Full Circle (1977 film)

Full Circle, more popularly[2] released as The Haunting of Julia, is a 1977 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Loncraine, and starring Mia Farrow and Keir Dullea. Based on the novel Julia by Peter Straub, it is the first film realization of one of his books, and follows a woman who, after the death of her daughter, finds herself haunted by the vengeful ghost of a young girl in her new home.

Full Circle
Theatrical one-sheet under
The Haunting of Julia title
Directed byRichard Loncraine
Written byHarry Bromley Davenport
Screenplay byDave Humphries
Based onJulia
by Peter Straub
Starring
Music byColin Towns
CinematographyPeter Hannan
Edited byRon Wisman
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
Running time
98 minutes
CountryCanada
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

A co-production between Canada and the United Kingdom, the film was shot as The Haunting of Julia in London, though it was first released under the title Full Circle, opening at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 1977. It was subsequently released theatrically in England and Canada in May 1978. The film went unreleased in the United States until May 1981, when it was given theatrical distribution through Cinema International Corporation.

The film received mixed reviews from critics at the time of its release, with some praising its atmosphere and performances, while others deemed it either predictable or too plodding.

Plot

Julia Lofting is an American woman living in London with her husband, Magnus, and their young daughter, Kate. During breakfast one morning, Kate begins choking. Unable to dislodge the food, Julia attempts perform a tracheotomy, which results in Kate bleeding to death. Kate's death triggers Julia into leaving Magnus, as their marriage was already unhappy. Julia moves into a large, fully-furnished house in Holland Park. While moving in, Julia finds a second-floor room containing a child's possessions. Shortly after moving in, Julia begins to suspect Magnus is breaking into the house. In the park, Julia sees a young girl that she believes is Kate, but the child disappears. Unusual things take place in the house such as strange noises and appliances turning on by themselves. Later, Julia again sees the girl in the park and finds a mutilated turtle and knife where she stood.

Lonely, Julia holds a gathering of friends at her new home, including Magnus' sister, Lily. Lily brings with her Mrs. Flood, a psychic medium who suggests that they conduct a séance. Julia is hesitant, but agrees to participate. During the séance, Mrs. Flood becomes frightened and tells Julia to leave the house immediately. Moments later, one of Lily's friends falls down the stairs before Mrs. Flood can explain what she saw. Later, Julia is informed by Mrs. Flood that she had a vision of a boy bleeding to death in the park.

The next day, while Julia is out, Magnus breaks into her house. He sees something and follows it to the basement where he falls from the staircase, fatally cutting his throat on a broken mirror. Wondering about the past residents of the house, Julia is told by a neighbor that it once belonged to Heather Rudge, who moved away after her daughter Olivia died. Upon further investigating, Julia discovers an article about Geoffrey Braden, a young boy who was murdered in the park in the 1940s. Julia visits Geoffrey's mother, Greta, who says a vagrant was executed for the crime but that she believes it was children in the park who murdered her son. Greta claims his murder was a hate crime motivated by the fact that Geoffrey was German. She says she has followed the lives of the children who were in the park with Geoffrey that day, and asks Julia to visit the remaining two, now adults: Captain Paul Winter and David Swift.

Julia first visits Swift, an alcoholic who confesses that Olivia had a sadistic power over him and the other children: He tells Julia that Olivia taught them about sex, and made each of them perform a ritual killing of an animal. He recounts Geoffrey's murder, which was orchestrated by Olivia: She forced the other boys to hold him down while she smothered him with a coat. After he was dead, Olivia used a penknife to castrate him. Shortly after Julia leaves Swift's apartment, he slips on a broken bottle in the stairwell and falls to his death. Meanwhile, Julia tells her friend Mark, an antiques dealer, what she has discovered but he does not believe her. That evening, he is electrocuted by a lamp falling into his bath.

Julia visits Olivia's mother, Heather, in a psychiatric home. Heather confesses that she strangled Olivia to death after learning of Geoffrey's murder, and insists that Olivia was evil. As Julia leaves she looks over her shoulder at Mrs. Rudge, who sees Olivia's eyes and dies of a fright-induced heart attack. Julia returns home, where she witnesses Olivia's apparition, first in the bathroom mirror and then in the living room playing with Kate's beloved cymbal-banging clown toy. Julia takes the toy from Olivia, offers her a hug, and asks her to stay. She proceeds to embrace Olivia, only to have her throat slashed by the sharp edges of the toy. Collapsing onto a lounge chair, Julia bleeds to death.

