The Changeling

A spirit trying desperately to communicate with a piano composer/professor, still achingly grieving the loss of his beautiful wife and daughter (he's renting this remarkably designed Seattle manor, a historical preservation house with a hidden tragedy that all ties to a boarded up attic room covered in cob webs and dust), that is the genesis of this eerie and old fashioned spook story with an elaborate mystery unraveling over the running time as George C Scott is compelled to investigate.

Scott is retrained in his performance; his character pursues what the spirit wants just so all the supernatural nonsense (banging sounds, doors open and shutting, water faucets running, his deceased girl's little ball bouncing, the seance held in the mansion, and his own provided insight to the activities of a terrible death thanks to the spirit allowing him to see first -hand) will cease and he can have peace. What Scott brings to the performance is subtle agony, emotional exhaustion, and a mature response to those wanting to help him out during his mourning period. I think you can see the pains of just trying to go to work (that early scene in his apartment where the family lived, basically emptied, with some boxes left containing property to be shipped off, as he looks over the place one last time is emotionally wrenching)  much less attending the conservatory on a campus to teach a class on how to conduct a performance in an orchestra. His having to investigate for the spirit isn't an easy task as it takes him into some difficult situations, such as how the whole ordeal relates to a powerful senator (Melvyn Douglas) and the need to dig up a woman's floor as to find a dead body buried in a well covered by a house.

This film also provided the underrated actress, Trish Van Devere (The Hearse), with a nice part as the agent who works for the historical preservation institute that has kept the mansion Scott's John Russell occupies on the market for rent; her character is a very sophisticated, cultured, refined woman who becomes an impromptu assistant to him during the investigation (her role is truthfully part of the job, looking up the history of the location and parlaying what she uncovers to the current renter of the place her employer is leasing).

Small parts go to Jean Marsh as Russel's perished wife, John Colicos as a police captain who pays a heavy price for his confrontation with Russell regarding his pal, the senator, and Barry Morse as Psychic Research professor, Dr. Pemberton (energetic and lively as always) who provides the medium conducting the seance that goes awry.

This basically has the spirit throwing a temper tantrum, which for a while is just an annoyance to Scott, but later his life is threatened in a number of ways when it seems he hasn't done enough to satisfy what it wants. And, to Russell's credit, he does everything and then some for the spirit, going far beyond the call of duty to see that the senator knows what his father done to a child in 1909. Lots of memorable moments include a runaway wheelchair's antics, a music box's relation to a composed score of Russell's, the stairs in flames, and a chandelier's threat to Russell's life.

Add the creepy manor and all this space (director Medak takes this setting and exploits all its room and utilizes the value of the house for all its worth; he knows what he has and tries to present it as sinister as possible), the elegant look despite its age, the gloomy skies and dead trees that overlook and surround the place, not to mention, the often inventive and adequate photography (check out the "ghost wheelchair POV" while chasing Van Devere! and the use of fish-eye lens covering a lot of area in one continuous take) and the use of Seattle locations during the investigation. The Changeling has a lot going for it. I just personally think it takes the traditional haunting house theme and gives it an admirable story and characters that are interesting enough to help maintain interest throughout. It's a bit lengthy, quite the slow burn, but I've never found it a challenge. It just has all those elements I look for in a chiller, which is why it has such rewatchable value.