Director: Peter Medak
107 minutes (15) 1980
Second Sight 4K Ultra HD
[Released 5th June]
Rating: 7/10
Review by Donald Morefield
Written by William Gray and Diana Maddox, based on a story by Russell Hunter, this is a classy haunted-house movie. It stars the great George C. Scott as piano teacher and composer John Russell, who is still grieving the loss of his wife (Jean Marsh) and daughter in a road accident (a tragedy as the film begins), when he moves into an old mansion to start his life over. There’s a mysterious presence in this house that “doesn’t want people," and Russell discovers that he must solve a 70-year-old murder before he can find peace within himself...
Cinematographer
John Coquillon does a superb job, capturing quintessential spooky angles in the
house, especially in the narrow confines of corridors leading to a dusty and
heavily cobwebbed attic room - where the aforementioned murder occurred.
Although it’s hard to accept some of the intuitive leaps made by Scott’s heroic
ghost-hunter as valid dramatically, there’s no escaping the atmospherics
conjured by Peter Medak’s old-fashioned, yet nonetheless highly astute and
non-exploitative, direction.
This is a supernatural chiller, full of implied dangers, not a horror movie with lashings of gore. Its accumulation of strange incidents (curious banging noises, breaking windows) builds into an undeniable sense of unease and disquiet, which is neither stabilised nor dispelled by the séance where a medium’s automatic writing spells out doom for the villain of the piece. If you can watch the child’s red ball come bouncing downstairs, again - even after Russell has been out and thrown the ball away - without feeling a shiver, your central nervous system may require medical attention.
Melvyn
Douglas is stalwart, and burdened with guilt over the amorality of his
inherited wealth, as the aged senator with a secret past. Trish Van Devere (who
was married to Scott at the time) is good as a sceptical local historian, and
there are minor roles for Barry Morse, Eric Christmas, and John Colicos as an
ill-fated police detective.
Extras:
- New 4K scan and restoration.
- Interview with Medak by filmmaker Adrian Garcia Bogliano at Morbido Fest 2018
- Exile On Curzon St - Medak on his early years in swinging London
- The House On Cheesman Park - the haunting true-story of The Changeling
- Commentary by Peter Medak and producer Joel B. Michaels
- Commentary by Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger and Paul A. Partain, with art director Robert A. Burns
- The Music Of The Changeling - interview with music arranger Kenneth Wannberg
- Building The House Of Horror - interview with art director Reuben Freed
- The Psychotronic Tourist
- Master of horror Mick Garris on The Changeling
