The Changeling
The story definitely was problematic, but 1980's The Changeling is two thirds of a really great contemporary ghost story that falls apart during the final act, but remains watchable thanks to the presence of one of the greatest actors in the business inhabiting the leading role.
The late George C. Scott stars as John Russell, a college music professor who loses his wife and daughter in a tragic accident. After four months of drowning in his grief, John accepts a new job and with the aid of a naive real estate agent (Trish Van Devere) decides to rent a large mansion to re-start his life. Not long after moving in, John finds himself being contacted by the spirit of a child inhabiting the attic of the house, who empathizes with John's grief and "seeks his assistance" in bringing his killer to justice as well as uncovering 50 years of corruption and cover-ups.
Most of the problems with this film spring from William Gray's screenplay. It might seem a bit of nitpick, but I really didn't understand a man trying to get over the death of his family by moving into a giant mansion all by himself. Once he does this, the story is presented to us with all the stock players we expect in a horror movie and with all the subtlety of a monster truck rally...we have the household staff who pretend to know nothing, we have the creepy secretary who warns our hero that the house doesn't want people (a line that actually made me laugh) and the mustache twirling bad guy who's been keeping secrets that have had him racked with guilt for decades.
We accept what's going on up to a point and believe we are in the middle of a genuinely scary ghost story, but by the final third of the film, we are waist deep in so much mawkish melodrama , producing unintentional laughs that dilute what we have seen up to that point. What does work here and keeps us invested in what's going on is this central character portrayed by a great actor. Stories like this usually have women, small children, or teenagers at the center of the story and this one is given a margin of class by having the main character a middle-aged man drowning in grief.
Scott gives his accustomed splendid performance, fighting and defeating a screenplay that's fighting him all the way and works well with real life wife Van De Vere. Mention should also be made of two time Oscar winner Melvyn Douglas as the ruthless US Senator at the bottom of the mystery. The film is handsomely mounted and does feature some inventive camerawork and visual effects. My favorite was when a necklace buried under dirt actually un-buries itself and reveals itself to Scott. I wish the attention paid to visual effects was also applied to the story, but Scott is always worth watching.
The story definitely was problematic, but 1980's The Changeling is two thirds of a really great contemporary ghost story that falls apart during the final act, but remains watchable thanks to the presence of one of the greatest actors in the business inhabiting the leading role.
The late George C. Scott stars as John Russell, a college music professor who loses his wife and daughter in a tragic accident. After four months of drowning in his grief, John accepts a new job and with the aid of a naive real estate agent (Trish Van Devere) decides to rent a large mansion to re-start his life. Not long after moving in, John finds himself being contacted by the spirit of a child inhabiting the attic of the house, who empathizes with John's grief and "seeks his assistance" in bringing his killer to justice as well as uncovering 50 years of corruption and cover-ups.
Most of the problems with this film spring from William Gray's screenplay. It might seem a bit of nitpick, but I really didn't understand a man trying to get over the death of his family by moving into a giant mansion all by himself. Once he does this, the story is presented to us with all the stock players we expect in a horror movie and with all the subtlety of a monster truck rally...we have the household staff who pretend to know nothing, we have the creepy secretary who warns our hero that the house doesn't want people (a line that actually made me laugh) and the mustache twirling bad guy who's been keeping secrets that have had him racked with guilt for decades.
We accept what's going on up to a point and believe we are in the middle of a genuinely scary ghost story, but by the final third of the film, we are waist deep in so much mawkish melodrama , producing unintentional laughs that dilute what we have seen up to that point. What does work here and keeps us invested in what's going on is this central character portrayed by a great actor. Stories like this usually have women, small children, or teenagers at the center of the story and this one is given a margin of class by having the main character a middle-aged man drowning in grief.
Scott gives his accustomed splendid performance, fighting and defeating a screenplay that's fighting him all the way and works well with real life wife Van De Vere. Mention should also be made of two time Oscar winner Melvyn Douglas as the ruthless US Senator at the bottom of the mystery. The film is handsomely mounted and does feature some inventive camerawork and visual effects. My favorite was when a necklace buried under dirt actually un-buries itself and reveals itself to Scott. I wish the attention paid to visual effects was also applied to the story, but Scott is always worth watching.