Full Circle

This psychological chiller with supernatural undertones, an English-Canadian co-production from 1977, stars Mia Farrow as Julia, a tormented mother who suffers a breakdown after the death of her daughter and decides to start a new life on her own in London’s Holland Park area. However, not only do painful memories of the tragic incident begin to haunt her but something altogether different does, namely the evil ghost of a young girl who happened to live in Julia’s new house…

Director Loncraine loses little much time when it comes to a tense opening and sure enough, when American Julia Lofting (M. Farrow), her husband Magnus (Keir Dullea), and teenage daughter Kate (a 13-year old Sophie Ward) assemble around the breakfast table, tragedy strikes when the girls chokes on a piece of apple stuck in her windpipe. While Magnus calls the emergency services, a panic-stricken Julia reckons there isn’t time to wait for an ambulance and decides to perform a tracheotomy there and then on her daughter. Unfortunately, due to Julia’s inexperience the procedure is botched and Kate dies… Over the weeks that follow, Julia is recovering in the psychiatric unit of a hospital – on the day of her dismissal, she shows no interest in continuing her life with Magnus, claiming the marriage had been on the rocks for years, and decides to rent out a huge, fully furnished house in Holland Park (the kind of ultra-posh pad which nowadays would set you back ten million upward if not more). Clearly, Julia Lofting must have money and plenty of it because during the duration of the film, there is no evidence that she has a job. Which is just as well, seeing how her fragile state of mind continues to play havoc both with her overall health and her imagination.

It doesn’t take long before things go bump in the night and when Julia takes walks along the park she sees a girl with long blond hair who suddenly disappears – was it the ghost of Kate? Other weird things begin to happen in the house (suggested rather than shown) until Julia’s worried mum Lily (Jill Bennett) insists on a séance conducted by her psychic friend Rosa Flood (Anna Wing). Other guests participating are all friends of Lily’s with the exception of Mark Berkely (Tom Conti sporting a truly ridiculous hairdo), Julia’s bohemian friend (in fact, the only friend she seems to have) who is a trader in antiques and other curiosities. Only a few minutes into the séance Rosa breaks up the gathering and, deeply disturbed, urges Julia to move out of the house immediately without saying why.

Of course, Julia, who has come to like her new home and feels some strange ‘connection’ to it, decides to stay and soon we have a first victim in Magnus, who secretly breaks into the house while Julia is out… and falls down a staircase after seeing something (what?), fatally injuring himself. The following day, her neighbour, Claudia Branscombe (Pauline Jameson) informs Julia of the apparent break-in but for some odd reason she doesn’t even bother to check the house for clues and Magnus’ body remains undiscovered (not that this makes much sense). However, Claudia mentions that the house once belonged to a certain Heather Rudge (Cathleen Nesbitt) who sold the property after her daughter Olivia (Samantha Gates) had died and yes, Olivia had long, blond hair… Was it her ghost that Julia saw in the park?

After further investigation the plot begins to thicken because Julia finds out that Olivia was somehow connected to the horrific ritual killing of a little German boy thirty years ago who was found mutilated in the park. A hate crime for which a vagrant was executed at the time, though he was not the murderer… Probing deeper, Julia finds out the names of some of the other children who were with Olivia on the day the boy, Geoffrey Braden, was murdered but that was a long time ago and where are yesteryear’s kids now? Are they even still alive? In her quest to discover the truth about Olivia and the house, Julia walks into a hornet’s nest which has deadly stings in store…

Beautifully photographed by Peter Hannan, the film – based on the novel ‘Julia’ by American writer Peter Straub - looks dreamlike and atmospheric. Likewise, the performances, especially Mia Farrow’s, are near flawless and yet, somehow the film feels rather unbalanced due to its slow and dialogue-heavy first half, followed by too much happening too quickly in the final half hour or so. There isn’t much of a satisfactory conclusion either but that is something you need to decide for yourself.

FULL CIRCLE (also known as THE HAUNTING OF JULIA) has just been released in 4K UHD, Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime. Special Features include:
Audio commentary by director Richard Loncraine and film historian Simon Fitzjohn / A Holland Park Haunting (2023, 24 mins): director Richard Loncraine reflects upon his artistic career and the making of Full Circl / Park Life (2023, 16 mins): Simon Fitzjohn revisits the film’s London locations / What’s That Noise? (2023, 25 mins): soundtrack composer Colin Towns on one of his earliest film works / Coming Full Circle (2023, 11 mins): Tom Conti recalls his role / The Fear of Growing Up (2023, 10 mins): Samantha Gates looks back on the production Joining the Circle (2023, 7 mins): producer Hugh Harlow recalls making the film / A Haunting Retrospective (2023, 25 mins): film critic Kim Newman revisits Full Circle / Images of a Haunting (2023, 13 mins): Full Circle aficionado Simon Fitzjohn talks us through his extensive collection of memorabilia / Rare stills and transparencies from the BFI National Archive’s collections / Collector’s booklet (first pressing only).