The Changeling

The Changeling is a 1980 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by Peter Medak and starring George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, and Melvyn Douglas. Its plot follows an esteemed New York City composer who relocates to Seattle, Washington, where he moves into a mansion he comes to believe is haunted. The screenplay is based upon events that writer Russell Hunter claimed he experienced while he was living in the Henry Treat Rogers mansion in the Cheesman Park neighborhood of Denver, Colorado, in the late 1960s; Hunter served as a co-writer of the film. The film premiered at the USA Film Festival in Dallas, Texas, on March 26, 1980, and was released simultaneously in Canada and the United States two days later. It received positive critical reviews, and was an early Canadian-produced film to have major success internationally. The film won eight inaugural Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and was nominated for two Saturn Awards. It is considered a cult film and one of the most influential Canadian films of all time. Plot John Russell, a composer from New York City, is going on vacation with his wife and daughter in the mountains when his car becomes stuck. While he goes to a roadside phone booth to call for assistance, he witnesses his wife and daughter get hit and killed by an oncoming truck. The accident prompts him to move to Seattle, where he rents a mansion from the agent of a local historical society, Claire Norman, who tells him that the property has been vacant for twelve years. Not long after moving in, John begins to experience unexplained phenomena, starting with a loud banging every morning. One night, he discovers all of the water taps turned on and sees the apparition of a drowned boy in a bathtub. Soon after, a red stained glass window pane shatters as he is outside and, upon investigation, he finds a locked, boarded up door in a closet leading to a hidden attic bedroom. John takes a music box from the mantel and discovers it plays the exact piano tune he has just recorded downstairs. John and Claire investigate the history of the house, believing that the ghost is that of a young girl killed outside the house in a traffic accident in 1909. John holds a seance and overhears the voice of the spirit on audio equipment, calling himself Joseph Carmichael.