For about twenty years, from the phenomenal success of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" to the phenomenal flop of "Ghost Story," there was a trend in Hollywood to have A-list actors class up the B-grade genre of horror. By 1980, the great George C. Scott's career was at a low enough ebb that he got sucked into a routine chiller called "The Changeling," bringing with him his lovely wife Trish Van Devere and Oscar-winning Hollywood legend Melvyn Douglas. As a result, a TV-scale idea gets major-studio scale production, kind of like a One Direction song being played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Speaking of classical music, Scott plays the only famous American composer of the latter 20th century, who must have married, to put it charitably, late in life, since he's mourning the wife and preteen daughter who die in a freak accident before the opening credits. The opening sequence should be scarifying but actually reminds the viewer of a little-noted horror movie trope: the happier the character appears, the more likely they are to buy it. Having survived this cliché, the Scott character heads straight for another one by moving into a -- natch! -- spooky old mansion, which he rents via small-town Realtor Van Devere and has some convoluted connection to a creaky old Senator played by Douglas. Don't get me wrong, "The Changeling" is a non-stop thrill ride if you've never seen a ghost story before. Otherwise, you can predict the long-buried secrets in long-shuttered rooms as if there were signs on the door (and there may as well be). It's not badly made -- the director has mastered the fundamentals of horror, such like chases down long dark halls, and Scott's grief is entirely believable, since, well, he's George C. Scott, who can communicate a thousand tortured feelings just by standing alone on screen (had he done more of that, he might have had a better career -- "difficult" is the kindest adjective attached to him). So if you don't set your expectations too high, "The Changeling" is just moderately entertaining enough to satisfy.
Speaking of classical music, Scott plays the only famous American composer of the latter 20th century, who must have married, to put it charitably, late in life, since he's mourning the wife and preteen daughter who die in a freak accident before the opening credits. The opening sequence should be scarifying but actually reminds the viewer of a little-noted horror movie trope: the happier the character appears, the more likely they are to buy it. Having survived this cliché, the Scott character heads straight for another one by moving into a -- natch! -- spooky old mansion, which he rents via small-town Realtor Van Devere and has some convoluted connection to a creaky old Senator played by Douglas. Don't get me wrong, "The Changeling" is a non-stop thrill ride if you've never seen a ghost story before. Otherwise, you can predict the long-buried secrets in long-shuttered rooms as if there were signs on the door (and there may as well be). It's not badly made -- the director has mastered the fundamentals of horror, such like chases down long dark halls, and Scott's grief is entirely believable, since, well, he's George C. Scott, who can communicate a thousand tortured feelings just by standing alone on screen (had he done more of that, he might have had a better career -- "difficult" is the kindest adjective attached to him). So if you don't set your expectations too high, "The Changeling" is just moderately entertaining enough to satisfy.