The Changeling is a 1980 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by Peter Medak and starring George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, and Melvyn Douglas.

The accident prompts him to move to Seattle, where he rents a mansion from the agent of a local historical society, Claire Norman, who tells him that the property has been vacant for twelve years.

Soon after, a red stained glass window pane shatters as he is outside and, upon investigation, he finds a locked, boarded up door in a closet leading to a hidden attic bedroom.

John takes a music box from the mantle and discovers it plays the exact piano tune he has just recorded downstairs.

John discovers that Joseph Carmichael was a crippled and sickly six-year-old who was murdered in 1906 by his father Richard because he was unlikely to reach the age of 21, upon which he would have inherited an enormous fortune from his late grandfather.

To ensure the inheritance, Richard replaced the dead boy with one procured from a local orphanage and spirited him away to Europe under the pretense of seeking treatment for his condition.

Simultaneously, Senator Carmichael compares the two medals, and, realizing the truth, he falls into a trance staring at the portrait of his adoptive father.

The next morning, Joseph's burnt wheelchair sits amid the ruins of the mansion and his music box begins playing a lullaby.

The film's screenplay was inspired by mysterious events that allegedly took place at the Henry Treat Rogers mansion in Cheesman Park, Denver, Colorado, while playwright Russell Hunter was living there during the 1960s.

After experiencing a series of unexplained phenomena, Hunter said he found a century-old journal in a hidden room detailing the life of a disabled boy who was kept in isolation by his parents.

[15] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote in his review of the film: "If it only took craftsmanship to make a haunted house movie, The Changeling would be a great one.

"[16] Richard Grenier of Cosmopolitan praised Medak's direction, but added: "it is Scott, using the full range of his immense talent, who gives the story its spine-tingling impact," and deemed it the best horror film of the year.

"[19] A review published in Florida Today praised the film as "the best ghost story of the year," noting Medak's direction as "brilliant," and likening it to The Innocents.

[20] The Arizona Republic's Michael Maza wrote a less favorable review, calling the film "a sure-thing haunted house story" and "routine picture" supplemented with "formulaic eerie noises, cobwebbed stairways, crashing glassware and unbelievable coincidences.

"[21] In The Morning News, the film was noted as a "good ghost story ... George C. Scott's demonic energy works well for him here, giving a force and power that might elude a weaker actor.

"[22] Fiona Ferguson of Time Out was critical of the plot, noting: "the leaps made by Scott's agile mind in identifying both victim and usurper leave logic and credence on the starting block.

The consensus reads: "George C. Scott's somber performance gives this haunted house horror a moving soul to go along with its harrowing scares.