The Changeover

I didn't know anything about the novel. I mainly watched it because I saw Timothy Spall's name. I found this movie engaging. Because of an element in the plot a large part of the movie has a surreal, dreamlike quality. The young female lead, Erana James, is very good. She has a fierceness that makes her character very believable. I'm not a huge fan of 'young adult' fiction. I usually find it condescending to its target audience but I got into this movie pretty quickly and it kept me to the end. Definitely worth a watch if you're channel surfing and come across it.

Timothy Spall counts for a good 5 of those 7 stars. He plays the sinister bad guy absolutely perfectly.

The rest is...flawed. There are some great moments, great ideas, great little bits of dialogue, but it's so disjointed and with so many bits that take away from the good that it feels a shame.

I don't know if it's the writing, the directing or the editing, but at some point it went wrong and a good idea lost it's flow.

Nonetheless, if you're a fan of the genre, I'd recommend it

I really went in to watching this film with high hopes. Teenager discovers she has hidden powers and tries to rescue her younger brother. Story starts off well and had my interest for about 30 minutes in and THEN it fell flat. The actors are actually perfect but the movie tried to form chemistry between the main actor and actress in a way that did not fit with the movie. There was a lack of build up for the audience, I kept waiting to be amazed while the main actress discovers herself but truth is she remained boring until the very end. This movie could have been great, may be lack of funding but something was wrong so therefore i could only give it a 3/10.

A teenage girl (Erana James) has to save her kid brother from the clutches of malevolent warlock Timothy Spall by becoming a witch, in this New Zealand made Twilight saga wannabe that has some solid performances and arty pretentions to recommend it. It is based on the 1984 young adult fantasy novel of the same name by Margaret Mahy.

When I saw the name Timothy Spall, I thought this was going to be great, surely such a great actor would only sign up to a great film right, wrong? Him apart it is a poor film, I've not read the book, but I'll judge the film based on what I've seen. Quite simply put, the ideas and plot are excellent, and rather original. What it lacked sadly, was any pace, urgency, tension or real threat, it's another so called horror movie that is advisable for people up to the age of fifteen. Spall is the only real positive, but he's wasted here. 4/10