Review of Changeling, The

Introduction

John Russell (George C. Scott) tries to carry on with his life after the tragic loss of his wife and daughter. So he moves to a new city where he starts to teach music again, and rents a house that no one has lived in for the past 12 years. He settles into this elegant and grand house where he begins to compose music and get on with his life. However he`s not alone and the reason why the place has been unoccupied comes to light. There`s something, a presence, a disturbance that just will not lie in peace and drives Russell to investigate what it is. It leads him to discover the strange and tragic events of what went on in that house and he`s determined to unravel the mystery.

Video

Presented with a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, The Changeling doesn`t look too bad at all. There`s some grain and dirt visible and some shots look a bit cleaner, but on the whole the image is okay. Colours are a little restrained, as was the original production, so there doesn`t seem to be any problem reproducing it well here. Contrast is good, though detail isn`t quite as sharp as might be expected but it`s perfectly watchable.

Audio

This is one of the key parts of the film, the soundtrack. There`s English stereo (DD2.0) with German, Spanish and Italian mono soundtracks available and I was certainly impressed with the English track. While it lacks the immersive feel of a 5.1 track, it still manages to do a very competant job with some directional sound. I got an eery feeling and felt genuinely twitchy as the film played, but may be I shouldn`t have had the sound up too loud. The music too is good, though sadly not memorable. The dialogue is clear from the centre and overall there weren`t any technical problems with the sound that I could hear.

Features

Still menus with director commentary and photo gallery as the extras here. The commentary track is surprisingly good. I`ve never heard Medak talk before so I found this commentary very interesting to listen to. He not only talks technically about the film, but covers other areas too like working with the cast and crew and has a fair amount to say. It`s worth a listen if you get the chance. The photo gallery too is quite good, though you`re likely to see it just once or twice. These run with the films` score in the background. There`s definitely an eerie feel to it!

The film has English subtitles.

Conclusion

This is one film that gave me the creeps. It`s not a gorefest and doesn`t feature any special effects of monsters, but it does have lots of atmosphere and this is what freaked me out, albeit just a little. It`s always the suggestion of horror that relies on your imagination that scares the most. George C. Scott playing detective, investigating the goings on of the house, isn`t bad at all and gives a very good if restrained performance. Along with Trish Van Devere, and the rest of the quality supporting cast this film is told well. It has good pacing and more than enough eeriness and suspense to make up for the more visceral bloodletting films we might be used to. It`s a traditional ghoststory with the big mansion and a sad story behind the haunting and it`s all based on a true story too.

The sound design here is good and I`m surprised that it managed to make me look over my shoulder. Just don`t put the sound up too loud otherwise I`m sure it`ll freak a few of you out. Peter Medak has directed the film very well and provides a good audio commentary to boot.

This is a good movie to see if you haven`t seen it already, and I`d firmly recommend a rental. As good a film as it is, I don`t think it has a lot of replay value, so I wouldn`t buy into it. Once you`ve seen it and all that it has to offer, there`s little reason to revisit unless you want to watch the performances.