Cast

Release

Though filmed as The Haunting of Julia,[3] the film was first released under the title Full Circle at the San Sebastián International Film Festival on 11 September 1977 and at the Avoriaz Film Festival in France in 1978.[1] The film opened in London on 4 May 1978 and in Canada on 19 May 1978.[1][4]

In the United States, the film was released under The Haunting of Julia title, premiering in New York City on 29 May 1981.[5] It subsequently opened in San Francisco on 1 July 1981,[6] and later screened in Boston beginning 2 October 1981.[7] In the United States, the film still failed to find an audience.[8]

Critical response

Following the film's premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival, The Guardian noted: "Some of the technical work is first-class, as are many of the supporting performances (you'll either like or hate Mia Farrow according to taste). But the film would have been more interesting as a proper study of a woman "under the influence" than it is a slightly more derivative tale of evil working from beyond the grave."[9] Film critic Derek Malcolm, writing after the film's May 1978 release in the United Kingdom, praised Farrow's performance, as well as the film's cinematography and atmosphere, summarizing that the film "is well worth seeing, even if it does suffer from those two well-known British cinematic deficiencies—lack of a really clear purpose and the narrative drive to go with it."[10] Tom Milne of The Observer alternately felt the film was predictable, and that director Loncraine's "piling on the emptily brooding stylistics does little to help matters."[11]

Elizabeth Smith of the Montreal Gazette praised Farrow's performance as "harrowing," adding that "the tension is strong throughout, never a let-up or a breather...  you'll leave the movie drained of emotion. It's a terrifying film."[12] Variety noted that the film "has a fairly tight script which, in first half at least, builds up scary tensions nicely. There's a performance by Mia Farrow which is somewhat reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby, and enough supernatural trappings to please those who are fascinated by the occult."[13] Ernest Leogrande of the New York Daily News gave the film a one-and-a-half-star rating out of four, writing that it "seems to be structured around the themes of expiation and forgiveness... [but] it's hard to get interested in the fate of the pallid Julia."[5]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times was unimpressed by the film, writing that it "manages to draw on every horror movie cliche imaginable and still make very little sense...  As directed by Richard Loncraine, The Haunting of Julia is virtually scareless, and the camera angles provide advance tipoffs to the few frightening episodes that punctuate the dull ones."[14]

Home media

Media Home Entertainment released the film on VHS in the United States in 1981 under The Haunting of Julia title.[15] It was re-released on VHS in 1988 by Magnum Entertainment.[16]

References
  1. "Full Circle". Library and Archives Canada. 2 July 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  2. "The Haunting of Julia (Full Circle)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 28 August 2020.
  3. Meehan 2019, p. 12.
  4. "Movies". Calgary Herald. 18 May 1978. p. 21 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Leogrande, Ernest (29 May 1981). "Mia spooked, film sputters". New York Daily News. p. 175 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Haunting of Julia". The San Francisco Examiner. 28 June 1981. p. 255 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "The Arts Week Ahead". The Boston Globe. September 27, 1981. p. B9 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "The Haunting of Julia". TV Guide. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014.
  9. "San Sebastian". The Guardian. 16 September 1977. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Malcolm, Derek (4 May 1978). "The thriller finds a German friend". The Guardian. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Milne, Tom (7 May 1978). "Cowboy in Hamburg". The Observer. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Smith, Elizabeth (29 July 1978). "Mia Farrow is harrowing as innocent caught in evil". Montreal Gazette. p. 67 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Variety Staff (31 December 1976). "Full Circle". Variety. Archived from the original on 6 July 2020.
  14. Maslin, Janet (29 May 1981). "'Haunting of Julia' Frazzles Mia Farrow". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020.
  15. The Haunting of Julia (VHS). Media Home Entertainment. M 195.
  16. St. Clair, Julia (23 June 1989). "Videos On Review". Independent Record. p. 36 – via Newspapers.com.

Sources
  • Meehan, Paul (2019). The Haunted House on Film: An Historical Analysis. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-476-67458-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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