The Changeover

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.

Not an amazing film but definitely not a bad one either. I liked the plot as it was a bit original. It not scary but has it's creepy moments. Definitely worth the watch

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 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.

This film legit reviewers/ratings probably average to 2 out of ten stars after discounting shill reviews. It is narrative train wreck. It is also a significant, in fact profound dumbing down and making "safe" of what was a great teen novel.