Monday, December 21, 2015

100 Scariest Movie Moments: #54 The Changeling

I was reluctant to see The Changeling. I knew that it was on the list, so I'd have to watch it eventually, but I was in absolutely no rush. The main reason was George C. Scott. I had so much trouble imagining him in the role of a sensitive, grief-stricken father that I expected the movie to be laughable, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how well he carried the film. He showed the appropriate sensitivity, but also gave a strength and a weight to his character that helped the film immensely.



Scott plays John Russell, a wealthy composer whose wife and daughter (Jean Marsh and Michelle Martin) die in a horrible accident. He decides to move from New York to Washington State to get away from his old life. He feels that he needs to force himself to be productive to better deal with his grief, so he resumes teaching and composing.



Strange noises, and eventually visions, begin in Russell's house. He discovers that the house is haunted by a young boy named Joseph Carmichael (Voldi Way). The details of Joseph's death are one of the most tragic things I've ever seen portrayed in film. Joseph's mother was a wealthy heiress who passed away when he was still a child, and Joseph himself was a sickly boy. This made Joseph the heir to his Grandfather's fortune, but if he died before the age of 21, the entire estate would pass to charity. Desperate to keep control of the fortune, Joseph's father drowned him and had him replaced with a healthy orphan, fleeing to Europe until the orphan was too old to be easily identified as a fake. (Under the guise of looking for a “cure” for Joseph).



When dealing with supernatural presences in film, I always find ghosts to be far more interesting than demons. A ghost, even if his behavior is irrational, at least has rational goals. This makes a ghost function as a character we can relate to. In this particular case, a great deal of the fear comes from the fact that there can be little, if anything, resembling justice for the ghost. He's dead, and his father passed without facing any consequences.



The movie does give in to some Hollywood cliches which drag it down a bit. The hero must have a female love interest (Trish Van Devere), to whom he can recite exposition. I have no strong opinion either way on Van Devere's performance, but her actual character adds fairly little. Also, the ghost must, at some point, stop giving people visions and begin attacking them physically.



I also find John's status as a wealthy composer to be a bit baffling. He seems to have been given an arbitrarily large fortune simply because the plot required him to live in a house previously occupied by the fabulously wealthy. I could speculate on several reasons why they made this creative choice instead of just giving him a different job, but it would likely take up far more space than I'm prepared to devote to it.



While the role is small, Scott's real co-star is Melvyn Douglas, as (for lack of a name other than “Joseph Carmichael”) the Changeling. While Douglas doesn't get a lot of screen time, he does a good job of making the Changeling, now a Senator, out to be a decent old man, completely oblivious of his (adoptive) father's crime. His role is tricky, as we have to like him, even as he must be in conflict with John, denying the entire allegation.



The ending comes across as just plain silly to me, and I feel like it's the result of a cop-out with the writers not being able to think of any other way to appease the spirit. The Changeling seems to astral-project himself into the house (rather than, you know, actually going there), and goes to the room of the original Joseph Carmichael to witness the ghostly reenactment of his father's crime. Then, the room blows up, and the Changeling has a heart attack.



I think the idea of the Changeling dying could have worked well. A 6-year-old's concept of “justice” is likely quite weak, and presumably he simply wanted to turn his years of pain onto someone else. However, it should have been done in a more subtle way, focusing on the emotions, and certainly should not have involved an explosion.



I do recommend this movie. It's a bit slow-moving, but it’s entertaining. It's tragic, well-acted, and has some points of real originality.

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