Full Circle [The Haunting of Julia] (1977)

(On Cable TV, October 2022) Short-haired Mia Farrow once again deals with child-related horrors in The Haunting of Julia, this time in London grieving over the death of a daughter. Except that her new house has ghosts of its own, and they’re hungry for blood. While I can respect the slow burn of the film, I don’t have to like it—and while being adapted from a Peter Straub novel is a plus, the film moves so slowly that it becomes exasperating more than intense. At least it’s utterly merciless in liquidating what feels like the entire cast of characters—but as every death brings us closer to an ending, maybe it’s not having the intended effect. Farrow isn’t the most compelling of actresses, while the cinematography is the usual 1970s overly dark stuff. While I don’t like the result, I can see how the film has aged nicely—with strong themes supported by the horror elements, The Haunting of Julia is a notch above the usual monster-of-the-week horror. Too bad that the pacing is such an interminable drag.