Full Circle (1981)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie can better be found under the title "Full Circle". First and foremost, it must be put into perfect perspective: it was released years AFTER the blockbuster "The Exorcist". Such perspective should provide the reasonable expectation of suspense and supernatural horror, and this movie falls so far short as to have deserved the shelving it got -- those reviews that hail it as great and thankfully resurrected from the vaults of overlooked films are off base, because this movie deserved to have been forgotten. Why? First and foremost is the painfully sluggish pace, as it moves so slowly as to border on absolute boredom and disinterest. Second, the unexplainably disengaged characters, most of whom are dispatched (as in killed) with unexplained relationship to, and peculiarly disconnected from the opening sequence and start of the movie. Third, there is really nothing frightening in the movie, just oddity at best. I wasn't scared once, not even once. The brilliant actor Keir Dullea was relegated to a character of no importance and so was completely wasted in this film. Then there is the element of story/script credibility, which comes into question when a character is killed in unoccupied house, after which days and weeks go by with no discerned stench of the dead body. Frightening? Hah! Far from it, and the ending was ultimately anti-climactic, and thereby unsatisfying.

To date there have been only two films based on books by bestselling author Peter Straub: "Ghost Story", which was an appalling mess, and this one. "Full Circle" is derived from "Julia", Straub's second published novel and first foray into the horror genre--and, while certain arbitrary departures from the book prevent this film from being totally effective, it does capture the formidably spooky atmosphere of Straub's prose. What clicks: A.) Mia Farrow as Julia. She's every bit as persistent, and as fragile, as her counterpart in the novel; desperate for some sense of resolution after the tragic death of her nine-year-old daughter, Julia puts herself at greater and greater risk as she pursues the ghost that haunts her newly-purchased London townhouse and the park adjacent to it. The final encounter between Julia and Olivia is beautifully, deliciously eerie, and works despite the fact that nothing so definite occurs in the book. B.) Colin Towns' sensitive soundtrack, especially in that final scene. What doesn't: the decision to make Magnus, Julia's estranged husband, a much younger and less menacing character than he was in the novel. Keir Dullea delivers an adequate performance as this diminished Magnus, but he's only an incidental character here--not a link to the troubled history of Julia's house, as he was in the book. Missed opportunity: the exclusion of Mona, the little black girl encountered by Julia in the novel. The reader is never quite sure who or what Mona is, but each of her appearances in the book is a precursor to one of Olivia's own dreadful manifestations (or to the revelation of something terrible that Olivia has done). When Julia asks Mona the name of the blonde girl in the park, the answer she receives is not "Olivia" but "Doolya". This is one of the novel's most unsettling moments. Surely it could have been worked into the movie somehow? This is only director Richard Loncraine's second film, but he handles the subject matter deftly. "Full Circle" (which played U.S. theaters in 1981 as "The Haunting of Julia") will please most fans of Peter Straub and intelligent horror in general. Seven and a half stars.

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.

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."