RyothChatty ridiculous rating

MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

OllieSuave-007 In this TV horror, Mia Farrow plays Julia Lofting, a wealthy American woman living in London, who separates from her husband and moves into an old house in Kensington after the untimely passing of her daughter. But, as soon as she moves in, she sees apparitions of a young girl and believes it is her daughter, until being told otherwise.It is a dreary movie with a dark setting, poor acting, and muffled dialog - you could hardly make out what the actors were saying. The soundtrack was dreadful, pacing was slow, and the suspense was all over the place. Grade D-

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.

enw Thirty-three years ago this seemed like a tired takeoff on DON'T LOOK NOW. With the clunkers that are presently out there, it looks like a masterpiece.Why? Well, it's not an EXACT copy – also, it has these people called ACTORS in it.Of course, modern audiences probably wouldn't find it very exciting. After all, the botched-up tracheotomy and infantile castration are both off-screen.Furthermore, it has a story, that thing, you know, giving you a headache and taking time away from the torture porn. No, they wouldn't like it at all.Have you noticed those "user comments" on film sites? You know: I Don't THINK THIS IS A VERY GOOD MOVI In fact I THINK THIS MOVI SUKS AND ALL MY FRIENDS THINK SO TO I Don't KNOW WHY ANYONE WOULD THINK THIS WAS A GOOD MOVI CAUSE IT Totally SUKS Totally SO AL YOU MORANS OUT THERE WHO THINK THIS IS A GOOD MOVI GET A LIFE CAUSE YOU SUK (Was this comment helpful to you?) Originally I just thought it was because, as we all know, the Internet is for Retards. But I'm beginning to think that this may actually be a sample of the movie-going community, some of them perhaps even twelve years old or more.Apparently, this is an adaptation of a novel by Peter Straub, who also supplied the goods in the dazzling GHOST STORY. MIA FARROW is as vulnerable as ever, and KEIR DULLEA her son-of-a-bitch husband – he should probably have stayed on Jupiter.The traumatic loss of a child has of course long since become a stock-and-trade of horror movies, the idea being that it makes the bereaved mother more susceptible to supernatural influences (especially dead children). Nor, I'm sure, will it come as a great surprise to anyone that the juvenile ghost is "evil".Still, the concoction is served with an enthusiasm and attention to detail and effect, from the cozy séance turning into a nightmare to the mother's gleeful confession that she throttled the little monster, that keep you watching. Unfortunately, what might have been an ominously "happy" ending is jettisoned for a standard horrific one.There is the usual amount of body-bags and puzzlement on the part of the audience as to why missing people aren't missed – still, British professionalism is everywhere present. Jolly good show!

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.