After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the m... Read allAfter the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.
- Awards
- 11 wins & 5 nominations
- Mrs. Norman
- (as Madeleine Thornton-Sherwood)
- Mr. Tuttle
- (as C. M. Gampel)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe house seen in the movie in real life doesn't and never actually did exist. The film-makers could not find a suitable mansion to use for the film so at a cost of around $200,000, the production had a Victorian gothic mansion facade attached to the front of a much more modern dwelling in a Vancouver street. This construction was used for the filming of all the exteriors of the movie's Carmichael Mansion. The interiors of the haunted house were an elaborate group of interconnecting sets built inside a film studio in Vancouver.
- GoofsAfter Claire comes running down the stairs screaming she yells to John but mistakenly calls him George for George C. Scott. This has been removed from some versions.
- Quotes
John Russell: It's my understanding... that there are, uh... twenty-three students registered... for this series of lectures on advanced musical form. Now, we all know it's not raining outside, and unless there's a fire in some other part of the building that we don't know about, there's an awful lot of people here with nothing better to do.
- Alternate versionsThe Japanese theatrical version contains the alternative ending theme, titled "Pike", sung by Makigami Koichi, a pseudo-kabuki vocalist who led the rock band called "HIKASHU", replacing the original "Music Box" theme song conducted by Howard Blake. The local Japanese TV (dubbed) version also contains the similar "Pike" theme from "HIKASHU", but while the original theatrical version was in Japanese as supposed to be, the song in the TV version was remarkably sung in English.
- SoundtracksSymphony No. 1 in C minor Op. 68
Composed by Johannes Brahms (as Brahms)
Performed by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Kazuyoshi Akiyama
The man realizes that something is trying to communicate with him in this house, and he begins an investigation of the building's history. And there's something, something going on in that tiny dusty cob web strewn room at the very top of the house, the one with a music box and a small wheelchair.
George C. Scott is a solid presence in this film as the man bewildered by this huge old home, with Scott's wife, the elegant Trish Van Devere, cast as a member of the local historical society instrumental in having secured him this house. Melvyn Douglas appears as a U.S. senator who is somehow related to the house.
Director Peter Medak lets the suspense build slowly in this intelligent Canadian made ghost story. Rather than going for terror, this film goes for subtle chills. There's a seance scene that is genuinely eerie, as Medak's camera returns to that small room and then starts to glide down the stairs towards the seance participants trying to communicate with the spirit.
Some ghost films are all special effects and over-the-top performances of terror. Like the best of the classy, more mature films that explore the supernatural, The Changeling never goes for cheap thrills. This thriller's eeriness is analogous to a tap on the shoulder by a cold finger, only to turn around and find there is nobody there.
It may be a cliché to say it, but, in this case, it's true: if you watch this film, be sure to do so with the lights turned low.
- AlsExGal
- Mar 8, 2017
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- CA$7,600,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1