WisdomsHammer First of all, I highly recommend this. You can read all the other reviews to hear just how good and scary this thing is. I agree. I just want to get something off my chest.It's not much of a spoiler, but there is the ghost of a young boy in this movie who is never seen, only heard, and the voice is absolutely terrible! It sounded like a grown man poorly trying to imitate what he thought a weak and sickly boy sounded like. It's the worst, most annoying, and least terrifying voice you could imagine. If this were some kind of comedy farce, it might be perfect, but that's far from the case in this movie.When the rest of the movie is so good, including casting, how in the world could they get this so wrong?? Unbelievable.There. Rant over. I really do recommend this movie but that one thing just really bugs me.

anaki-82426 I saw this movie as a kid and it stuck with me enough that I bought the DVD many years later, probably 2001 or 2002. I forgot about the film until this past October (2017). My kids are getting older and they now want to see scarier movies, but there is just too much blood and gore in most movies these days. I am glad I remembered I had that DVD in storage somewhere. Every-time I see the movie it holds up well and remains surprisingly good for being produced in such a different era. The only thing I will mention; which is probably a spoiler, is the ghostly voice saying "Father" "My Father." It still produces the same chills that are rarely commonplace in most of today's horror films.

Fella_shibby Had seen this in the mid 80s on a VHS. Revisited it recently on a DVD. Its one of the best haunted house/ghost story. After losing his wife and child in a car accident, George Scott rents a secluded mansion so he can immerse himself in his work and try to move on with his life. George C. Scott is terrific in the lead role. Scott expertly conveyed the pain the character is going thru. The film is very atmospheric, it features excellent cinematography. The director did an excellent job. He created a character outta the spooky mansion. The creepy hallways of the house, the darkened attic, all these are masterfully done. The camera-work is unique, making the viewer feel as if they are in the house along with Scott. Some may not find this scary specially with all those usual stuff like doors banging, pipes making noises, piano playing by itself, window panes breaking, taps starting on its own, etc. but there was sufficient tension n gripping story to hold viewers attention. It is a very well done haunted house, ghost story with more emphasis on the character n drama. I find movies like these sad.

Leechpm Sometimes a movie can have everything at its fingertips, then get its fingertips chopped off in some horrible crash. I can imagine Peter Medak as the 1970s ended and the 80s began, reflecting on how horror had developed in the previous decade, the removal of censorship twenty years ago opening the door for blood and guts to splatter all over the industry. Medak decided to turn from the new and look back on a much quieter old, directing The Changeling, a haunted house flick relying, as the tradition goes, on strange noises, unexplained occurrences, communications with the dead, and, most of all, the absence of splattering bodies.George C. Scott plays John Russell, a composer, professor, and family man who loses his wife and daughter in an auto accident. To escape their memories he moves to a new house and tries resuming his life, but strange events begin, and something in the house won't let him forget his dead family. It follows closely in the footsteps of Don't Look Now, if Don't Look Now had more genre and less sense, then butchered its own ideas.Medak handles his film with spectacle. Gothic architecture, golden walls, a large stairwell winding to a mysterious attic, and various antiques all decorate John's new home, shot beautifully with the camera floating from room to room in a never-ending pan, wide shots showing the vastness of the mansion, and later there's a shot of a well, looking first in from above, then out from below. Also, Rick Wilson composed a nice piano score. So even the film strikes its logical bottom, everything looks at least aesthetically pleasing.But as far as the plot goes, the crash is horrific, and then my heart ripped in half as the camera and John both loomed around the city, now so lonely and small. John has a counseling session, where conversation turns up some great quotes about recovery, and I truly rooted for John as he went from his compositions to his jobs, making an effort to grasp the goods in life. Then as the supernatural creeps in, the emotions go poof and never come back, no matter how many things remind John of his family. Medak attempts to juggle John's recovery with supernatural occurrences, as well as an investigation, and weaving these lines together is easy enough—after all, everything connects to John's tortured memories and difficult recovery—and yet somehow Medak manages to end one thing the second another begins and strips his story of every promise except its spookiness. John eventually isn't even the protagonists anymore, and unlike Psycho, the shift has no meaning.The scriptwriter really screws himself over by writing an emotional story about an emotionally reserved person's emotions, and then failing to give him any scenes to show his emotions, but George C. Scott does best he could have, interrupting his stone-cold, no- shits-given expression with occasional looks of vulnerability. But when the scriptwriter has John try to cast away the spirits by going to a bridge and angrily tossing a ball, there's not much Scott can do in the way of bringing some sort of continuity to the writing's madly flapping strands.Thankfully, even though The Changeling promises to elevate the genre and then disappoints, it still has enough of the horror within to hit home. Medak hides enough threats behind corners and darkness for the atmosphere to get in your belly, and the bathtub scene is terrifying. So when the ghost goes to outstanding lengths to achieve basically nothing, hints pop up of a possible possession then completely disappear, a relationship starts and never blossoms, and the most interesting character doesn't enter until we've stopped caring, at least doors hide behind bookshelves, wheelchairs come to life, and things light on fire.