Part ghost story, part character study, and part political intriguer, The Changeling seamlessly combines many disparate elements into an engaging story. Director Peter Medak knows exactly what he's doing in this movie--his direction is simple, yet powerful; each shot is effective on its own while fitting together with all the others, building note by note into an intricate symphony. Medak and writers William Gray and Diana Maddox know the principles of ghost stories and use them to great effect, making the film thick with atmosphere. The acting is nothing short of perfect, the music is involving and curiously film-noirish and the frights are always slow-burning and enduring.

Although the story does utilize the conventions of gothic horror--it take place in a large, old house that holds secrets from the past which reach into the present--the story refuses to linger in cliché. Instead, it uses our expectations against us; it acknowledges the traditions of the genre only to bend them. Perhaps the best--and certainly among the classiest--of all ghost films.