Horror Movie Review: The Changeling

I found The Changeling (1980) to be a very spooky film. It's about a ghost seeking revenge, and a old Gothic house.

Following the death of his wife and daughter, Dr. John Russell moves from New York to Seattle. He rents a historic run down Victorian mansion, suggested by some friends. He's a pianist, and starts a new job at a University.

Soon strange things start happening around the house. He is woken up by strange echoing bangs at the exact same time each morning. He hears sounds of someone else in the house.

He goes to his friend, Claire, at the Historical Society (who he rents the house from) and asks for her help to figure out what's going on.

Back in the house he discovers a secret attic room boarded up behind a fake closet. The room seems to have belonged to a young child. Even spookier, John finds a music box that plays the exact same tune that he was composing on his piano.

DON'T GO UP THERE, YOU IDIOT!

 

Claire and John try to find more information about who lived in the house. The Historical Society archives for the house don't run back to 1909, so they go to a library (YAY LIBRARIES!) and look at the newspaper microfilm. They find out that a young girl who lived in the house, named Cora Bernard, died in an accident.

When the haunting continues, John invited a medium into the house and they have a seance. They find out that the ghost in not the young girl Cora but a boy named Joseph. After the seance, John listens to the recording he made and notices another voice answering the questions (aaah! creepy!).

This is where the film really picks up. John and Claire do some research and realise that everything revolves around Senator Carmichael. I'm not going to give away the rest of the film, I highly suggest you watch it because it's very interesting.

A lot of the scenes really drag out and are slow, but I find this really helps with the creepy atmosphere. I suggest watching this at night with no lights on, certain to give you chills! It's really the small things that get me scared in a horror film. Having fake jump scares just annoy me (like a cat jumping out of a closed room). This film has all the spooky ghost things that I love, it's even better when you actually don't see what's causing the scares because it lets your imagination run wild!

Scare factor: 2/5 Gave me goosebumps
Gore factor: 0/5 None
Boob factor: 0/5 None
OVERALL: 7/10 A good scary film.