in for 12 years. It\u2019s no wonder. It doesn\u2019t just have creaks; it has loud thumping sounds that begin at the same time every day. The piano plays by itself. The faucets turn on by themselves. Glass shatters by itself. Then John finds that room. That\u2019s when the real trouble starts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It turns out the house has a history…. and a ghost. It\u2019s trying to tell John something. He holds a s\u00e9ance with a few locals in which he learns the ghost is a sick little boy named Joseph who was murdered in the secret room by his father circa 1909. It\u2019s somehow connected to a powerful Senator (Douglas, Being There) who would rather John not poke his nose into things that don\u2019t concern him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Scott is an incredible actor. The closest to a bad performance he\u2019s ever given is Firestarter and that was a mere matter of miscasting. He\u2019s good in The Changeling<\/strong>. He makes unexpected choices with his character. Most people would be totally freaked out by the supernatural goings-on he witnesses. He chooses to take the road less travelled by not falling to pieces. He\u2019s perhaps too self-possessed in dealing with the spooky events. Maybe a little overacting wouldn\u2019t be such a bad thing in this case.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The only other problem I have with The Changeling<\/strong> is that the story never really makes the connection between John\u2019s personal tragedy and the tragedy that took place in the house. More astute viewers will put it together themselves, but it still would have been nice if the makers were a little more overt about it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Problems aside, The Changeling<\/strong> is a pretty good horror film. It has a few legitimate chills and scares. Medak makes excellent use of sound. There\u2019s some great camerawork too. I\u2019m especially fond of a couple of shots involving an abandoned well where a body might be buried. This movie is an exercise in craftsmanship.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Working from an intelligent script by William Gray and Diana Maddox, Medak doesn\u2019t resort to cheap tricks like showing people getting hacked to pieces. I have to say I don\u2019t understand why The Changeling<\/strong> is rated R. There\u2019s hardly any swearing, just one SOB and a couple of mild oaths (a damn and a hell). There\u2019s no graphic violence. There\u2019s absolutely no sex or nudity. Maybe it\u2019s the scene where the little boy is drowned. In any event, it would probably get a PG-13 today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While it falls short of being a horror classic, The Changeling<\/strong> delivers the goods where it counts most. It is a well-crafted haunted house movie. It\u2019s chilling, but not disturbing. It\u2019s scary without being OTT. It\u2019s a ghost story with class.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Changeling (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associated Film Distribution\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (terror, disturbing images, some violent content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Medak\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: William Gray and Diana Maddox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Rick Wilkins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Coquillon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 28, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh, John Colicos, Barry Morse, Madeleine Thornton-Sherwood, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Changeling-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8477"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8698,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8477\/revisions\/8698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}