Full Circle (1977 film)

Full Circle is a 1977 British-Canadian supernatural horror film directed by Richard Loncraine, and starring Mia Farrow and Keir Dullea. Based on the novel Julia by Peter Straub, it is the first film realization of one of his books, and follows a woman who, after the death of her daughter, finds herself haunted by the vengeful ghost of a young girl in her new home. In the United States, the film was released under the alternate title The Haunting of Julia in 1981.

Full Circle
Canadian poster for Full Circle
Directed byRichard Loncraine
Written byHarry Bromley Davenport
Screenplay byDave Humphries
Based onJulia
by Peter Straub
StarringMia Farrow
Music byColin Towns
CinematographyPeter Hannan
Edited byRon Wisman
Production
company
Canadian Film Development Corporation
Distributed by
Release date
Running time
98 minutes
CountryCanada
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Julia Lofting is an American woman living in London with her husband, Magnus, and their young daughter, Kate. During breakfast one morning, Kate begins choking. Unable to dislodge the food, Julia attempts perform a tracheotomy, which results in Kate bleeding to death. Kate's death triggers Julia into leaving Magnus, as their marriage was already unhappy. Julia moves into a large, fully-furnished house with an upstairs room containing a child's possessions. In the park Julia sees a young girl that she believes is Kate but the child disappears. Unusual things take place in the house such as strange noises and appliances turning on by themselves. Later, Julia again sees the girl in the park and finds a mutilated turtle and knife where she stood.

Julia lets Magnus' sister Lily use her house to conduct a séance. Mrs. Flood, the medium, explains that spirits need to control someone to carry out physical acts. During the séance, the medium becomes frightened and tells Julia to leave the house immediately. Moments later, one of Lily's friends falls down the stairs before Mrs. Flood can explain what she saw. Later, Julia is informed by Mrs. Flood that she had a vision of a boy bleeding to death in the park.

The next day, while Julia is out, Magnus breaks into her house. He sees something and follows it to the basement where he falls from the staircase, fatally cutting his throat on a broken mirror. Wondering about the past residents of the house, Julia is told by a neighbor that it once belonged to Heather Rudge, who moved away after her daughter Olivia died. Julia finds an article about Geoffrey Braden, a young boy who was murdered in the park. Julia visits Geoffrey's mother, Greta Braden, who says a vagrant was executed for the crime but that she believes it was children in the park who murdered her son. She says she and her companion have been following the lives of the children. She asks Julia to visit the remaining two, now adults: Captain Paul Winter and David Swift.

Julia visits Swift, an alcoholic who confesses that Olivia had a sadistic power over him and the other children, and that she made them each kill an animal. He recounts Geoffrey's murder, which was orchestrated by Olivia: She forced the other boys to hold him down while she smothered him with a coat. After he was dead, Olivia used a penknife to castrate him. Shortly after Julia leaves Swift's apartment, he slips on a broken bottle in the stairwell and falls to his death. Meanwhile, Julia tells her friend Mark, an antiques dealer, what she has discovered but he does not believe her. That evening, he is electrocuted by a lamp falling into his bath.

Julia visits Olivia's mother, Heather, in a psychiatric home. Heather confesses that she strangled Olivia to death after learning of Geoffrey's murder, and insists that Olivia was evil. As Julia leaves she looks over her shoulder at Mrs. Rudge, who sees Olivia's eyes and dies of a fright-induced heart attack. Julia returns home, where she witnesses Olivia's apparition, first in the bathroom mirror and then in the living room playing with Kate's beloved cymbal-banging clown toy. Julia takes the toy from Olivia, offers her a hug, and asks her to stay. She proceeds to embrace Olivia, only to have her throat slashed by the sharp edges of the toy, causing her to bleed to death.

Cast

Release

Full Circle was shown in San Sebastián International Film Festival on September 12, 1977 and at the Avoriaz Film Festival in France in 1978.[1]

The film was shown in London on May 4, 1978 and in Toronto on May 19, 1978.[1]

The film was originally released in the UK as Full Circle but fared poorly at the box office. It was released in the United States under the title The Haunting of Julia in 1981, but still failed to find an audience.[3]

Critical response

Variety noted that the film "has a fairly tight script which, in first half at least, builds up scary tensions nicely. There's a performance by Mia Farrow which is somewhat reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby, and enough supernatural trappings to please those who are fascinated by the occult."[4]

References
  1. "Full Circle". Library and Archives Canada. July 2, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  2. Full Circle (1977) - Full cast and crew
  3. http://movies.tvguide.com/the-haunting-of-julia/review/125612
  4. Variety Staff (31 December 1976). "Full Circle". Variety. Archived from the original on 6 July 2020.
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