Rish Outfield's reviews
This film is enormously popular where I come from. But it was still pretty good.
Big-shot composer George C. Scott's wife and daughter are killed in a freak accident (and it was pretty freaky), and he moves up to Seattle and works as professor. He moves into a big, spooky mansion with a horrifying history (it used to be an orphanage! But wait, there's more . . .), and though he's living alone, someone else is in the house with him. Besides the caretaker, who disappears halfway through the film.
I, personally, adore haunted house stories, and this one really worked. The fact that it relied on practically no special effects helped it greatly, and it's much less dated than it would otherwise be (though it feels older than 1980 to me). I really enjoy George C. Scott's performances, and this was no exception. He is great at the driven, almost obsessed widower who (almost understandably) sticks around a haunted house, trying to unravel its secrets. This was a good, spooky film, with creepy sounds of the house, bouncing balls, voices, visions, breaking glass, and animate wheelchairs. The fact that the ghost is a child helps raise the scare-meter, ‘cause let's face it, kid ghosts are scarier than adult ghosts (but I have to admit, old women ghosts are scarier than the kid ones).
I was a bit disappointed to not find an honest-to-badness changeling in the film, but the title does explain itself before it's over. I have very few complaints about this one, so I'll quit now before I think of any.
Best Scare: The scariest part of the film was when a seance was held, and questions were being asked to the spirit by the medium, who writes down the answers she receives. Creepy, but what's truly scary is when Scott plays the seance recording back and hears the voice of the ghost responding in person.
I'd Recommend It To: More traditional horror movie fans.

The tyranist's thoughts
This is a movie that is very popular where I come from. It may be safe to say more people have seen it and praise it than even Psycho. Strange as it sounds, now you know a little bit about the bizarre environment I was raised in. Still, I had never bothered to see it. My opinion growing up was that if everyone else loved it, I needn't bother. I have since revised that opinion a little even though Rish would claim differently and when we had the chance to check this one out, I was even a little excited.
The story is a fascinating combination of the traditional ghost story/haunted house tales that we have heard all along. However, in there is much more success here than in most. I've long railed against haunted house movies, but I have to take a step back here and admit that The Changeling is not only well done and intriguing, but they actually managed to make it a little scary. Not so frightening as I would have imagined from the stories of my youth, but definitely scary in its own right.
George C. Scott does a fantastic job and the whole Canadian production shines much brighter than I expected. The story and script are top notch. This is one that should definitely be seen and may make me revise my thoughts on following popular opinion yet again.