Consumed by guilt and grief over her mother's recent death and driven to adventure by her belief in the supernatural, Eleanor Vance (Julie Harris) is the most unstable--and therefore the most vulnerable--visitor to Hill House. She's invited there by anthropologist Dr. Markway (Richard Johnson), along with the bohemian lesbian Theodora (Claire Bloom), who has acute extra-sensory abilities, and glib playboy Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn, from Wise's West Side Story), who will gladly inherit Hill House if it proves to be hospitable. Of course, the shadowy mansion is anything but welcoming to its unwanted intruders. Strange noises, from muffled wails to deafening pounding, set the stage for even scarier occurrences, including a door that appears to breathe (with a slowly turning doorknob that's almost unbearably suspenseful), unexplained writing on walls, and a delicate spiral staircase that seems to have a life of its own.

The genius of The Haunting lies in the restraint of Wise and screenwriter Nelson Gidding, who elicit almost all of the film's mounting terror from the psychology of its characters--particularly Eleanor, whose grip on sanity grows increasingly tenuous. The presence of lurking spirits relies heavily on the power of suggestion (likewise the cautious handling of Theodora's attraction to Eleanor) and the film's use of sound is more terrifying than anything Wise could have shown with his camera. Like Jack Clayton's 1961 chiller, The Innocents, The Haunting knows the value of planting the seeds of terror in the mind, as opposed to letting them blossom graphically on the screen. What you don't see is infinitely more frightening than what you do, and with nary a severed head or bloody corpse in sight, The Haunting is guaranteed to chill you to the bone. --Jeff Shannon

Description
A group is introduced to the supernatural through a 90-year old New England haunted house. Be prepared for hair-raising results in this classic horror film!

The great Robert Wise sets up the most perfect, most classic haunted-house film ever made. The screenplay is built on the principle that you don't have to see it (the gore, the blood, etc.) to feel the fear. So, this is one of those great films where the tension is constructed upon the things you hear... the things you know are there.

In the pre-CGI era, you really had to create something out of what you had. So, Mr. Wise had a great script (years ahead of its time), great characters, great actors, a great cameraman, and settings that are a wow!

This is what makes this film so much better than any other (not to mention its remake - who clearly goes for the predictable cheap-trick CGI effects).

The story is told in the most perfect classic form. From beginning to end, you follow the story in the most careful pace. Beat by beat. From the prologue to the conclusion, the story is peerlessly told.

The characters and actors are great to watch: Julie Harris is the perfect troubled woman haunted by inner ghosts, while Theodora (the beautiful Claire Bloom) is the perfect icy clairvoyant who may or may not be a lesbian (everything is constructed with such taste...). Richard Johnson is great as the Doctor who must keep control of the experiment. Russ Tamblyn is also great as the non-believer who's in just for the adventure. As we will discover, all of them have weak points the house will explore. So it is possible to say that this is one film where the set (in this case the house itself) is one character just like the others.

The house has personality. It's not that unbelievable-monumental-lifeless-overdone-cathedral we see in the remake. This one is more realistic. We all know (and are fascinated by) houses like this one. It has style, visual integrity, proportion and it also puts into the film a nice touch of claustrophobia. As long as the characters are there, they are at its mercy. This "house character" is always present. Trying to get in. Banging at the walls and doors, trying to make itself graphically visible through the shots...

...This is where we get to the camera work - certainly one of the best ever made. In a house so rich with character, the distorted wide-angle lenses (let's not forget that Wise worked with Orson Welles) add much to the final effect. Corridors, statues and other objects are always there to remind you the house is present. They actually keep surprising the characters as if they were saying "we are here". This is why this film is so much superior than its sequel: you don't have to see the statues move... for you know they do when you are not there. In fact, this film constructs a state where you know the things that happen when you don't see them happen. That's pure film magic.

I wonder why nobody does films like this any more. Why do they always go now for the CGI obviousness...

I just love the wide-angle lens that smoothly move through the rooms... the time we are allowed to see those beautiful sets. and all the uncontrolled fear that invades the characters. The soundtrack is another great element. The film is constructed in an almost silence (which is very confortable at the beginning). So much that the noises made by the hauntings are almost unbearable when the things get rough.

This is one of those films that were meant to be seen ONLY in widescreen, for the compositions inside the shots make great use of it (in fact I never saw it in a Pan&Scan version - I cannot imagine how awfull it must be). This DVD edition has a great commentary audio track by the actors and director but lacks any kind of documentary about how it was made (which I'd love to see). But we can't have it all...

If (like me), you love the genre, you will love this film, which is a one-of-a-kind effectively constructed cinematic work. Just don't watch it alone... in the dark... in the night...


