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The Changeling
I can't believe I'm hearing this ghostly voice on tape... let me play it again. And again.
1980
Review: September 12, 2006
Director: Peter Medak
Starring: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh
If you’re going to watch this at all.
THE SETUP:
Guy moves into giant house that is haunted. Local politics is involved.
DISCUSSION:
Sometimes I think it’s not so good to watch so many movies all the time, because it begins to take a lot more to impress me. And there are movies, like this one, that I would probably feel a lot more positively toward if I only watched one movie every two weeks, rather than about five a week. Maybe.
So we begin with George C. Scott [GCS] driving in upstate New York with his wife and daughter on November 27th. The movie tells us it’s November 27th, so hey, I figure it’s important. He parks the car on the side of the road and goes to make a call at the phone booth, when a truck comes along and makes a mush out of mommy and daughter [unfortunately not shown, we're far too tasteful for that]. GCS is all horrified, etc.
Four months later—March 4th, to be exact—GCS has moved to Seattle and taken on a teaching position at a local college. They want him on staff because he’s a “well-known alumnus and a distinguished composer.” We are supposed to believe that he is super-admired because although only 35 people are registered for his course, 300 show up. Sure is nice that the college conveniently scheduled his 35-person class in a huge auditorium. He also needs a place to live, and someone on staff tells him that the local preservation society has some unoccupied historic houses that perhaps he could let.
What do you know, they do. He moves into this gargantuan estate akin to the kind of houses you see in Jane Austen movies, so huge that it’s a little ludicrous. I have written in my notes: “Huge mansion for one guy?” and on the next line: “Ridiculously huge house!” This wouldn’t be that big a deal, expect it kind of distracts one, and every few minutes I found myself thinking, “And who exactly is cleaning all that? Who had time to decorate all 45 rooms?” We hear of [but never see] some guy who handles preservation for all historic houses in the vicinity, and you know, I don’t think he’s coming around to polish the silver and dust off the cupboards. It bugged me.
We also have a quick diversion to introduce Senator Charmichael, a “lifelong Republican” and major contributor to the preservation society. He serves no purpose yet, but is given enough weight that one starts to think, “Is this story going to hinge on local politics?”
So George starts to notice almost right away that something spooky is going on. He hears strange noises, including a rhythmic banging in the morning, a la The Haunting [the good one, not the shitty Jan De Bont remake], and one key on his piano will not sound unless applied to with a ghostly hand. Nevertheless, spooky noises in a haunted house are still remarkably effective, even when you’re essentially watching the same scene about 14 times in the same movie.
In here we also gain some insight into the creative process as we watch GCS compose at the piano. We are supposed to be awed and inspired by his beautiful music and the miracle of creation as the camera spins around him as he plays with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth [the artist at work!], making faces as though he’s taking a particularly well-needed shit.
So a few more weird noises later, and GCS is up in the ridiculously cobwebby attic [do rooms REALLY ever get that cobwebby? None that I’ve ever seen], where he finds a little child’s wheelchair and a music box. I think there might have been some thing about how the song on the music box was the very music he was composing [which would open him up to copyright infringement litigation, an issue that remains unexplored], but I’m not really sure about this because my DVD was skipping and there were certain sections it just skipped through... and I didn't bother to go back.
So of course GCS starts asking questions about the history of the house at the preservation society, where he gets the requisite “I have no idea” from one women while another, older woman stands pursing her lips in the doorway, and later whispers “that house is not fit to live in.” A little research later and we find out that there was a guy who lived there who had a daughter who was struck down in the street and a few days later died. Wow, she died in a way very similar to the way GCS’s daughter died! Could that be why this spirit is trying to connect with him? Well, could be, but it turns out it’s not, and this whole angle is summarily dumped. But in here you notice that GCS’s haunting memories and hopes of spiritual contact all center around his lost daughter, and you’re like, “Huh, so he didn’t care at all about his wife?”
They then have a séance where a bunch of freaky shit happens, and we learn that the ghost is actually a little boy. Later GCS replays the tape of the séance and finds that it has picked up the voice of a little ghostly boy. So he plays it over and over and over and over again to make sure. Then he plays it again. Then he plays it one more time for good measure, until you’re like, “okay, so he doesn’t believe it, but I believe it, so can we fucking MOVE ON?”
