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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: April 18th, 2023.
Director: Richard Loncraine
Cast: Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, Robin Gammell, Jill Bennett
Year: 1977
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The Haunting Of Julia – Movie Review:
Directed by Richard Loncraine two years after he made Slade In Flame (one of the coolest music-related movies of the glam rock era), and based on the novel ‘Full Circle’ (which is the title we see on the elements used for the transfer on this release) by the late Peter Straub, 1977’s The Haunting Of Julia opens in the home of Magnus Lofting (Keir Dullea) and his wife Julia (Mia Farrow) where, during breakfast, their daughter Kate (Sophie Ward) chokes on her breakfast after eating too quickly. When Magnus holds her upside down but fails to get whatever is lodged in her throat out, Julia grabs a knife and tries to perform an impromptu tracheotomy, but it doesn’t go well and Kate dies.
The next time we see Julia, she’s being released from a mental hospital but rather than go home with Magnus, she instead buys herself a home in London where she wants to live without him. Magnus isn’t happy with this, but it isn’t because of love, it’s more likely because of Julia’s trust fun. Regardless, she strikes up a relationship with a new man named Mark Berkeley (Tom Conti) while Magnus starts to make assumptions that Julia has lost her mind.
When Julia’s sister-in-law, Lily (Jill Bennett), who she is still friendly with, asks Julia if she and her friends can use her new home for a séance they’d been planning with a medium named Mrs. Flood (Anna Wing), she agrees. Things take a strange turn when one of Lily’s friends falls down the stairs and Mrs. Flood sees something that terrifies her as it relates to the home’s past. Meanwhile, Julia begins to believe that she’s being haunted by the ghost of a young girl who may or may not be Kate.
First things first, The Haunting Of Julia is very much a slow burn picture, one that deals with loss and grief more than it does abject horror, but it isn’t short on creepy moments. Genre fans who don’t need to rely on jump scares or loud stingers and who can appreciate atmosphere and tension will certainly appreciate what Richard Loncraine and company have accomplished with this unique picture. It’s a movie that leaves the viewer to figure things out on their own as to Julia’s experiences and mental state, never really providing concrete answers as to whether or not the film’s supernatural elements are happening ‘in the real world’ or if they’re simply a figment of Julia’s imagination brought on by the loss of her daughter and her fragile mental state.
The acting in the movie is strong across the board. Mia Farrow is every bit as good as you’d hope she could be here, playing her character with real depth and believably fragility, the kind you’d expect a mother to show after the loss of her daughter. She’s excellent here, it’s hard to imagine anyone else doing a better job in this role than she does. Keir Dullea is also very good as Julia’s husband, Magnus. We don’t like him from the beginning of the film and that doesn’t change as the story plays out. Jill Bennett and Anna Wing are also quite good in their supporting roles, while Tom Conti (who had worked with Loncraine earlier on the aforementioned Slade In Flame) is likeable as Julia’s amiable, if goofy, new friend.
The cinematography from Peter Hannan is top notch, capturing every nook and cranny of Julia’s strange new home with some interesting angles and solid lightning, while the quirky score from Colin Towns may take some getting used to but ultimately winds up suiting the tone of the movie very well.
The Haunting Of Julia – UHD Review:
The Haunting Of Julia arrives on UHD from Shout! Factory in an HVEC encoded 2160p transfer taken from a 4k restoration of the original 35mm negative and framed at 2.35.1 widescreen with HDR10 enhancement and DolbyVision. Picture quality is quite nice. Colors are reproduced accurately and while this isn’t the most vibrant looking movie you’ll ever see – it’s heavy on earth tones and takes place primarily indoors in dimly lit environments – it all feels very true to source. Skin tones look lifelike and natural and we get good black levels as well. There aren’t any obvious compression problems nor are there any issues with noise reduction or edge enhancement. Detail on the UHD does surpass the included Blu-ray quite nicely, especially (though not limited to) in close up shots. There’s good depth to the picture and there’s very little in the way of print damage to note.
The English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track on the disc does, unfortunately, have some noticeable sibilance in a few spots as well as some noticeable hiss. It’s prominent enough that you won’t have to listen for it to hear it. There are also spots where the balance sounds a little off, meaning you’ll be reaching for the remote a few times during the movie to adjust the volume. Those complaints aside, the score has good depth and presence and sounds pretty solid.
The only extra on the UHD is an audio commentary by director Richard Loncraine and film historian Simon Fitzjohn. Loncraine talks about his background, how he got into filmmaking after leaving television work and doing documentary work and then doing Slade In Flame, how the opening sets things up on a very downbeat start, details on the camerawork and the cinematography, what Mia Farrow was like to work with and the importance of having her name attached to the project, why certain scenes are shot the way that they are, some of the themes that the movie deals with, the specifics of the hazy lighting used in much of the film, how to read the scene at the park with the tortoise, how much rehearsal time they had and what the cast were like to work with, lots of the different details that are noticeable in the background of the movie, the importance of the score in the film, the main house location and the use of mirrors in that location, why certain lenses were used for certain sequences and the different theories that are out there regarding the movie's ending.
The included Blu-ray disc contains the same commentary as well as a quick forty-second introduction to the film by director Richard Loncraine. As far as the featurettes go, in Park Life Simon Fitzjohn revisits the locations from the film for sixteen minutes. Here we get a look at, and a brief history of, the some of the locations used including the library, the main house where Julia lives in the movie, the restaurant where Julie has lunch with her sister-in-law as well as the surrounding park seen in the movie, the school, Mark's shop and a few other spots that were used in the movie.
Coming Full Circle is an eleven minute interview with actor Tom Conti where he talks about how once you've done your job in a movie, you've done it and you move on. He then toes on to talk about his thoughts on his character in the movie, his thoughts on the storyline, what it was like working with Mia Farrow, having fun while working on the shoot, having worked with Richard Loncraine when he played Slade's manager in In Flame, memories of shooting specific scenes, getting into a car accident while shooting a driving scene with Farrow, how this turned out to be a fairly busy era in his career and some of the projects that he made afterwards.
The Fear of Growing Up is an interview with actress Samantha Gates where she spends ten minutes talking about appearing in a horror film as a child. She notes that she got into modelling as a baby and started doing TV work and movies when she was nine or ten. She notes that appearing in this was just like appearing in any other movie, that it was a busy period for her, what it was like filming inside the house and what it was like on the location, not interacting with any of the other kids in the movie, how much she liked working with the film's director, how much she liked working with Mia Farrow and her thoughts on the ending and the film overall.
Last but not least, A Haunting Retrospective is a featurette in which film critic/author Kim Newman looks at the films and notes the similarities to Rosemary's Baby and The Changeling and how the movie connects to American horror cinema, Richard Loncraine's career leading up to the making of this movie, the possible influence of Roeg's Don't Look Now, the differences between a horror story and a ghost story, the source novel 'Julia' by Peter Straub, details on the other cast and crew members that worked on the movie including X-Tro's Harry Bromley Davenport, thoughts on the characters that populate the movie, differences between the book and the film, how the movie reflects the British class system and how the movie compares to other filmed ghost stories made around the same time.
The first pressing of this release comes with a slip cover and the disc comes packaged with some nice reversible cover sleeve that uses the alternate ‘Full Circle’ title on the reverse side.
The Haunting Of Julia - The Final Word:
The Haunting Of Julia really does deserve to be a better known films than it is. It’s extremely well-made and it sticks with for a long time after it’s finished. Shout! Factory has done a nice job bringing this to UHD and Blu-ray. If the audio isn’t perfect, the picture quality is very strong and the disc features some nice extra features that document the movie’s history and importance. Highly recommended!