A man has suffered a terrible loss. His wife and child were killed in an automobile accident in front of him, and what was the makings of a happy memory one moment now is the horror that will shape the rest of his days. So the man moves from New York to Seattle and takes up residency inside a historic mansion — which he gets for dirt cheap because no one has wanted to live there in 60 years.
Why that is, he soon finds out. He is John Russell, played by the intimidating George C. Scott. Few actors command the frame like Scott. In Patton, he embodies the indomitable World War II general. In The Hustler, Scott’s Mephistophelian web ensnared both Paul Newman and Piper Laurie. And in the climax of Hardcore, Scott’s Van Dorn tears through walls chasing his daughter’s kidnapper. He is not a man to be messed with. But in the 1980 horror film, The Changeling, a haunted house and a restless spirit decide to screw with Scott’s Russell with such abandon that the audience projects more than it empathizes. If a ghost can fuck with this guy, what chance do I have?
Well, for the writer of the original story, Russell Hunter, not much. Born in Illinois, Hunter was a playwright and composer who relocated to Colorado and, in the late 1960s, rented a house at the corner of 13th Avenue and Williams Street in Denver for pennies on the dollar. Why? Because the house was subject to all sorts of spooky happenings: loud metallic banging starting and abruptly stopping, faucets turning on and off on their own, and the sound of a bouncing rubber ball following Hunter wherever he went.
All are recreated in The Changeling to great effect — particularly the rubber ball, one of the most chilling moments in cinema — as is the secret staircase Hunter found, leading to a child’s bedroom and the discovery of a diary.
At least that’s what Hunter claimed when he turned his real-life haunting into The Changeling. Phil Goodstein, the eminent scholar of Denver’s sordid past, has a few quibbles when it comes to dates and details in Hunter’s story. Search online, and you’ll find more anecdotal evidence of Hunter admitting in secret that he made an embellishment here or there. But who cares? Why let reality get in the way of a good story?
And The Changeling is a great story — arguably one of the best haunted house movies ever made. It’s spooky without being schlocky, terror with hardly a drop of blood. And as effective as the haunted house device is, the real mystery driving the haunting is so cold-blooded and practical that you won’t even think twice about its motivation.
The Denver house Hunter rented has since been razed, and an apartment complex now stands where it once resided. Reports of the complex being haunted are mum, despite being within spitting distance of Cheesman Park — once Denver’s cemetery with a past so checkered it could be the inspiration for several movies. But that’s a story for another Halloween.
ON SCREEN: The Changeling is available to rent or stream on several platforms.