Review: The Changeling

After witnessing the shocking deaths of his wife and child, composer George C. Scott moves from New York to Seattle to accept a teaching position. He rents an old house and it’s not long before strange and unsettling things appear to be occurring. He investigates with the help of the woman who found him the house in the first place (Trish Van Devere). Ruth Springford plays Van Devere’s co-worker, Jean Marsh briefly plays Scott’s ill-fated wife, and Melvyn Douglas plays an elderly senator who is somehow connected to everything, going all the way back to the early 1900s.

 

Well-paced, emotional, occasionally terrifying 1980 film from director Peter Medak (“The Ruling Class”, “The Krays”) is one of the best ghost/haunting films you’ll ever see. If you’ve seen the “Insidious” films, this was clearly one of the inspirations. George C. Scott, normally a tower of strength and full of power and bluster, is heartbreaking and sympathetic here. You’re so engaged in his personal loss and tragedy that you sometimes forget that this is a horror film and things are gonna get scary. You’re hooked from the tragic, emotionally devastating opening scene, and Medak only gives you 15 minutes before the creepy noises and seemingly ghostly activity begins. Are the banging noises just in Scott’s head? Is grief making him lose his mind? Or is the house occupied by a malevolent presence? This is almost like “The Shining” with a much nicer protagonist than in the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation.

 

As with the original “Black Christmas”, the drab, glum early 80s Canadian look of the film and the cinematography by John Coquillon (“Straw Dogs”, “The Osterman Weekend”) only aid in the creepy factor here. As does the choice of house, it just doesn’t look like somewhere a stable, well-adjusted person would choose to live, let alone somewhere an emotionally devastated man should live. Medak does a terrifically effective job of shooting chandeliers and lights in such a way that you are expecting them to come crashing down at any moment. The film also manages to do what a lot of J-horror films try to do, which is give us an investigation plot in the midst of the horror. Medak gets it right where so many of those films just mute the power of the horror by breaking the tension. Once it gets going, this film never stops being unnerving and scary, even when focusing on plot and character. The film’s most famous scene – and the one the makers of “Insidious” were likely huge fans of – is the séance scene. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the acting in the scene was subtle (Madeleine Sherwood is especially hilarious here), but it’s mostly presented in a less histrionic, more matter-of-fact way than usual. There’s also an absolutely disturbing scene later on involving a boy in a bathtub that you might find hard to shake from your mind. There’s some really, really disturbing and unnerving stuff here.

 

Outside of the always terrific Scott, the acting is mostly pretty solid, which is pretty important when the film is operating on both a dramatic and horrific level. Scott’s wife Trish Van Devere is probably the weak link, but she isn’t terrible. I was particularly impressed with Ruth Springford, and especially character actor John Calicos as an intimidating cop who is on the payroll of Senator Melvyn Douglas (who is well-cast).

 

An extremely effective exercise in dread and grief, this is not only one of the scariest horror films I’ve ever seen, but there’s a heart and weight to it that gives it a lift beyond the norm. Really, really underrated film, and a vulnerable George C. Scott wonderfully plays against your expectations. Good piano score by Rick Wilkins as well. Based on a story by Russell Hunter, the screenplay is by William Gray (“Prom Night”, “An Eye for an Eye”, “The Philadelphia Experiment”) and Diana Maddox (“The Amateur” with John Savage and Christopher Plummer).   

 

Rating: B+