The Changeling – Review

Opening on a snowy cold mountainside in upstate New York on November 27, the Russell family pushes their dead car through the icy roads. John (Scott) and his wife Joanna and daughter Cathy finally get the car off the roadway to an embankment, so he can try and flag some roadside help. Across the street is a payphone thankfully, so he makes a call while a car begins to pull up down a perpendicular street, and a large truck begins to blow past the scene.

Unfortunately, likely due to icy conditions and excess speed, the car swerves too far into the slick road, and the large truck veers off course trying to avoid a wreck. The truck plows into the Russell vehicle, which was unexpectedly off the roadway broken down. Even more tragic, John’s wife and daughter are too close to the scene and focused on a snowball fight. They do not make it out of the way, and all John can do is watch in horror.

After this terrible opening moment, a few months have passed and the credits roll. John’s apartment is bare other than a few packed boxes. He has flashbacks to when it was full of life and his daughter would bounce him a ball. Clearly it is time for him to physically move on, and a new start brings him to Seattle where he lands on March 4^th. He talks to old friends Robert and Eva Lingstrom about the shock of his family’s death.

They are happy to welcome him back to the University of Washington as an alumnus and a distinguished composer. John looks for a house to rent and work on piano compositions, and through the local preservation society he finds a quiet old place ready for him which has been vacant for about 12 years.

Will this gigantic old mansion be a fitting place for musical inspirations, or will it be a twisted setting for fucked up hauntings?! Since the title is not “The Happy Music-Making Dude Gets Over his Family’s Death in a Big, Totally Normal, Mansion,” one can only surmise the latter.

The Changeling is a very well shot, and George C. Scott plays the grieving main character well, doing most all of the heavy lifting for the script. It is a slow burn, but for those that like a distinguished chill mixed with a nuanced creep they should find a good atmosphere here. I like a lot more about this than I don’t, but it is unlikely to show you anything you haven’t seen before. That being said, some good haunts and hair-raising ideas are presented strongly.

It's an old house. It makes noises.