the changeling

Director: peter medak

Actor: george c. scott,trish van devere,melvyn douglas,jean marsh

Data Published: Fri Mar 28 1980

Genres: Horror

Key Words: mansion,ghost,haunted house,composer,professor

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080516/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(1980_film)

Description: The Changeling is a movie starring George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, and Melvyn Douglas. After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at an old mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by...

Plot: John Russell (George C. Scott), a composer from New York City, moves to Seattle, Washington following the deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident while on a winter vacation upstate. John rents a large and eerie Victorian-era mansion from an agent of the local historic society, Claire Norman (Trish Van Devere), who tells him that the property had been vacant for 12 years. Not long after moving in, John begins to experience unexplained phenomena, starting with a loud banging which resounds through the house every morning. One night John finds the water taps turned on and sees the apparition of a drowned boy in a bathtub. Days later he discovers a hidden attic bedroom behind a concealed door, which contains a child's wheelchair. Claire helps John to investigate the history of the house and its previous tenants, initially believing that the ghost is that of a young girl killed outside the house in a traffic accident in 1909. John holds a seance at the house and overhears the voice of the spirit caught on audio recording equipment, calling himself Joseph Carmichael. After further investigation, John discovers that Joseph was a crippled, sickly six-year-old who was murdered (in 1906) by his father Richard because he was unlikely to have reached the age of 21, upon which he would have inherited an enormous fortune from his late maternal grandfather. To ensure the inheritance, Richard replaced the dead boy with one adopted from a local orphanage and spirited him away to Europe under the pretense of seeking treatment for his condition. After years away he returned with the boy when he was 18, claiming that he was cured of his illness. The boy is now an old man (Melvyn Douglas), a prominent U.S. Senator and business tycoon who is also a major patron of the historical society which owns the house. John's investigation leads him to a property that was once owned by the Carmichael family, where he believes the body of the real Joseph Carmichael was dumped in a well. The owner of the house built on the site, Mrs. Gray, at first refuses to allow John to excavate, but gives her permission after Joseph's ghost visits her young daughter at night and terrifies her. John finds the skeleton of a young child, together with his christening medal, which he conceals from police. John attempts to speak to Senator Carmichael as he is about to depart by plane but is restrained by police. The Senator is disturbed to see the medal, as it is identical to the one in his possession. The society cancels John's lease on the house and fires Claire. Carmichael sends a detective, Captain DeWitt, to John's home in an attempt to intimidate John and retrieve the medal. John refuses, and when DeWitt leaves to obtain a search warrant, his vehicle mysteriously crashes, killing him. After hearing of DeWitt's death, the Senator agrees to meet with John, who tells him the entire story. The Senator refuses to believe the story and angrily berates John for accusing his father (whom he claims was a "loving man") of murder. John then leaves the real Joseph's medal, files and the only copy of the seance recording and apologizes. The Senator threatens John that there will be consequences if he has told anyone else of his story. Meanwhile, Claire goes to the house alone in an attempt to find John and is chased by Joseph's wheelchair until she falls down the stairs. John arrives and the house begins to shake violently. He escorts Claire outside, and then goes back in to try and appease the ghost of Joseph. A strong wind causes John to fall from the second story. Joseph then lights the house on fire. Simultaneously, the Senator compares the two medals, realizing the truth, before he falls into a trance while staring at the portrait of his father. John witnesses the Senator's astral body climbing the burning stairs to Joseph's room. Claire comes in and rescues John, while the Senator witnesses the murder of the real Joseph and suffers a fatal heart attack. John and Claire arrive to see the Senator's body being loaded into the ambulance. The next morning, Joseph's burnt wheelchair sits upright amid the ruins of the mansion. His music box opens and begins playing a lullaby.