The Changeling
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Movie Reviews of The Changeling
Movie Review: classic horror, no gore, just pee-in-your-pants fear
Summary: 5 Stars
George C. Scott plays a man whose life has been turned upside down after tragicly losing his wife and child to an accident. He tries to put his life back together and moves into a gigantic, eerie mansion.Just as he tries to find peace in his life, things start moving around... an annoying ball bounces ominously down the stairs... Scott no longer has any children and no pet monkeys... so who keeps throwing this ball? No matter where he puts the ball, even locked in a drawer, the ball is bouncing down the stairs again. Finally, Scott drives miles away and tosses the ball in a river. When he gets home, guess what's waiting for him, bouncing down the stairs?
In the style of "Poltergeist," Scott pulls in the big guns... folks specializing in the paranormal from seance readings to "automatic reading" come to the house to try and figure out who this person is and what they want.
The answers he finds are the last things he expects and they take him (and the viewer) through an emotional roller coaster ride of who-dunnits and good old psychological fear.
This movie was not what I expected. It is superbly acted and truly terrifies... and yet is in many ways a "feel-good" movie as Scott finds a place of comfort in struggling with the loss of his family. This is a very scary movie and there is violence purpetrated against a young child, so I highly recommend against showing this film to children.
If you like murder mysteries, sci-fi and/or ghost stories that keep you on the edge of your seat (mentally and physically!), this is a classic you won't want to miss.
Movie Review: Classic Ghost Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Changeling" is, to me, what great ghost stories should be. In the tradition of "The Uninvited" and the 1963 "The Haunting," it creates a mood, an atmosphere of tension and terror. Films like this work not only at this level but they also provide a mystery behind why the ghost haunts.
I'm sorry but Freddy and Jason are hacker movies that totally dispense with this sort of atmosphere. Even the Amityville horror series and Speilberg's "Poltergeist" fall significantly short of this type of film. These latter named films look for ways to create scenes for the sole purpose of suddenly yelling "boo" even if they have a story behind the hauntings. The fear created in movies like "The Changeling" comes about by bringing the viewer to a place arrived at through the slowly unfolding mystery behind the haunting and then presenting a scene, of interaction with the spirit which is the result of building upon the previous scenes. In other words, the haunting moment comes about by something in the story that calls for it to be there. There's no "let's have a scary moment to remind everyone that this is a ghost story." Each bit of information and its haunting moments continues until the journey's end when the mystery is revealed. The linear approach in these scripts suggests the straightforward reading of classic novels. It takes patience with great rewards if we stay with it. They don't resort to the sudden bursts of "boo" for its own sake in order to hold our attention. I highly recommend "The Changeling" as there are relatively few of this type of filmed ghost story.
Movie Review: A perfect ghost story for a rainy Autumn day
Summary: 5 Stars
The Changeling is a perfect choice if you're in the mood for a creepy classic ghost story. The haunting is believable and coherent--the story behind the death of the child now prowling the mansion as a ghost is touching, terrible, and truly frightening. The way that the ghost makes himself known is consistent with his life and his death. Everything hangs together in a strong narrative that drives forward unnervingly; the terrible answer to this puzzle is cohesive and believable.
In fact, Changeling has almost all the element to create the prototypical ghost story. It opens with a tragedy that makes the one survivor "open" to the other side through his grief. It takes place largely in a slight decrepit old house, a house that is bound to have history, good and bad. Russell is intelligent and artistic, driven to track dowm a seemingly meaningless banging of pipes, which is later revealed as central to the ghost's communication. The ghost is looking for resolution, and cannot rest, tormented until the answer to his death is found; just a boy, he cannot imagine why something so awful had been done to him.
Changeling is also a wonderfully quiet movie. The story pushes on relentlessly, but without spectacular effects or a single "action" scene; action in this movie is a scene involving a psychic engaged in automatic writing. It is the wanting answers and wanting the ghost to find release that drives the movie, not noise and special effects.
This is a perfect addition to any rainy afternoon creepfest, preferablyAutumn or Winter.
Movie Review: Thoroughly Excellent.
Summary: 5 Stars
Viewed: 8/06
Rate: 9
8/06: What a great picture The Changeling is. It is full of suspense along with a great mystery story. There was never a letdown for a minute, and it is a lot of fun to watch The Changeling. Obviously, The Changeling is a so much better picture than The Amityville Horror, Boogeyman, Darkness Falls, or any of the other similar crap. At a first glance, I thought The Changeling might be some typical, oft-abused haunted horror story that would generate very little or zero interest from me, but it turned out that the story itself was much different and at the same time very exciting. About the end of the picture, I felt a realization that The Ring is perhaps too akin to The Changeling, so I am suspect of the former being a copy of the latter. I'll like to find that out later when I get the chance to see The Ring. George C. Scott, to my surprise, is excellent in The Changeling. The way he acts, that's very good stuff. Meanwhile, I was impressed with the makers of The Changeling because they didn't rely too much on special effects which are rampantly used in today's movies in order to score points with the audience. One interesting thing about The Changeling is how the house communicates with the characters not in an abnormal way but rather in a human form. It's fantastic stuff. I found The Changeling a more effective picture than Poltergeist, and the comparisons between both of them are plenty. But The Changeling wins out just about in everything. All in all, The Changeling is a superbly mastered suspenseful horror mystery.
Movie Review: what a shame
Summary: 5 Stars
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