The scariest ghost story of the 1980s, THE CHANGELING, comes to Blu-ray from a 4K restoration courtesy of Severin Films in standard and limited edition packages.

After his wife (Jean Marsh, FRENZY) and daughter Kathy (Michelle Martin) are killed in a road accident, composer John Russell (George C. Scott, PATTON) quits New York for Seattle to teach music at his alma mater. In need of a remote place where he can compose at all hours, John is shown the long-uninhabited Chessman House by local historical society representative Claire Norman (Scott's wife Trish Van Devere, THE HEARSE). It soon becomes apparent, however, that he is not alone. Doors open on their own, a barrage of clanging sounds wake him up at the same time every night, and his keepsake of Kathy's toy ball bounces down the stairs and reappears no matter how many times he tries to get rid of it. At first he believes that his daughter's ghost is trying to contact him; however, he is nudged from the beyond to discover a hidden attic room in which he discovers a music box – the tune of which he has been composing – and a child-sized wheelchair. John and Claire dig into the past of the house – which old-timer Miss Huxley (Ruth Springford, SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY) informs them should never have been rented as it "doesn't want people" – and discovers the accidental death of a little girl; however, a séance conducted in the house reveals another presence desperate to contact John and able to visit violence upon anyone who attempts to interfere, among them venerated Senator Joseph Carmichael (Melvyn Douglas, THE OLD DARK HOUSE) who would prefer that the distant past remain buried.

The subtle and genuinely creepy polar opposite to the likes of POLTERGEIST, THE CHANGELING succeeds not only as a technical exercise in suspense and scares but as one of the most moving takes on since-overused ghost story trope of a protagonist who has suffered tragic loss becoming vulnerable to the spirit world since DON'T LOOK NOW with which it shares recurring motives of water and shattered glass (although THE CHANGELING shares some similar imagery and plot devices with the relentlessly grim television adaptation of THE WOMAN IN BLACK, the more recent Hammer adaptation imposes loss upon its protagonist to lesser effect). Director Peter Medak (THE RULING CLASS) deftly manipulates a checklist of ghost story moments and manages to wring as many chills out of moments the audience can see coming (the camera tracking away from departing characters to objects which suddenly move on their own) to jumps in which the viewer is shown the character's reaction before the sight. The film's main set-pieces are the film's séance in which the spirit communicates with a medium (stage actress Helen Burns) through automatic writing, and John discovery of another participant in the séance while listening to a tape recording afterward. The mere sight of the child's cobweb-covered wheelchair has seared itself into the memories of many a viewer (particularly one low angle shot at the top of the stairs). The gruff Scott surprises with his nuanced portrayal of a shattered man who at first is driven to resolve the mystery simply because he "can't go through all this again" and then to expose the truth out of fear of whom the spirit might harm next. Even the film's villain is more of a proxy target of retribution and is genuinely pained when forced to face a truth he does not want to believe is true. Scott is well-supported by a roster of Canadian and British talent – a few exteriors were shot in Seattle but several exterior and interior locations were shot around Vancouver – including THE FUGITIVE's Barry Morse as a dotty parapsychologist, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's John Colicos as a police captain sent by Carmichael to intimidate John, THE FLYING NUN's Mother Superior Madeleine Sherwood as Claire's mother, Frances Hyland (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME) as a woman whose daughter has a terrifying encounter with ghost miles from the house, and Eric Christmas (HAROLD AND MAUDE) as the medium's husband. The striking Chessman House was actually a distressed façade erected in front of a smaller house on the property while the interiors were a sprawling, continuous three-story set meticulously designed by Trevor Williams (NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS) through which the camera of Johnny Coquillon (WITCHFINDER GENERAL) glides handheld like the physical embodiment of the restless ghost. Although Rick Wilkins is credited with composing the score, much of the score was actually ghost-written by credited arranger Kenneth Wannberg (THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT) while the music box tune was the work of Howard Blake (FLASH GORDON).

