Effective horror movie about a strange house located in Seattle that causes creepy goings-on in a new tenant . The film contains restless terror , thrills , chills and usual poltergeists phenomenon . This is the classic version about the infamous house with lots of screams and rare deeds in which a composer falls into supernatural terror . After the death of his beloved wife (Jean Marsh) and daughter, a man named John Russell (George C Scott) hires an impressive house to a landlady named Claire Norman (Trish Van Devere , in real life married George C. Scott) . John rents the old turn of the century house and staying at the secluded historical mansion . Russell finds his life being haunted by the presence of a spectre and suffers experience beyond total fear . John and a Police Inspector (John Colicos) investigate mysterious circumstances surrounding a strange death . .
Suspense , mystery , shocks and grisly horror is this splendid terror film about a haunted mansion . This is an interesting , suspenseful and horrifying story , based on a story by Russell Hunter and screenplay by William Gray and Maddox . The movie is partially based on actual events which supposedly took place at a house in Denver, Colorado, in the 1960s . The Chessman Park neighborhood in the movie is a reference to Cheesman Park in Denver, where the original haunting transpired . The film contains restless terror , usual poltergeists phenomenon caused by a ghost and the usual ghastly shenanigans result to be strange sounds , doors suddenly slam , running wheelchairs manifest as attackers , among others . The movie begins slowly and grows more and more until the twisted , creepy and eerie finale . Good picture , thanks to magnificent acting , right pacing , well mounted edition and skillful special effects . Excellent support cast formed by notorious secondaries such as Melvyn Douglas as Senator Joe Carmichael , Jean Marsh as Joanna Russell , John Colicos as Captain DeWitt , Roberta Maxwell as Eva , Barry Morse as Dr. Pemberton and Eric Christmas as Albert Hammond . It is produced with acceptable budget by Mario Kassar and Andrew J Vajna , Carolco , and well recreated with high grade special effects that are frightening and horrifying to spectator . It’s actually a decent terror movie that achieved enough success at the box office and it will appeal to ghostly and eerie events fonds. The picture packs a colorful as well as dark cinematography by John Coquillon and eerie musical score by Rick Wilkins . The original ¨Exorcist¨ film (by William Friedkin) spawned a wave of demonic possession movies that continues unabated today as this ¨Changeling¨ (by Peter Medak), ¨Amytiville ¨(by Stuart Rosemberg) are two further examples of this sub-genre and following a great number of clumsy, stupid sequels .
The motion picture won best picture in the Canadian Film Awards and was well directed by Peter Medak , but before he was given the job, two British directors were considered; Tony Richardson declined due to creative differences . The picture has had a great influence of wide range , for example , Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar has claimed in several interviews that this is one of his all-time favorite Horror movies, up to the point of inspiring several scenes of ¨Tesis¨ and ¨The others¨ .
