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Online Store - The Haunting of Julia
![The Haunting of Julia]()
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Manufacturer: Magnum Entertainment
Starring: Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, Jill Bennett, Robin Gammell
Directed By: Richard Loncraine
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0086112008332
Format: NTSC
Label: Magnum Entertainment
Manufacturer: Magnum Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Magnum Entertainment
Running Time: 98
Studio: Magnum Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1981-09-11
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Editorial Reviews:
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After the tragic death of her child, a woman moves to an old gothic house to recover. In the house, mysterious things begin to happen and the woman is confronted with the ghost of a child who was murdered there 30 years earlier. Based on the novel by Peter Straub.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Alternately Titled FULL CIRCLE
Comment: I saw part of this movie on TV when I was in college well over twenty years ago and the chilling images (some shown and some just implied) have stayed with me all this time. I was delighted to see my cable provider is showing it as part of the "on demand" feature and I finally watched the movie in it entirety this afternoon.
Mia Farrow is perfectly cast as poor vulnerable Julia an American heiress living in London with her husband who seems more interested in her cash than her. When their beloved eight year old daughter tragically chokes to death at breakfast (if they had only known the Heimlich maneuver) her all ready weak marriage falls apart and she rents a huge furnished town home though her husband and his sister continually make efforts to woo Julia and her money back. In her new home Julia senses the spirit of a child trying to make contact with her and after a seance is held and the medium reports "horrible things" she is determined to find out more. A string of tragic deaths follow Julia as she researches the house's history and at the film's very sad conclusion the viewer realizes the meaning of the alternative title FULL CIRCLE.
The film is very creepy and atmospheric thanks to both the dreary London location and the haunting score that perfectly complements the film. Like many good ghost stores there is some ambiguity left as to whether this is a haunted house movie, a story of the living being possessed by the dead or just a tale of a person losing their sanity. Although the plot is basically coherent there are a few scenes which are confusing and the film would be better if they were more clearly rendered. The movie is based on Peter Straub's novel JULIA and I understand many people find the book much superior to the film and I have just placed it on my "to be read" list.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Haven't seen it in moer than 20 years but it stuck with me
Comment: I remember seeing this movie on TV one night when I was a kid, maybe 25 years ago or so and its stuck with me all these years. I could never remember the movie's title but I always remember it as the movie where the little girl dies while choking on an apple. there were many other scary things in this film involving the ghost of the little girl but after 25 years they are all just sort of dreamlike nightmarish visions now. I've been trying to locate a copy of this on dvd as I dion't know a VHS player anymore.
But for a horror film that I haven't seen in almost 25 years that is just now vague memories and hazy visions to have stuck with me for this long says something about the film. I've spent years having this film pop into my head and spent many nights at my computer trying to find it online based manily on "its the film where the little girl dies while shen she chokes on an apple"
I'm sure now this movie probably won;t scare me but when I was a kid it was one of the most frightening things I'd ever seen. Hopefully it someday comes to dvd.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Scary as hell
Comment: This movie should be on DVD. Richard Loncraine successfully translates Peter Straub's magnificent novel "Julia" to the screen with Mia Farrow at her post-"Rosemary's Baby" best. Watching this creepy, elegantly demented little train-wreck is not unlike having a particularly frightening experience under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug, I imagine.
Julia Lofting, a wealthy American woman living in London, loses her child in a tragic and ugly accident (the girl chokes to death on a piece of fruit in the opening scene) and things spiral downward from there to say the very least.
Divorcing her insensitive and callous husband, Lofting elects to rent an apartment which was formerly inhabited by a dysfunctional family with a little girl who also died very young and who was quite troublesome--involved, in fact, in the murder of another boy. Farrow's already unstable character becomes obsessed with the girl and the rest is, you might say, supernatural history. The mood of the film is tragic, ethereal, dreamlike, and nasty as hell. The last scene will not leave the viewer's mind for quite awhile.
With all the trash out there called "horror" these days, it really puzzles me why they don't dredge this one up and throw it onto the shelves in a decent format. It is a superb example of what the macabre can do in the hands of the right director. A must see.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An excellent film
Comment: This is truly a fine, well-made, frightening film. The filmmakers did an excellent job of using lighting, editing, music, etc. to create a menacing mood that leads inexorably to the conclusion of the film. THIS FILM IS WORTHY OF A DVD RELEASE.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A very sad, moody tale.
Comment: This is a very slow moving and understated ghost story starring Mia Farrow in a typicaly frail and delicate role as a woman named Julia who has a nervous breakdown following the accidental the death of her daughter. She moves to a large London townhouse to try and recover, but soon starts seeing visions of a ghostly young girl, and wonders if her daughter has come back from the dead. There is indeed a ghost - but unfortunately for Julia, it's not her daughter.
Mia Farrow excels in the title role of Julia. She has a unique ability of expressing fragility that few other actresses can acheive without making you want to slap them. You only feel compassion and empathy for the character of Julia while watching her face the unknown and try to work out who or what is trying to make contact with her in the big lonely house she has retreated to. The mood of the film reminded me a lot of "Don't Look Now", but the structure of the story is more similar to "The Changeling", in so far as having a grieving parent make contact with the spirit of a long dead child while recovering from the trauma of their own loss. I'm not sure which is the better of the two ghost stories, but "The Haunting of Julia" is certainly the slower of the two and lasks the complex secrets and supernatural manifestations of "The Changeling".
But that's not to say that this film is without effective scares. One of it's nastier surprises is the opening scene in which Julia's daughter actually dies - it's a cruel and upsetting death that unsurprisingly leaves Julia with a huge sense of guilt - and a horrible scenario to imagine for any parent. The remainder of the film spends a lot of time exploring Julia's state of mind, so don't be surprised if you feel as though not a lot of "haunting" is actually going on...but if you are prepared to enjoy this as a character study of an unbalanced woman, the revelations of the story will become much more effective. The acting is good all round as is the camera work, with a lot of slightly soft-focus shots adding a sombre mood to many scenes.
I am not going to reveal any more about the plot, which is a shame because that means I can't tell you about the amazing ending. It's not totally unexpected, in fact there is every indication that the film expects you to realise that it is inevitable, but it's still incredibly poignant - probably more so for that very reason, with a very, very slow final revolving camera shot that gives a quite chilling effect to the scene. Worth waiting for.
The film as a whole is also worth your time - if you can find a copy, as there is currently no DVD release, which is a shame considering the trash that keeps turning up on DVD these days. Possibly something of a lost film, it has never had a huge following outside of a small cult fan-base. This could easily change with the right marketing, along with restoring it to it's proper widescreen ration, as the video copy I used to have was in pan 'n' scan, which ruined the presentation generally but also seriously mis-framed a lot of very important shots. I'd love to see it in widescreen, and if it came out like that on DVD, I'd buy it without hesitation.
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