SPOILERS > > >
Then he tells his female friend at the preservation society that he believes this little boy was killed by his father, and she’s like hysterical and all “Stop! I can’t hear any more!” until you’re like “Calm down, sweetie, these people are long dead!” I guess she just hates to imagine that there’s such evil in the world. She is but a sheltered, tender little flower. Anyway, a flashback soon informs us that GCS is right, this guy had an opportunity to send his son to this institute in Switzerland, but why waste all that on a crip, right? Am I right? So he drowns his real son and sends the future senator in his place [WHERE the future senator came from I missed. I guess they just had one on hand]. He goes to Switzerland and is miraculously “cured,” then comes back and inherits it all. Furthermore, the pounding GCS hears every morning is the sound of the kid banging his hand against the tub as he was being drowned. It is ALL coming together now.
So after all this is revealed we’re starting to think “oh good, this should be wrapping up pretty soon,” because it IS taking its sweet time, but no, we have to divert to go to some other house and find that the kid’s body is in the well under the floorboards, blah, blah, blah. Then there’s a little small-time intimidation as this investigator pays a call on GCS and gives him the talk about not poking his considerable nose in areas where he is unwelcome, then GCS has a premonition that something bad happens to him, and 3 seconds later the phone rings. It was his friend, who just happened to be driving by and saw the investigator is all dead in this car accident and stuff. Could our little boy ghost be… deadly?
So GCS goes over to the senator’s and spills out the whole story, getting seven extra credit points for using the title in the sentence “the wrong boy was sent to Switzerland and this… this… CHANGELING was YOU!” The senator tells him to go fuck himself, [in a potent and moving Total Oscar Clip] but is obviously wracked by guilt, although I’m like, “so what’s the problem? His father did the killing, not him. He was just a young kid who happened to benefit from it, but it’s not like he DID it.”
Anyway, so while all this is going on GCS’s female friend shows up at the house and wanders from the front door to the attic, all the while going “John? John? John? John? John?” Yeah, sweetie, John’s in the attic, he’s not answering you because he’s playing a cute game of hide and seek YOU IDIOT! So the evil empty wheelchair chases her down several flights [we never see it descend the stairs of hear the chunk-chunk-chunk sound it would make], until finally she makes it to the bottom just as GCS gets home. Unfortunately she does not fall and break her neck, her cold lifeless corpse staring up at him as he walks in the door.
Then the top of the banister starts on fire, and like four pieces of flaming debris fall to rest harmlessly on the floor next to GCS. Nevertheless, the movie treats this tiny fire, totally extinguishable with a 10-ounce household fire extinguisher, as though it were a RAGING INFERNO and when we see exteriors of the house the whole thing is ablaze from within. One things for sure: that banister REALLY sustained some damage. Anyway, then GCS sees the senator walking up the stairs toward the spiritual retribution that is his, while we separately see him having a heart attack in his office. I guess it doesn’t pay to cross kiddie ghosts. Just remember that.
< < < SPOILERS END
You know how one likes that the movies of the 70s take their time and aren’t in a rush to get straight to the thrills? Well, that very trait can make a movie quite tedious if it doesn’t really have enough going on in the story to justify that length, and that’s kind of how I started feeling here. The biggest example is GCS going back to replay that tape again and again and again. Also, although the scenes are fairly effective, we GET that he’s hearing odd noises in the house. Other than that, I just didn’t find the whole thing all that scary. For one thing, the ridiculousness of having GCS in that enormous mansion is not something I ever quite got beyond. And as I said: WHO is cleaning all that shit? None of this made this movie cross the line from decent to bad, but it did, for me, prevent it from crossing the line from decent to good.
The other thing is that the film tries to have it both ways by portraying the house as a threat to GCS, even though GCS is obviously working to set the spirit at rest and get it revenge. Okay, maybe the ghost is a child and is just wrathful toward everyone, but I wasn’t convinced. And then, looking back, things like ‘what did GCS’ dead wife and daughter have to do with anything?’ start to nag. And you start to resent the distraction of the movie drifting off for so many pointless minutes while it leads you to believe that his loss will somehow come to bear on the story. I think this was adapted from a novel. My guess is that it was a fairly mediocre novel that became a fairly mediocre movie—although one with a hint of class, due to the presence of GCS and the portentiousness of how it is all presented. Of course, GCS also lent his talents to Firestarter. Which at least was a lot more fun.
This is not a bad movie. It’s just… not that great. You can do better. One way you could do better is to watch Robert Wise’s The Haunting, which has similar fright scenes, but is much more effectively written, acted, and directed.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
If it’s on TV and you have nothing else to do, go for it. Otherwise, there are better ways to spend your time.
