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INDELIBLE SCENE(S):
- The infamous rubber ball that returns from the river to bounce the stairs and scare the shit out of John
- The monotone voice and spastic penmanship of the medium conducting the séance
- The little girl sees the apparition of a drowned boy in the floor of her bedroom
- Claire tumbles down the stairs after being mercilessly terrorized by the wicker wheelchair
This movie scared the crap out of me when I first saw it on the WXON Primetime Movies at age ten! The worst part was that scene where the little girl sees Joseph under the floor of her bedroom. To this day, I fast forward through that part on the DVD!
This is probably one of the best ghost films ever made, and dammit, just one of the best movies in general. Even with all the spooking about, what always got me about this film was how moving it was. There is scene where George C. Scott is just crying in bed (shortly before some disturbing pipe banging erupts) and it’s just SO DAMN effective. Very moving film with extraordinary acting and a good, solid story.
Gawd, I MISS the 70s & 80s.
This is a GREAT Hororr movie, one of the best I’ve ever seen. The thing that confuses me is I never even HEARD of this movie til I was in my thirties! Why is it not sitting side-by-side with stuff like THE EXORCIST, THE SHINING Â and THE OMEN (y’know , that Horror 101 stuff thats Required Viewing!)
This movie had a lot of scares in it but I think the simplest one is what makes you realize JUST have creepy and well done the movie is: They managed to make a RUBBER BALLÂ scary!Â
I ended up with the a copy of the theatrical poster for this film (and “Halloween II”) after a storage room was cleaned out at my university. I have to say, “The Changeling” poster is pretty awesome but not something I feel like looking at very closely in the middle of the night.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. The film starts with a totally realistic car accident, and doesn’t let up on the believability factor one bit, which is so important in films of this type. Maybe, the big problem with some of these newer movies?
Great movie. One of the few that scared me as a kid that still spooks me as an adult.
The scene where Joseph manifests himself to that little girl in her bedroom still scares me too much to watch.
Minor quibble: The name of the manor is the Chessman House, not the Chestnut House.
An underrated classic that would’ve done much better at the box office had it not been released during the dawn of slasher movie mania…