The Spectral Child on Screen at Hyde Park Picture House
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Coming to Hyde Park Picture House this September is a mini-season of three films featuring the motif of a ghost child. The screenings will be accompanied by introductions from leading academics who will help contextualise and explore the Spectral Child on Screen, while examining how the films relate to ideas of innocence, grief, the afterlife, and haunting histories.
Split across two dates, the season starts on Sunday 15 September with director Peter Medak’s 1980 The Changeling in a double bill with Guillermo del Toro’s 2001 The Devil’s Backbone, each introduced by Dr Mikel Koven, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Worcester.
The Changeling stars George C. Scott as composer John Russel, who leaves his home in New York following the death of his wife and daughter. Russel relocates to a giant, remote house near Seattle where he begins to feel the presence of the ghost of a boy who drowned in the bathtub. Working with the agent of a local historical society (Trish Van Devere) who introduced him to the house, the pair decide to uncover the hidden secrets of the boy’s death.
Del Toro’s gothic horror is similarly themed. Set during the final days of the Spanish Civil War, we witness the tale of Carlos, a young boy (Fernando Tielve) sent to a rural orphanage when his father is killed in the fighting. As Carlos explores his new home, he too begins to uncover secrets — including those behind the young ghost who wanders the premises. Combining murder and mystery with political allegory and a striking atmosphere, the film is a highlight of its director’s early career.
On Saturday 21 September, Lenny Abrahamson’s 2018 film The Little Stranger introduces us to another haunted home, this time in 1940s rural Warwickshire. Hundreds Hall has been home to the Ayres family for centuries, but the Georgian house is falling into decline, and the visit of a doctor sparks events that disturb long dormant family secrets.
