Full Circle (1981)

In this TV horror, Mia Farrow plays Julia Lofting, a wealthy American woman living in London, who separates from her husband and moves into an old house in Kensington after the untimely passing of her daughter. But, as soon as she moves in, she sees apparitions of a young girl and believes it is her daughter, until being told otherwise.It is a dreary movie with a dark setting, poor acting, and muffled dialog - you could hardly make out what the actors were saying. The soundtrack was dreadful, pacing was slow, and the suspense was all over the place. Grade D-

After the accidental death of her daughter, Julia (Mia Farrow) leaves her domineering husband Magnus (Keir Dullea) and moves into an old house. Soon she believes she is being visited by her daughter's spirit. But when people around her are murdered, Julia realizes this isn't her daughter she's dealing with.I wish I understood the logic behind casting Americans Mia Farrow and Keir Dullea and then making them speak with British accents the whole film (when they remembered). I just don't see what them being Brits contributed to the film but their poor accents did take away from it. So perhaps they would have been better off making them Americans living in England or something. Anyway, that bit of business aside, it's a by-the-numbers ghost story with some mindless killings thrown in for good measure. There's the creepy old house, the strange noises, the gauzy photography, the haunting piano music, the obligatory séance scene, the investigation into a decades-old crime, and so on. It's based on Peter Straub's first novel "Julia." Haven't read it but I see many people who have saying it's better than this film. I'll assume it must be. Ghost stories have always fared better in books where fear of noises and shadows holds more weight. There's nothing scary about this movie. While it is watchable, it has very little atmosphere and the pace is terribly slow. The murders do nothing to liven things up, either. It's really pretty dull. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it unless you're a Straub fan or a ghost movie nut who just wants to see as many of them as possible. The only other thing worth seeing here is Tom Conti's hair, which is admittedly magnificent.

I can't believe Full Circle has received such poor ratings, it is an amazing little thriller with a dark mystery behind it. Julia has an unhappy marriage with her controlling husband, Magnus. Her only reason for not divorcing him is her daughter Katie. When Katie dies by choking to death, Julia is sent away to a mental ward by Magnus, and at her release she quickly boards a taxi and leaves before Magnus can get to her again. She buys a large house that is beautiful but rather creepy, with old furniture for the taking and all sorts of odd rooms. Julia believes she sees Katie at a nearby playground but only finds a poor cut apart tortoise and a knife where the supposed Katie had been standing. Horrified, Julia runs home. Her best friend Mark (closely resembles Cy Curnin from the Fixx), sympathizes with her, he secretly is in love with her but is cautious of Magnus, who makes fun of him for his carefree lifestyle. One day Julia allows her friend Lilly to have a séance in her living room, and this attracts a ghostly little girl. Soon Julia uncovers a dreadful past in the house; a little girl named Olivia used to live there but died. She was a sociopath, killing animals and having sex with the neighborhood children, and even murdering an innocent little boy just because he was German. Soon Julia's husband and friends begin to be killed in strange ways and she suspects Olivia's spirit may be behind it. The acting was extraordinary; Julia (Mia Farrow), had previously played the main character in Rosemary's Baby and was just as good in this film. Mark's character was played very well, too. The film is set in England and the scenery is very eerie and decrepit. It really adds to the film. The soundtrack was so amazing I went out and bought a CD of it, it's got that synthesized psychedelic sound of the 70's and a melancholy piano tune to make it truly creepy, really fitting the movie. I can't recall who played Olivia, some child actress, but although she never spoke she did a great job at being absolutely eerie. This movie deserves better ratings, it's a great little film that's totally worth watching. It was based on the novel 'Julia' by horror and mystery author Peter Straub.

Also known as The Haunting of Julia, which is the title under which you can find it on Netflix Instant, which is about the only place where you can see it. This is a forgotten British haunted house flick from the late '70s (actually not released until 1981 in the United States). Mia Farrow stars along with her Rosemary's Baby haircut. In the prologue, her young daughter starts choking on an apple and Farrow, in a panic, tries to slice into her throat with a knife, thus making sure she's quite dead. Haunted by guilt, she ends up leaving her husband (2001's Keir Dullea) and moving into an old mansion in London. She soon realizes she's not alone. The film follows basic genre beats for the most part - appliances get left on, Farrow gets curious about the house's history, discovers its grisly past, does some investigations, etc., etc. It's not too interesting, really, but it has some good moments, notably its fantastic final moments, which are so good I would almost recommend the film for that alone (it's fairly short at 97 minutes). Farrow is fine, and Dullea isn't bad, but the rest of the cast, made up of mumbly Brits, is incoherent. I also really loved the score by Colin Towns.