The Changeling

The Changeling (1980) is Peter Medak's haunted-house horror, and you can watch online on iFILM. It works through restraint rather than gore — the scares come from a sound echoing down an empty corridor at the same hour every morning.

After a roadside accident kills his wife and daughter, composer John Russell leaves New York for Seattle and rents a vast Victorian mansion that has sat empty for two decades. The banging starts almost at once, low and rhythmic, always at dawn. Behind it is a child who died in the house long ago, and Russell, instead of fleeing, starts digging into the property's past. What he uncovers reaches into the city's most powerful family. George C. Scott plays Russell with quiet, grieving control, and that stillness is exactly what makes the dread settle in.

Decades on, it's still held up as a benchmark for slow-burn ghost stories, with a loyal following among horror directors who studied it closely. The wheelchair on the staircase is one image you won't shake off easily. If you prefer creeping atmosphere over jump scares, stream The Changeling (1980) online on iFILM.