Spooky film for a spooky day
Back on day 8 or so, Jeanna mentioned scary movies. If you have an interest in being scared, there’s a movie out there for you–a simple web search will turn up thousands of titles from which you can choose. To save you some searching, however, I’d like to offer up a simple solution: check out The Changeling. The 1980 film was written by Russell Hunter and based on his own experiences at the Henry Treat Rogers mansion in Denver but is set right here in the Pacific Northwest. (If nothing else, the movie’s worth watching for a glimpse of what Seattle looked like in 1980; watching it a few years ago I was amazed at how many old memories were brought back by seeing scenery that doesn’t exist anymore.) | ![]() |
Directed by Peter Medak, The Changeling tells the story of Dr. John Rusell (George C. Scott in a well-played performance) a music professor who moves to Washington from New York after the shocking deaths of his wife and child. Once he’s settled into his big new but old house, he discovers he’s not quite alone–the majority of the movie is taken up with his attempts to investigate the mystery of just who is haunting him.
The Changeling might remind you in a few ways of The Haunting of Hill House (I refer, of course, to the original Shirley Jackson novel or the 1963 film adaptation of same, not the miserable 1999 reengineering) with its focus on a more subtle, perception-based sort of horror, but it’s definitely its own film. The movie captures your attention and holds it without resorting to lazy manipulations or gore.
I don’t know that I would say The Changeling is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen (the original version of The Fog scared me so much that I literally blocked it from my memory) but it’s VERY scary in a way that won’t leave you feeling all cheap and used afterwards.