Full Circle (1977 film)

Did You Know?

• Composer Colin Towns wrote and recorded the musical score before filming began, based solely on the screenplay.
• The film won the Grand Prix prize for best feature at the Avoriaz International Fantastic Film Festival.
• Film scholar Barbara Creed considers the film an example of ghost children exploring the dual nature of little girls and their propensity for entering other worlds.

Plot

Julia Lofting, an American housewife in London, accidentally kills her daughter Kate while performing a tracheotomy after Kate chokes at breakfast. The trauma fractures Julia's marriage to Magnus, and she separates from him. Seeking independence, she rents a furnished house in Holland Park, where she finds a child's bedroom on the second floor. Strange occurrences begin: odd noises, appliances turning on by themselves, and Julia suspects Magnus is breaking in. In a nearby park, she sees a girl she believes is Kate, but the child vanishes; later, she finds a mutilated tortoise and knife where the girl stood. Magnus's sister Lily hosts a gathering at Julia's home, bringing psychic medium Mrs Flood, who conducts a séance. Mrs Flood becomes frightened, tells Julia to leave, and soon after, one of Lily's friends falls down the stairs. Mrs Flood later reveals she saw a vision of a boy bleeding to death in the park. Magnus breaks into the house, follows something to the basement, and falls, fatally cutting his throat on a broken mirror. Julia learns from a neighbor that the house belonged to Heather Rudge, whose daughter Olivia died. She discovers an article about Geoffrey Braden, a boy murdered in the park in the 1940s. Geoffrey's mother Greta says a vagrant was executed but she believes children killed her son as a hate crime because he was German. She asks Julia to visit the two surviving children from that day: Captain Paul Winter and David Swift.

Production

Harry Bromley Davenport wrote the original screenplay adaptation of Peter Straub's novel Julia, titling it The Link. Dave Humphries retooled it as When the Wind Blows before director Richard Loncraine retitled it Full Circle. Producer Peter Fetterman secured funding from Canada's Astral Media and a group of musicians, management, and accountants, raising CA$1.1 million. After failing to cast a bankable actress in Los Angeles, Fetterman approached Mia Farrow backstage after a London stage performance; Farrow, then mainly working in theatre, was reluctant but agreed. Filming took place in London over seven weeks from November to December 1976, with a rushed schedule to finish before the Canadian tax year ended. Screenplay, location scouting, and casting were completed in three weeks. Farrow shot the film while performing in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Ivanov. Director Loncraine noted tension on set; Farrow disappeared for two days after a nervous breakdown, halting production. She had conflicting feelings about appearing in another horror film after Rosemary's Baby and intended to approach the material as a psychological breakdown. Interior sequences were shot in a South Kensington home; the exterior used a different London house.

Release

Full Circle screened at the Cannes Marché du Film in May 1977, then premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival on 11 September 1977. It opened in London on 4 May 1978 and in Canada on 19 May 1978 through Cinema International Corporation and Astral Films. The film was released in the United States as The Haunting of Julia by Discovery Films, opening in Washington, D.C., on 6 February 1981, then in New York City on 29 May 1981. It failed to find an audience in the U.S. Due to poor storage of film elements, American copies had a brown hue. Media Home Entertainment released it on VHS in 1981 under The Haunting of Julia title, with a re-release by Magnum Entertainment in 1988. In 2023, Imprint Films released a limited Blu-ray edition with the musical score on CD; Scream Factory released a 4K UHD Blu-ray on 18 April 2023; the British Film Institute announced a 4K UHD Blu-ray for 24 April 2023; and Le Chat qui Fume announced a 4K UHD Blu-ray for July 2023.

Reception

On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. At the Avoriaz Film Festival, it received rave reviews from French critics and won the Grand Prix for best feature. The Guardian noted the technical work and supporting performances were first-class but found the film derivative. Derek Malcolm praised Farrow's performance, cinematography, and atmosphere, but noted deficiencies in purpose and narrative drive. Tom Milne of The Observer deemed the film predictable and criticized Loncraine's stylistics. Elizabeth Smith of the Montreal Gazette called Farrow's performance harrowing and the film terrifying. Variety said the script built tensions nicely in the first half and praised Farrow's performance. Ernest Leogrande of the New York Daily News gave it one-and-a-half stars, finding it hard to care about the protagonist.