Given insufficient theatrical release by Lord Grade's Associated Film Distributors, THE CHANGELING attracted much of its audience via TV and Vestron Video's dingy cassette release. HBO's 2000 DVD provided a nice upgrade in terms of an anamorphic transfer and Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track, but it was otherwise barebones. In Europe, rights owner Studio Canal licensed the title to several territories including the UK and Germany, and their DVD edition was identical with menus in multiple languages and multiple audio/subtitle options. While that disc featured an audio commentary by director Peter Medak, the anamorphic transfer was over-sharpened and green-tinged. Severin in the US and Second Sight in the UK concurrently announced all-region Blu-ray packages from a new 4K restoration with virtually the same video extras. Under review is Severin's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Blu-ray which boasts richer colors stripped of the aforementioned green tinge, a more faithful representation of the grain structure that actually enhances the chilly feeling felt throughout while calling attention both to the nuances of Trevor Williams' impressive sets and a few production hiccups like a camera shadow during one of the creepy handheld shots and one camera tilt down from the third floor ceiling of the staircase to eye level that seems bumpy despite the use of an ultra-wide angle lens. The image is darker but has more depth when stripped away of the aforementioned green tinge, while highlights and reflections on varnished surfaces less noticeable before sometimes draw the eye from the focus of the shot. Audio options include a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 encode of the original Dolby Stereo mix in which underlying hiss is evident in the many long silences, as well as a cleaner DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in which voices sometimes seem recessed by positions of the actors in the frame while giving depth to the film's surround whispers and offscreen noises (although nowhere near what one would expect of a similar film actually mixed in 5.1). As with the aforementioned overseas DVDs, the disc also includes German, Italian, and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono tracks as well as English SDH subtitles.

The Medak commentary recorded for the DVDs has been dropped in favor of a new track fearing Medak and producer Joel B. Michaels (BLACK MOON RISING). Michaels reveals that the pitch came to him as a three hour tape recording in first person by composer Russell Hunter who claimed that it was a true story. He bought the rights for a million dollars and hired two writers to adapt it – Canadian William Grey (HUMONGOUS) and British Diana Maddox (THE AMATEUR) – only to replace them and rewrite it when their adaptation moved away from the spirit of the Hunter source. He also mentions that Donald Cammell (PERFORMANCE) and Tony Richardson (TOM JONES) were approached before Medak. Medak wanted to do the project because it scared him as much as the script for THE HAUNTING – on which he is uncredited but was presumably second assistant director as he was on some Hammer films like PHANTOM OF THE OPERA from that period – but nearly did not take it because he felt that the intended location was all wrong until Michaels promised to raise more funds to build sets (including the aforementioned façade). They discuss Scott's performance, highlight the work of the supporting cast members, the subtle scares, and the sound design while lamenting the decision to let Lord Grade's new Associated Film Distributors handle American distribution rather than MGM.

"The House on Cheesman Park: The Haunting True Story of THE CHANGELING" (17:31) is a featurette in which Phil Goldstein (author of "The Ghosts of Denver: Capitol Hill") sheds light on the local legends and "true story" behind the film, starting with Cheesman Park's beginnings as a scenic city cemetery soon overloaded by a high infant mortality rate and the poor health of prospectors, paupers funerals in which bodies were dumped into nearby vacant lots (and excavated during public works projects in the seventies), the shortcut taken by the undertaker hired to move the roughly twenty-thousand bodies when the area was to be developed into a public park at the turn of the century, and the bodies that remained when the city gave loved ones ninety days to claim the remains themselves. Goldstein then discusses Russell Hunter who moved into a house across from the park and claimed to have been haunted by a ghost leading to his discovery of a secret attic room and the belongings of a child, Hunter's investigation, as well as Goldstein's own research into the families that inhabited the house before Hunter. "The Music of THE CHANGELING" (8:59) is an interview with music arranger Wannberg who discusses the theme he composed, his dissatisfaction with the music box tune that was composed before his involvement, temp tracking the film, and his reactions to the initial mix done in Canada. The featurette does not touch upon Wilkins' contributions or that of Blake.