Following her daughter's death, a mentally unhinged woman moves into a new apartment to get over the incident and finds that the spirits of other deceased children haunt the house and forces her into a battle to save her sanity.Overall, this was a pretty weak haunted house effort. One of the few areas this manages to get right is the chilling atmosphere within the house, as this one gives off the same typical vibe of films from those times where it's darkened corridors and squeaking doors are far more alive than they really should which is handled all the while by her paranoid state in the house. This is nicely aided by the few rather clever attacks here from the ingenious manner of killing off their daughter in the beginning while also forcing the horrid nature of the act mostly off-screen for a particularly nasty opening sequence, and is furthered along by the few murders here with the slit throat and bathtub electrocution sequences getting a lot of big play here for those reasons. Likewise, the manner in which this one sets up the mystery surrounding the other dead children is handled quite well as the forgoing mystery is pretty chilling, but beyond this there's not much else to this one. The fact that there's just so much talking and just letting nothing happen that it really starts to wear thin by the ending as there's just nothing of remote interest as we watch her simply sit around in the house while she talks to herself. Beyond that, none of these scenes are really that interesting since they don't really showcase anything all that exciting and in the end really leaves this one quite well defined by its few good scenes scattered amongst a horde of rather bland and hardly interesting scenes that take up more than half of the screen-time here.Rated R: Violence, Language and strong themes of child abuse and violence.

The Haunting of Julia (1977) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Mia Farrow plays Julia Lofting, a woman suffering from depression after her daughter choked to death on an apple. After being released from a hospital Julia decides to leave her husband and buy a house on her own where she just sits around crying over her loss but soon a vengeful ghost starts to visit her. THE HAUNTING OF JULIA appears to have quite a few fans and while the opening thirty-minutes are great the film quickly falls apart and runs out of fresh ideas. I've heard that the novel by Peter Straub is actually very good and I think it's clear that something has been lost from the page to the screen. I say that because the film starts off as your typical ghost story but then it starts to branch off to other murders and other visions. Several supporting characters are introduced and before you know it the "story" has gotten much bigger yet it never really goes anywhere. The first thirty-minutes, as I said, are great and then the next twenty or so minutes features non-stop scenes of Farrow either crying or having someone telling her to move on in life. These scenes really start to repeat themselves and I think some of them should have just been taken out. The final twenty-five minutes are when all hell breaks loose and it just seems too uneven and messy for its own good. Farrow offers up an excellent performance as the grieving mother and there's not a single frame where you won't believe that she's this character. The supporting players are also fine even though none of them are given a great role. The film's greatest moment is the first scene where we get a very dramatic and chilling account of the child's death. I think any parent will really be shaken by this sequence, which is brilliantly directed and the impact is certainly felt. It's just too bad that the rest of the film didn't contain as much power.

Mia Farrow plays upper class woman who lost her eight year old daughter due to tragic circumstances.Her grief is immense.She distances herself from her wealthy husband Keir Dullea and begins to live in a flat on the outskirts of London.When paranormal party séance starts she begins to see sinister manifestations of children around her.As the story begins to unravel it seems that it's connected with brutal torture and murder of a small boy many years ago...Adapted from excellent and truly creepy Peter Straub's novel "Julia" this slow-moving ghost story is effectively eerie.The acting is fantastic and the conclusion is unforgettably devastating.The piano-and-strings score by Colin Towns adds a lot to subtle atmosphere of dread.8 spectral visions out of 10.

Maybe I need to see this movie again in order to better appreciate it, but in all honesty, I feel this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I'll start by saying that there ARE two redeemable qualities about it... okay, three: The views of London, A Wonderfully romantic old house, and Tom Conti's portrayal as Mark, an antique salesman, and a mutual friend of Julia (Mia Farrow) and her husband Magnus. Aside from these things, I have no praise to offer. Timing and transition are very important, but almost nonexistent in this movie.For example, one minute, Julia's in bed, grieving the sudden loss of her daughter, and the next minute, she has rushed out the door, gotten a cab, and purchased this huge Victorian house because she's leaving her husband... sure, happens all the time...Secondly, just WHO are we supposed to be focusing on here: is it Julia's husband Magnus and his sister (because he seems to be plotting to prove that Julia is mentally unstable and his sister doesn't want him to, but neither idea ever develops); is it the sudden death of Julia's daughter?; the death of the young boy in the park?; the death of the little blonde girl haunting the house (who is not Julia's daughter)?; the mother of the young boy who died in the park?; the mother of the young girl who died in the house?, or the piano salesman who was supposed to have seen it the little blonde girl get killed? If this sentence confuses you, that's my point: The whole movie confused me. Okay, so MANY people are haunting Julia, but which one is the most important? Thirdly, why are there so many unanswered questions? It appears that Julia's husband gets into her basement when she isn't home, and while he is searching for her, the spirit of this elusive little blonde girl finds him and kills him. However, Julia never finds his body. If I'm correct, he landed on the basement floor and laid in a pool of blood from his head wound; but that doesn't develop into anything. I guess when he died, so did that part of the plot. Why does Julia eventually "welcome" the spirit of this little blonde girl into her arms, wanting to tell her it's safe, and then suddenly, she's asleep in her chair and the blonde girl is gone? Odd. Why (and this gives plot away)... is the good guy killed, and for no apparent reason? Mark, the one that's supported Julia and protected her when no one else would, is suddenly electrocuted one night in the bath tub, when the spirit of this little blonde girl pushes a lamp into his bath water.Fourthly, the plot of this movie is terribly slow, and thus hard to pay attention to, the "creepy" music is so overkill that it drowns any suspense that would be created at tense moments. The audience is not allowed to feel the tension for themselves because the music takes it all over before we've even had a chance to see what's happened.In my opinion, Tom Conti is a wonderful actor, and his performance in this movie does add some humor and vulnerability to a film that is otherwise.. hard to get through. Good for you Tom, but I think I'll stick to "Reuben, Reuben" and "Shirley Valentine."