UnquietDreams
Suma Cum Louder
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- Dec 20, 2023
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Day 2: A movie with a ghost (not a demon) in it.
The Changeling
This 1980 ghost story is anchored by the outstanding work of George C. Scott in a film that is well-balanced between horror and mystery. Scott plays John Russell, a New York composer and music professor who moves across the country to Seattle, fleeing his own ghosts having watched helplessly as his wife and daughter were killed in an accident. He moves to a deserted mansion, where he finds that he isn't the only person living there. Noises become visions which become physical manifestations, and he becomes obsessed with the who and why of the haunting.
Scott is fantastic, as always, but the whole film is well-made. First time screenwriters William Gray and Diana Maddox, along with Russell Hunter (who claims to have based a lot of this film on his own experience in a house in Colorado), produced a well-written, intelligent, and terrifying script. The movie is atmospheric and taut, with all the elements of a good Halloween ghost story: a creepy mansion, a spooky séance, a murder mystery, a secret room, and a great ghost. Director Peter Medak does a lot with very simple images, and you will not believe how scary a fucking kid's ball can be in the right hands. In a genre which loves its "jump scares," The Changeling depends more on a slow build to draw you in, and it is so much more effective because of that. This is a film that is too often overlooked.
The Changeling
This 1980 ghost story is anchored by the outstanding work of George C. Scott in a film that is well-balanced between horror and mystery. Scott plays John Russell, a New York composer and music professor who moves across the country to Seattle, fleeing his own ghosts having watched helplessly as his wife and daughter were killed in an accident. He moves to a deserted mansion, where he finds that he isn't the only person living there. Noises become visions which become physical manifestations, and he becomes obsessed with the who and why of the haunting.
Scott is fantastic, as always, but the whole film is well-made. First time screenwriters William Gray and Diana Maddox, along with Russell Hunter (who claims to have based a lot of this film on his own experience in a house in Colorado), produced a well-written, intelligent, and terrifying script. The movie is atmospheric and taut, with all the elements of a good Halloween ghost story: a creepy mansion, a spooky séance, a murder mystery, a secret room, and a great ghost. Director Peter Medak does a lot with very simple images, and you will not believe how scary a fucking kid's ball can be in the right hands. In a genre which loves its "jump scares," The Changeling depends more on a slow build to draw you in, and it is so much more effective because of that. This is a film that is too often overlooked.
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) , Tom Atkins, Hal Holbrook, John Housman, Buck Flower.
