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| From http://www.impawards.com/1980/ posters/changeling_ver1_xlg.jpg |
Director: Peter Medak
Screenplay: Russell Hunter,
William Gray and Diana Maddox
Cast: George C. Scott (as John
Russell); Trish Van Devere (as Claire Norman); Melvyn Douglas (as Sen. Joseph
Carmichael); John Colicos (as De Witt); Jean Marsh (as Joanna Russell)
A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #42
[Warning: Spoilers Ahead]
Winter. A family, John Russell (George C. Scott) and his wife and young
daughter, have had to push their broken down car along a snow covered road.
John goes to a telephone booth to call a toll truck only for an accident to
happen, sudden on screen, that kills both the people he loves. As an opening
its one of the most sobering for any horror film.
From here what interests me about
The Changeling is that it has a lot
of the traits I hate in modern horror cinema but manages to openly get away
with them and succeed instead. After his trauma, John moves to an old elaborate
house where its immediately clear the house is haunted. In any other film the
following series of sudden shocks and bombastic orchestral stings would be
cringe worthy but there's a significant
grace to the film that conveys this to its ideal results, that it's not
overbearing but adds greater unease instead. Director Peter Medak rightly lets silence and moments of ease filter
in-between which helps drastically, as John reacts to the events (until the
more extreme events take place) with stoic surprise, finding that a ghost of a
physically disabled boy haunts the building. The greater sense of grandeur to
the film as well, a drama for the most part as John discovers a conspiracy
linked to the haunting involving politician Sen. Joseph Carmichael (Melvyn Douglas) and his birth right,
contributes to the film, far removed from an obnoxious rollercoaster ride but
an elegant supernatural drama which gladly enters the extravagant as ghostly
events take place and Rick Wilkins's
orchestral score reaches euphoria constantly.
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| From http://cheshirecatstudios.com/wp-content/ uploads/2013/12/the-changeling-ball.jpg |
The shocks themselves are
incredibly unnerving, not the cheap scares of a person suddenly jumping out repeatedly
but very well set up using openly un-human actions that are done subtly; their
style is set up in the first, an expertly done moment involving merely a piano
key, which is continued throughout the rest of the narrative. For two-thirds,
as suggested, merely the simplest things are enough to cause an eeriness to the
event. This film, telegraphing its importance, makes a tiny little red ball the
symbol of fear through the most elaborate of shocks, as it does a wheelchair,
characters themselves alongside the extravagant house itself. A great sense of
melancholy is felt in terms of mood and it's little details at first which
cause surprise, of sounds that could be explained by the giant boiler in the
basement or a piece of glass merely falling out of a high window to the attic.
When things start to escalate its helps that John's characterisation is that of
someone willing to accept the belief around him with the logic of a real
person, not the cliché of denial, not openly willing to tell police of details
knowing he will be seen as mad, but willing to bring in mediums at the point he
believes that what he's witnessed cannot be rationally explained away. When the
film gets more bombastic, staircase banisters suddenly catching on fire and
such mayhem, it's at the time when the film has gone through its drama up to
its most emotionally tempestuous moment, the rage of the ghost bursting loose,
completely justifying the extreme shift into destructive ghostly effect.
The elegance of The Changeling's style is a great
service to it as well. Warm colours contrast against its coldness especially in
exteriors, its tendency to jump back and forth in time like memories which can
take you off-guard but is always inspired when it takes place. The acting as
well is commendable for grounding the supernatural events into plausibility, George C. Scott admirable in his
performance alongside the other cast members who add seriousness to the film.
This seriousness, not stodgy grimness but a sense of immaculate sense of drama,
can be felt throughout The Changeling
and why it succeeds.
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| From http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/4339/09/16x9/1200.jpg |
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