Product Details

• Actors: Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, Jill Bennett, Robin Gammell
• Directors: Richard Loncraine
• Format: NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Magnum Entertainment
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001AG6SO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,420 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

After the tragic death of her child, a woman moves to an old gothic house to recover. In the house, mysterious things begin to happen and the woman is confronted with the ghost of a child who was murdered there 30 years earlier. Based on the novel by Peter Straub.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very sad, moody tale., June 7, 2006

By 

A. Griffiths "Adrian" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Haunting of Julia [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a very slow moving and understated ghost story starring Mia Farrow in a typicaly frail and delicate role as a woman named Julia who has a nervous breakdown following the accidental the death of her daughter. She moves to a large London townhouse to try and recover, but soon starts seeing visions of a ghostly young girl, and wonders if her daughter has come back from the dead. There is indeed a ghost - but unfortunately for Julia, it's not her daughter.

Mia Farrow excels in the title role of Julia. She has a unique ability of expressing fragility that few other actresses can acheive without making you want to slap them. You only feel compassion and empathy for the character of Julia while watching her face the unknown and try to work out who or what is trying to make contact with her in the big lonely house she has retreated to. The mood of the film reminded me a lot of "Don't Look Now", but the structure of the story is more similar to "The Changeling", in so far as having a grieving parent make contact with the spirit of a long dead child while recovering from the trauma of their own loss. I'm not sure which is the better of the two ghost stories, but "The Haunting of Julia" is certainly the slower of the two and lasks the complex secrets and supernatural manifestations of "The Changeling".

But that's not to say that this film is without effective scares. One of it's nastier surprises is the opening scene in which Julia's daughter actually dies - it's a cruel and upsetting death that unsurprisingly leaves Julia with a huge sense of guilt - and a horrible scenario to imagine for any parent. The remainder of the film spends a lot of time exploring Julia's state of mind, so don't be surprised if you feel as though not a lot of "haunting" is actually going on...but if you are prepared to enjoy this as a character study of an unbalanced woman, the revelations of the story will become much more effective. The acting is good all round as is the camera work, with a lot of slightly soft-focus shots adding a sombre mood to many scenes.

I am not going to reveal any more about the plot, which is a shame because that means I can't tell you about the amazing ending. It's not totally unexpected, in fact there is every indication that the film expects you to realise that it is inevitable, but it's still incredibly poignant - probably more so for that very reason, with a very, very slow final revolving camera shot that gives a quite chilling effect to the scene. Worth waiting for.

The film as a whole is also worth your time - if you can find a copy, as there is currently no DVD release, which is a shame considering the trash that keeps turning up on DVD these days. Possibly something of a lost film, it has never had a huge following outside of a small cult fan-base. This could easily change with the right marketing, along with restoring it to it's proper widescreen ration, as the video copy I used to have was in pan 'n' scan, which ruined the presentation generally but also seriously mis-framed a lot of very important shots. I'd love to see it in widescreen, and if it came out like that on DVD, I'd buy it without hesitation.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps One Of The Best Creepiest Theme Songs Ever!!, June 18, 2004

By 

David Atwood "zappa_appreciative" (Houston) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Haunting of Julia [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Never mind the excellent movie - "The Haunting Of Julia" (a.k.a. "Full Circle") has one of the creepiest opening and main theme songs ever featured in a movie! This one came on TV when I was a kid one night, and the song has really stuck with me, as well as the movie. Enough of the song, this movie is a great example that you don't have to have expensive and fancy computer effects to make a movie scary. In a way, I kind of pity today's teenaged kids who only know a scary movie by virtue of it's computer effects and not it's story, mood or narrative. I'm sure all of us "older" folks have stories of when we were kids and we stayed up one night on a Saturday night and a scary movie came on one of the UHF channels to chill us all to the bone!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Film, June 5, 2004

By 

Peter (Sioux Falls, SD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Haunting of Julia [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film, AKA "Full Circle," is based on author Peter Straub's (of "Ghost Story" and "The Talisman") novel "Julia." It is a pretty good adaption of the book and holds up after all these years. When you see it, you realize that not much new and innovative has really been done since this time period. Let's hope for a DVD release soon!!!