Living in a fairly old house for a decent chunk of my life, Haunted house movies were something I grew up loving right into my teen years, then I dunno what happened but I just couldn’t jive with them anymore... until recently, and The Changeling was a well regarded classic that I’ve seen a handful of times, always liked, but never really loved... until now.

I’ve been wanting to revisit this for quite a while, luckily I held out for the Severin Blu-ray because this time around I really got lost in this atmospheric retribution haunt and all of its ambient whispers and large airy corridors. George C. Scott kills it (as always) as John Russell, I felt for him—that…

Hoop-Tober, Film 2 of 31:

Hmmm...

Hmmmmmm......

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm............

Well, the only way that I can properly state my opinion on this film is by saying that it both did, and didn't, meet my expectations. I went in looking for un ultra-creepy, atmospheric, dread-driven haunted house flick, and I got one... kinda. See, the first two acts of the film were incredible. It was a deeply saddening tale of a grief-stricken man, and I wasn't even sure if what I was seeing and hearing, in terms of the haunting, was real, because I couldn't be sure of the man's sanity after the tragedy that he was forced to endure. The cinematography and the editing were both stellar; rarely do you see…

Part 4 of Hoop-Tober

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"It doesn't want people."

I started watching The Changeling at about 11:15 PM because I knew that everyone in my house was fast asleep. I turned off the light in my room, kept the door open just a crack, I slipped on a pair of headphones with the volume cranked up, and I started the movie.

The movie ended at about 1 AM. I had to pee so as I stood up from my chair and walked into my hallway, I realized how creepy everything seemed to be. Our hallway is short and is shaped like a DVD case. In the bottom right corner of the hallway is where the door…

Hoop-Tober 2.0 # 4
letterboxd.com/bree1981/list/hoop-tober-20-2015/

After his wife and young daughter are killed in a road collision a still grieving composer John Russell (George C. Scott) relocates to Seattle where he moves into an old historical house. He soon comes to realise that he isn't alone and the house is full of long held secrets.
Although I didn't find this film to be very scary director Peter Madek builds up a creepy atmosphere as the house uses every trick in the book to inform John of it's tragic past. The films well written and while it's slow paced it never drags and the mystery element keeps things interesting. Scott puts in a really good performance, his actions are believable and…

That house is not fit to live in. No one's been able to live in it. It doesn't want people.
-Minnie Huxley

I can't recall who it was, but someone, either my parents (doubtful) or a babysitter let me watch this movie at a very young age. Way too young. Every time I saw the cover of this film over the years I'd remember how it had messed up my young mind.

I hadn't watched it since, so when I first started this time I had my doubts it was actually the same film but then as soon as George C. Scott made it to that damn house it all started falling into place and my memory started placing things…

While it lacks a bit of originality with some of the story beats and writing, and never quite makes cogent thematic use of the opening tragedy that befalls John's family history, The Changeling offers up an effectively chilling and classily produced haunted house tale, straightforward in a comforting and even sort of thrilling way.

The brief introduction of the protagonist's wife and daughter in the opening scene with the traffic accident's very cheesy; they act ridiculously angelic in a perfect memory sort of way. A lot of the rest of the exposition comes in the form of contrived dialogue.

The music's a little generically ominous.

Nice walkthrough of a veritably spooky home, with lots of corners and stairwells and directions.…

Film Number 13 in Blair's March Around the World, 2019

Country: Canada

Once again this is one of those movies that fall into the category of “motion pictures I hadn't watched in at least 20 years”; the circumstances of how I first saw this are odd... as this was viewed over the span of a few days in a high school English class! I don't know why either, but what little I recalled about this, they were positive memories. Naturally I recalled the most famous bits, involving the wheelchair and the bouncing ball. With some of the horror I've watched in recent years, genre filmmakers for certain remembered the latter and have alluded to it in various ways.

George C.…