VividSimon Simply Perfect

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

InjunNose To date there have been only two films based on books by bestselling author Peter Straub: "Ghost Story", which was an appalling mess, and this one. "Full Circle" is derived from "Julia", Straub's second published novel and first foray into the horror genre--and, while certain arbitrary departures from the book prevent this film from being totally effective, it does capture the formidably spooky atmosphere of Straub's prose. What clicks: A.) Mia Farrow as Julia. She's every bit as persistent, and as fragile, as her counterpart in the novel; desperate for some sense of resolution after the tragic death of her nine-year-old daughter, Julia puts herself at greater and greater risk as she pursues the ghost that haunts her newly-purchased London townhouse and the park adjacent to it. The final encounter between Julia and Olivia is beautifully, deliciously eerie, and works despite the fact that nothing so definite occurs in the book. B.) Colin Towns' sensitive soundtrack, especially in that final scene. What doesn't: the decision to make Magnus, Julia's estranged husband, a much younger and less menacing character than he was in the novel. Keir Dullea delivers an adequate performance as this diminished Magnus, but he's only an incidental character here--not a link to the troubled history of Julia's house, as he was in the book. Missed opportunity: the exclusion of Mona, the little black girl encountered by Julia in the novel. The reader is never quite sure who or what Mona is, but each of her appearances in the book is a precursor to one of Olivia's own dreadful manifestations (or to the revelation of something terrible that Olivia has done). When Julia asks Mona the name of the blonde girl in the park, the answer she receives is not "Olivia" but "Doolya". This is one of the novel's most unsettling moments. Surely it could have been worked into the movie somehow? This is only director Richard Loncraine's second film, but he handles the subject matter deftly. "Full Circle" (which played U.S. theaters in 1981 as "The Haunting of Julia") will please most fans of Peter Straub and intelligent horror in general. Seven and a half stars.

gavin6942 After the death of her daughter, wealthy housewife Julia Lofting (Mia Farrow) moves to London to re-start her life. All seems well until she is haunted by the sadness of losing her own child and the ghosts of other children.This is the second film of director Richard Loncraine, and the first film adaptation of a Peter Straub novel. Loncraine has had a steady, successful career, but has never really hit the big time. Milwaukee native Straub, for whatever reason, has achieved wide critical acclaim (he has numerous Bram Stoker awards) but has never been as well-received by the public, ranking beneath Stephen King and Dean Koontz in popularity. A shame, I say.Magnus (Keir Dullea) is a devious beast! But we like him for that. Mia Farrow is Mia Farrow... and needs more hair.

zetes Also known as The Haunting of Julia, which is the title under which you can find it on Netflix Instant, which is about the only place where you can see it. This is a forgotten British haunted house flick from the late '70s (actually not released until 1981 in the United States). Mia Farrow stars along with her Rosemary's Baby haircut. In the prologue, her young daughter starts choking on an apple and Farrow, in a panic, tries to slice into her throat with a knife, thus making sure she's quite dead. Haunted by guilt, she ends up leaving her husband (2001's Keir Dullea) and moving into an old mansion in London. She soon realizes she's not alone. The film follows basic genre beats for the most part - appliances get left on, Farrow gets curious about the house's history, discovers its grisly past, does some investigations, etc., etc. It's not too interesting, really, but it has some good moments, notably its fantastic final moments, which are so good I would almost recommend the film for that alone (it's fairly short at 97 minutes). Farrow is fine, and Dullea isn't bad, but the rest of the cast, made up of mumbly Brits, is incoherent. I also really loved the score by Colin Towns.

ThornIs 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.