The Changeling

 "The Changeling" (1980, Peter Medak, Chessman Park Productions, Pan-Canadian Film Distributors).

John Russell (George C. Scott) is a composer who moves to a large rented mansion from the city after the tragic death of his wife and young daughter in a road accident. After experiencing some supernatural phenomena in the house, John begins to hope that he may have found a way to communicate with his daughter's spirit. However, the house has a dark past and John's digging instead leads him to uncover the truth behind a prominent family's history. 

A haunted house classic. The film delivers an unsettling atmosphere and a beautiful, haunting setting. The child ghost's voice still gives me the shivers and the scenes with the ball rolling around are eerie. Not a slow film, we are treated to a possessed wheelchair chase scene down a large, ornate staircase and some disturbing scenes of the murder taking place in the house as well as an eventful and satisfying finale.

George C. Scott gives a fantastic and sympathetic performance as our protagonist, John Russell. He is grief-stricken and lonely. We see him break down and we see him working to get himself back together. It's such an honest and heartfelt portrayal of a bereaved husband and father that doesn't shy away from emotion but still maintains the determined and capable characterisation of the time. John is sad and determined to sort out this haunted house business. Even if he looks completely unhinged doing it. 

Supposedly based on actual events, the unravelling of the mystery is punctuated by the reaction of the spirit in the house who is tragic but also still a petulant and demanding child. John is manipulated by the spirit, but later takes the spirit's plight on-board as his own way of dealing with his own loss. 

A genuinely beautiful and entertaining haunted house film that should be a must-see for any horror fan. 

[Image: Pan-Canadian Film Distributors, et al]

Hani

Angelica

 "Angelica" (2015, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Pierpoline Films) is a ghost story set in Victorian England, and loosely based on a novel of the same name by Arthur Phillips.

Mitchell Lichtenstein, the man also behind 2007's "Teeth", brings us a ghost story centred, of course, around the lady bits of a young Victorian woman called Constance (Jena Malone). 

Constance marries surgeon Joseph Barton (Ed Stoppard) and soon falls pregnant with their child, Angelica. However, after a traumatic birth, the Bartons are warned to halt all future sexual intercourse; something that both Constance and Joseph find difficult to adhere to. Constance also suffers from severe postpartum depression and finds she cannot separate herself from Angelica for any length of time, to the extent that it further damages her marriage. 

When Constance begins to tell of a sexually explicit apparition of a man haunting the room of Angelica, Joseph dismisses this as further strange 'womanly' behaviour, leading Constance to seek the help of their servant, Nora (Tovah Feldschuh) and her occultist friend and con-artist, Anne Montague (Janet McTeer).

A film that attempts to straddle the line of elegant Victorian stuffiness and perversity, but is subject to a heavy-handedness that leans further towards the latter. Without the strong lead from Malone, who manages to maintain an air of decorum despite the plot's many indignities, it would be a somewhat difficult watch. Many of the scenes head more towards incidental humour and the film lacks the more horror elements that would usually be associated with a Victorian ghost tale.

[Image: Pierpoline Films]

Hani

Ghost Story

"Ghost Story" (1981, John Irvin, Universal Pictures) is a ghostly tale about shared secrets... It's based on a Peter Straub novel



Four well-off elderly men, Ricky Hawthorne (Fred Astaire), Dr. John Jaffrey (Melvyn Douglas), Mayor Edward Charles Wanderley (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and Sears James (John Houseman) are members of the Chowder Society. They meet to share chilling tales and enjoy a tipple together. But when one of Edward's sons dies in a mysterious accident, it becomes apparent that the Chowder society share a dark secret, and that secret is clawing its way back to them.



A fairly traditional horror with spooky scenes, old creaky houses and a grim little twist in the plot. We are treated to some interesting death scenes including a rather explicit, nude window fall (helicoptering did not seem to help) and quite a sad and melancholy plummet from a bridge.


Our protagonist, Don Wanderley (Craig Wasson), attempts to work out what plagues his fathers' group and family, while also battling his father's contempt for his lifestyle, status and choices. But it is the secretive and elegant society marred with darkness that holds the most interest in the film.


Beautiful scenery and a good cast keep this relatively simple plot going. The film delivers a surprising amount of action, despite the collective age of the main cast. I found it to be old fashioned but entertaining. The film suffers overall from a slightly anticlimactic final act, but a nicely realised final reveal that brings everything to a tidy and complete end.

[Image: Universal Pictures]

Hani