Mr. Patton himself George C, Scott along with his wife Trish Van Devere star in a haunted house film. Scott gives his usual really intense performance, he's not afraid of some ghost if anything the ghost should be afraid of him.
The gold standard for haunted house films is of course Robert Wise's film The Haunting. The Changeling isn't quite in that league but it's a well done spook film. The director Peter Medak knows how to apply all the standard scary stuff. Creepy music, ghostly tracking shots, loud bumps in the night and naturally a scary thunderstorm during a seance. As always in fiction it's not about the usual cliches but how you deploy them.
The film stays fairly suspenseful and compelling for around the first half but sort of loses it's focus during the second part as Scott solves the reason for the haunting. There's a good confrontation between Scott and veteran actor Melvyn Douglas who more than holds his own when performing with Scott. Douglas acted practically up until the time of his death at 80 years old, a remarkable career.
The Changeling is set in Seattle but was filmed in Canada as was usually the way back in the 1980's. I suppose the producers had to take advantage of the tax breaks.
The film was written by William Gray and Diana Maddox, the running time is 107 minutes.
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