Really Awful Movies

A revenant plagues the mind of a composer who’s renting an old, decrepit house. The Changeling is sorta similar to The Uninvited (1944) insofar as there’s a musician occupying a sprawling house, which turns out to be haunted. The key difference is that in this one, Mr. Russell (George C Scott) is only a tenant not an owner. There’s some consolation. Hate to lose a big investment.

Russell loses his wife and daughter in a horrific winter crash in Upstate New York. He moves to Washington State, and eventually resumes life teaching music in the local university, and sets up shop in a house that’s vacant, and which requires involvement from the local historical society (can’t stress this enough: this is NEVER a good sign).

Every dilapidated mansion needs a caretaker, and the lone Mr. Tuttle provides the blue-collar counterpoint to the overly mannered Russell, at one point apologizing for “interrupting his composin’,” as Russell’s performing Mozart’s Rondo in A to an empty, echoing abode (please see our Scary Classical Music Pieces list).

Shortly thereafter, the piano comes to life striking a lone key when he steps away from the ivories.

The Changeling takes forever to draw in the viewer, but there are enough little enticement gems, especially how the camera lingers on Russell’s back, like it’s eavesdropping. And the clanging Pavlovian bell soundtrack, interspersed with a highly effective (though now overused) children’s choir, really adds to the sense of dread.

Convinced that he’s not alone, Russell digs into the home’s dark backstory, teaming up with the real estate agent, Claire, who hooked him up with his accommodations. They find out a child died around the turn of the century, a boy, Joseph, linked to a high-powered politico.

Russell also enlists the help of a spirit medium to contact the Great Beyond. When the clairvoyant’s made a connection, her feverish message scribbling is a highlight. And we find out more about the restless spirit and how it ties into the present.

But it’s Joseph’s drowning that made this movie famous, along with the recurring bouncy ball motif, a toy belonging to Russell’s dead daughter, which is a bridge between the father and the house apparition.

The Changeling has not diminished in its capacity to instill horror.

***3/4 (out of 5)

[CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST OF THE CHANGELING]

A F*ck-Marry-Kill kill game with the Three Stooges, played by a reluctant Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child? That fun tone sets the groundwork for Freddy vs. Jason, a mad crossover worthy of NBA wunderkind Steph Curry. It’s a film that has absolutely no business being this fun.

With Freddy’s powers dwindling (they’re derived from FDR’s famous line, “the only thing you have to fear, is fear itself”) it seems nobody in fictional Springwood has anything to be afraid of anymore. He can’t fulfill his kills, and life is back to normal in blah suburbia.

To add some juice, Freddy conjures up the dormant underworld form of Jason Voorhees to drum up a little bit of terror on terra firma.

The big galoot starts offing teenagers, including one clamped shut in his bed that alludes to the famous Jason kill from Friday the 13th Part II, as well as Johnny Depp’s boudoir demise in A Nightmare on Elm Street. The infamous address of 1428 Elm St. is suddenly the site of horrors again, and destined to be on the market for decades.

Suddenly, cops have something to do with themselves far removed from the halcyon policing days of John Saxon.

Kids are drugged up in the local sanitarium, wigged out on Hypnocil and having mercifully dream-free slumbers. But with Jason wreaking havoc, Freddy’s powers are slowly returning and two butchers are laying waste to the town.

Directory Ronny Yu smartly goes all Nightmare with this, and it’s a far more believable conceit that Jason could exist in Freddy’s suburban milieu than the other way ’round. Still, we get a brief glimpse of a Camp Crystal Lake dock, and a hot girl’s knocked off in the first scene.

Freddy vs Jason features glorious kills, a terrific Mexican stand-off finish from two of pop culture’s most infamous slashers, and you’re left with something that not only doesn’t stink, but is unabashedly good clean fun.

Stunt-like setups like this could get outta hand (especially if there’s a third icon to double up on the “vs,”) but as a one-off, it’s darn decent.

[Be sure to check out our Freddy vs Jason podcast!]

***1/4 (out of 5)