He also made plenty of duds ( Species II, 1998) and mediocrities ( Pontiac Moon, 1994), but what makes his current career interesting is his habit of working on some of the greatest TV shows of the last two decades, including The Wire, House, Breaking Bad, and Hannibal.Īs I mentioned, home video helped The Changeling develop a lasting fanbase. The Hungarian-born, UK-based Medak is a stalwart director who made a number of near-classics in a number of genres over his 50-plus year career, including The Ruling Class (1972), Zorro, The Gay Blade (1981), and The Krays (1990). A few ham-handed moments aside, the gradual build rarely feels excessive, thanks to editor Lilla Pederson’s abrupt cutting techniques, which both generates unease and efficiently moves the story. Scott’s likeable portrayal (possibly his most likeable portrayal?) and the slow-burn dread of cinematographer John Coquillon’s simple environmental photography. If anything, the film’s greatest weakness is that the last act’s more visceral scares sometimes feel cheap against the emotionally honesty of George C. Instead, he endeavours to keep us invested in the believability of the characters and location. Though the film’s critics (including myself) will call the film’s pacing “deliberate,'' Medak really can’t be accused of wasting his audience’s time. Bayona’s The Orphanage (2007) to Jennifer Kent’s Babadook (2014), have taken The Changeling’s most cohesive theme of mourning and grief to heart (though Nic Roeg’s Don’t Look Now did cover similar ground almost a decade earlier). Furie’s The Entity (1982, based on Frank De Felitta’s 1978 novel), further explored the science of supernatural hauntings, as well as the contributions from mediums/psychics. For example, similar, but nonetheless more popular movies from the early ‘80s, such as Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist (1982) and Sidney J. The Changeling is built on barely bygone traditions, but still managed to look ahead to the ways that ghost stories would change in the future. This helps to focus the story’s themes and avoid unwanted comparisons to the schlocky true crime claims of B-movies. Unlike William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) or Stuart Rosenberg’s Amityville Horror (1979), the ‘real events’ behind writer Russell Hunter’s story (he shares credit with screenwriters William Gray & Diana Maddox) were his own experiences, rather than popular tabloid fodder. The enduring appeal of The Changeling is found in its perpetually melancholic mood – an aspect Medak borrowed from class-act ‘70s horror, along with the supposed fact that it is based on a true story and last-act turn into political intrigue.