Full Circle (1981)

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Following her daughter's death, a mentally unhinged woman moves into a new apartment to get over the incident and finds that the spirits of other deceased children haunt the house and forces her into a battle to save her sanity.Overall, this was a pretty weak haunted house effort. One of the few areas this manages to get right is the chilling atmosphere within the house, as this one gives off the same typical vibe of films from those times where it's darkened corridors and squeaking doors are far more alive than they really should which is handled all the while by her paranoid state in the house. This is nicely aided by the few rather clever attacks here from the ingenious manner of killing off their daughter in the beginning while also forcing the horrid nature of the act mostly off-screen for a particularly nasty opening sequence, and is furthered along by the few murders here with the slit throat and bathtub electrocution sequences getting a lot of big play here for those reasons. Likewise, the manner in which this one sets up the mystery surrounding the other dead children is handled quite well as the forgoing mystery is pretty chilling, but beyond this there's not much else to this one. The fact that there's just so much talking and just letting nothing happen that it really starts to wear thin by the ending as there's just nothing of remote interest as we watch her simply sit around in the house while she talks to herself. Beyond that, none of these scenes are really that interesting since they don't really showcase anything all that exciting and in the end really leaves this one quite well defined by its few good scenes scattered amongst a horde of rather bland and hardly interesting scenes that take up more than half of the screen-time here.Rated R: Violence, Language and strong themes of child abuse and violence.

What can I say? This is one of those perfect, horror films: No gore and no masked mass murderers...only faded memories of a past murder and a mysterious ghost who wants something. But who that ghost is and just what it wants is kept secret for a good part of the film. Mia Farrow is so good in this type of film. If you thought she was flawless in Rosemary's Baby, you ain't seen nothing yet! She plays a fragile and innocent Julia, who loses her daughter to a choking accident in the first few minutes of the film. We then learn that she and her husband are now separated, presumably because of the stress and tension caused by the loss of the little girl and Julia's short stay in a sanitarium following the tragedy. Julia takes a house in Holland Park and soon begins to sense that there is something in the house with her. Is it the ghost of her daughter or just her soon to be ex trying to push her over the edge so he can have her committed again? Is she really crazy? Or is it something more sinister?

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."

I read the book way too young to compare it to the film. My dad was a huge Peter Straub fan and for a young child those books were intriguing. They evoked my favorite childhood emotion (fear), they were chopped full of adult themes, and they seem to properly reflect the shadowy disappointments of life. The American release of this book (Full Circle) also boasted one of the coolest covers in existence.Strangely when I sat down to watch the film I couldn't remember if I had even seen it. The VHS tape was almost worn out of existence so I must have seen it several times in my youth, but I was still drawing a complete blank.In the first scene our heroine's daughter gets a piece of an apple lodged in her throat. The parents do what any parents would do - panic. Obviously any audience member with first aid experience would probably be yelling what steps they should follow at the screen, and the first step being not to panic, but realistically parents would still panic.She tries to use her fingers to pull it out, then a knife to cut it out. Of course the child dies and our heroine blames herself for her daughter's death.After a short stint in a hospital she runs away from her cold, emotionless husband and buys a large house. Her husband can't understand why she would leave him and believes she is just confused. He sends his sister to try to talk to our heroine and even, at least our heroine believes, bangs on the roof to scare her back to him. But of course the house is haunted with... well that's enough of the plot.As the movie continued I began to remember it more and more. The music, which is great ghost story music, seemed to jar out the memory more then anything else. By the middle of the film the ending came back to me, and the imagery at the ending is almost poetic.... I would like to say... unforgettable.There are some death scenes throughout, and I can't help to think the movie would be more effective and more creepy without them. This is probably a different reaction then the one I had to the book.I think people who are only familiar with modern horror movies may find this movie a little slow, but almost every scene does have to do with the plot or the characters in some way.Don't expect it to scare you, it is not that kind of story. This is probably the cause of my negative reaction to the mere fact there is death scenes. This movie is more about strangeness and atmosphere. It resembles the kind of ghost tale you would tell around the campfire one dry summer's night, and your exposure to those kind of stories is probably a good yardstick to judge what your reaction to this movie probably would be. It's definitely not my favorite in these kinds of stories, but I'm willing to forgive quite a lot for such a good ending.I give it 4 "unforgettable" campfire tales out of 5. Thanks for reading.