The Changeling Remains One of the Scariest Movies Ever Made

Certain horror films of decades past lose their luster as time moves on. The things that scared us in the ‘40s or ‘50s may feel quaint in the 2020s. This is a perfectly normal experience with art. We’re supposed to grow and find new ideas with time. But now and then, there are films that never lose their potency, and still shock audiences that think themselves immune to the genre’s tricks. Forty-five years since its premiere, The Changeling is still utterly terrifying.

Directed by Peter Medak and inspired by the experiences of playwright Russell Hunter while he was living in a strange house in Denver, The Changeling is a classic ghost story. George C. Scott plays John Russell, a grieving composer who moves to Seattle to mourn his wife and daughter. He moves into a vacant mansion and soon begins to experience unexplained phenomena. He is woken up by loud banging. Taps turn on without his assistance. Glass breaks. Floorboards creak. He's not a man of faith but once he sees the ghostly form of a drowned boy in a bathtub, he knows that he must believe the unbelievable. Discovering the truth of what happened in this house will reveal a dark family tragedy and the cover-up of a murder.

On a pure craft level, The Changeling is pretty unimpeachable. It takes inspiration from films like The Innocents, another ghost story that is still ridiculously scary many decades after its release. The technical restraint, eschewing contemporary effects in lieu of old-school methods of filmmaking, gives it a classic feel that makes it timeless. Certainly, this put the film at odds with horror cinema of the time, given that 1980 was the year that Friday the 13th premiered and birthed the new era of the slasher. There’s no bloodshed or shrieking chase scenes. Most of the scariest scenes are crafted around the simplest of objects: a cobweb-covered rocking chair, a metal cone, a red bouncy ball. It’s a film that has more in common with Victorian gothic fiction than its contemporary genre siblings.

A seance reveals that the ghost haunting John's home is that of Joseph Carmichael, a sickly young boy who was murdered by his father and replaced by a local orphan so that he could claim a large inheritance. The new Joseph is a U.S. Senator, played by Melvyn Douglas. He is charming and generous, but when confronted with the possibility that he was a pawn for his adoptive father, he shows a darker side. In folklore, a changeling is a fairy or demon substituted for a human child, usually through kidnapping. Changelings are often depicted as uncanny, looking and acting human but clearly being something else entirely. The new Joseph Carmichael is a consummate politician, smiling and shaking hands, but unable to maintain a dignified facade in the face of being challenged. It’s certainly a striking parallel.

John is haunted by grief, forever overwhelmed by the memories of his family dying brutally in a car crash, shown in a gut-wrenching opening scene. The violent nature of life is depicted starkly in The Changeling, a contrast to the relatively restrained theatricalities of the ghostly haunting. The real Joseph’s demise by drowning is shown in distressing detail, leaving you unsurprised that his spirit would continue to restlessly haunt this house. But like John, Joseph is helplessly alone, and the only way he can express himself, or capture the living resident’s attention, is through disrupting his life. He shakes furniture and makes loud noises, almost like a child throwing a tantrum.

John is trying to hold onto a sense of quiet dignity in the face of endless pain but even he is forced to scream and stomp at these intrusions, not unlike your cranky old neighbor telling you to get off his lawn. Scott, an actor not necessarily known for restraint, holds back in The Changeling. This is a man of dignity and decency stuck amid impossible circumstances and refusing to let himself be consumed by them. He approaches the odd occurrences in his house like a detective, examining the evidence and avoiding the often drawn-out skepticism that the genre is known for. At first he thinks the ghost may be that of his own little girl, but when the truth comes out, he is committed to helping Joseph. You understand why he sticks around to get justice rather than running away from the danger.

The Changeling is a feel-bad movie, although one with a strong (albeit twisted) sense of justice. It’s one where the ghosts of the past, literal or otherwise, will always remain in our lives, no matter how hard we try to avoid them, until we confront the skeletons in our closet. If you’re lucky, then you’ll get to keep on living. If not, well, can you blame a ghost like little Joseph Carmichael for wanting vengeance?