The Changeling (1980)
Directed by Peter Medak
After a tragic event happens, composer John Russell moves to Seattle to try to overcome it and build a new and peaceful life in a lonely big house that has been uninhabited for many years. But, soon after, the obscure history of such an old mansion and his own past begin to haunt him.
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What critics compared The Changeling to
The material provided here is paper thin: After a tragic prologue lifted from the screenplay structures of "The Changeling" "Don't Look Now" and "Dead Calm", "The Descent" settles into it's main narrative of six young ladies who decide to reclaim a sense of youthful danger in their responsible adult lives by going on a caving expedition in the Appalachian mountains.
All right, so I never figured out exactly where all the copper pipes came from (an itinerant plumber maybe?), but the scene is quick, nasty and manages to evoke both Peter Medak's The Changeling (1980) and Paul Verhoeven's The Fourth Man (1983).
Some of the material also borrows from the superb George C. Scott supernatural thriller, "The Changeling" (I won't explain how, but after you see the film, you'll see the similarities in some pivotal discoveries and revelations).
For now, her talents will remain in horror’s pantheon of stellar performances next to The Changeling ‘s George C. Scott and The Entity ‘s Barbara Hershey.
The other feel is that The Night House is a throwback to late 1970’s horror films such as The Amityville Horror , The Changeling , or Don’t Look Now , which all deal with couples or characters haunted by loss.
There are unsubtle nods to Rosemary’s Baby, The Changeling et al, but for the most part it’s back to the de rigueur “quiet-quiet-quiet-BOO!” formula popularised to money-spinning effect by James Wan. Director John R Leonetti served as cinematographer on several of Wan’s films (including The Conjuring) so it’s no surprise that this looks much the same – although to be fair the scares are orchestrated with more flair than usual, even if the best of them are all spoiled in the trailer.
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The film is littered with references to genre classics — Poltergeist, The Changeling, Robert Wise’s The Haunting — but they’re never foregrounded.
It’s a well-worn scenario of intense grief set somewhere lusciously photogenic, like Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now or Peter Medak’s The Changeling —only this time extremely British.
Where Ari Aster remixed Ingmar Bergman’s domestic dynamics within the skin of The Changeling , The Lodge finds itself more preoccupied with its contrived plot twists than any form of psychological interrogation, delivering a ponderous affair that remains far too subdued for its own good.
Even more remarkable, I read recently that "Gran Torino" is the highest-grossing film Eastwood has ever made, remarkable when you consider he's done things like "The Outlaw Josey Wales," "Unforgiven," "Mystic River," "Letters from Iwo Jima," "Million Dollar Baby," and "The Changeling" to name but a few in addition to the "Dirty Harry" series.
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Yours truly won’t be a part of the “good bones” club, that’s for sure, having been effectively unnerved by cinematic yarns where the abode is alive, both as a vessel and as its entire self, such as Poltergeist, The Changeling, original Amityville, Crimson Peak, mother!, et cetera.
But what Aster does differently is infuse the familiar with the unsettling and the haunting, similar to ’70s and ’80s-esque features like The Changeling.