A chilling, sinister, sophisticated things that go bump   May 24, 2003
 66 out of 71 found this review helpful

It is not often I love a book and go on to enjoy the Movie adaptation. To Kill a Mockingbird, comes to mind. But this is the case with the marvellous movie The Haunting. Since I adore spooky, sinister tales, I treasured Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. And forget the silly, inane remake, this is the Mount Everest of Haunted House movies, only rivalled by The Legend of Hell House made nearly a decade later with Clive Revill, Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowell and the Innocents with Deborah Kerr and Pamela Franklin. These three would make a super triple-feature of Houses with Things that go Bump, since all three deal not only with the supernatural, the complexities of the mind, but the force of the will lingering after death.

The Haunting is a rather faithful adaptation of Jackson's dark and spooky novel. The key word being spooky - not gory. If you are looking for buckets of blood, search on. This is a sophisticated movie that chills rather than shocks. Staring the gorgeous Richard Johnson as Dr. John Markway, a man determined to prove ghosts do exist. And since he believes he will find them at Hill House, he arranges with the current owner to rent the house to carry out his research - though part of the pact is he must accept her grandson Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblin) to keep an eye on things.

Markway invites a wide range of people to come and take part, people with a past that showed their lives were brushed by the paranormal. However, only two come: Theodora, a clairvoyant with vague lesbian hints played by Claire Bloom, and Eleanor Lance brought to aching life by the brilliant Julie Harris.

Eleanor is a timid woman, browbeaten her whole life. She spent her youth tending her ailing mother and is now forced to live with her sister and her family. They are quick to take her money for rent, but show her little respect. In her one act of rebellion in her whole life, she accepts the invitation from Markway. When she arrives at Hill House, no one is there except a cranky gatekeeper and his equally cranky wife, who inform her they leave when it gets dark and there won't be anyone to help her.

Eleanor gets spooked, but finds Theodora, a chic, smart woman with a biting sense of humour. Despite the women being total opposites, they instantly like each other and set about to explore the dark, brooding and nearly suffocating house. Just as they are about to panic, they stumble into the dining room where Markway is. He performs introductions, and takes them on a tour, while giving the strange history of the house. Seems despite the house's ancient feel it is not that old. Hugh Crane built it for his first wife. However, she never saw the house, being killed as the carriage crashed into a tree on the way to occupy it. We learn Hugh was an overbearing, macho, zealot who tormented his daughter with devils and Hell rather than nursery rhymes. The second Mrs. Crane met an equally strange death in the house, leaving it to go to Hugh daughter, Abigail. She grows old and dies in the room that was her nursery, tended by a nurse/companion. Since there was no family, the nurse inherited the house. However, her enjoyment is short lived, as she later hangs herself from the ceiling in the library. Since then, no one has been able to live in the house.

It is not long before all sorts of sinister and chilling todos begin plaguing the women, especially Eleanor, for it seems the House has targeted her, even to a mysterious "welcome home, Eleanor" scrawled across the wall. Eleanor begins to remake her
image into the person she would like to be in her heart. She starts to have romantic illusions about Markway, only to have them shattered when his strong willed wife ( Lois Maxwell, Moneypenny from the Connery Bond films!!) shows up demanding he stop this nonsense about ghosts.

The movie is quite believable, walks the thin line in the Henry James' Turn of the Screw style story, of how much is real and how much is within the mind. The acting is faultless with the four leads turning in understated, yet oh so perfect performances. In Black and White, I could not imagine this movie in the brilliant washes of colour needed for colour filming. The dark lensing of The Haunting lets those shadows rule and give it threatening, disturbing feel that sets the tone for the movie.

So turn out the lights and enjoy one of the best haunted house film, and if you are lucky enough have that triple feature with The Innocents and The Legend of Hell House! A great way to spend a rainy Saturday night!


Do houses have souls? This one does - Robert Wise shows us how!   October 5, 2007
 41 out of 42 found this review helpful

If you want your horror spoon-fed to you and all your scares have to be sight gags (as has become common place in recent horror flicks), this is definitely NOT the movie for you. "The Haunting" is great cinema. Filmed in B/W - which does great things to the mood of the movie - and almost entirely without obvious scares. The Haunting's ability to deliver goose bumps comes from the expert visual flair delivered by Robert Wise, as well as solid ensemble acting. Wise was a critically acclaimed and accomplished director (The Day The Earth Stood Still, Run Silent Run Deep & West Side Story) when he made The Haunting, and directoral abilities come through loud and clear. This movie never fails to give me the shivers when I watch it.

Wise's film (Nelson Gidding's screenplay - Gidding also scripted Wise's The Andromeda Strain & The Hindenburg) is based on the the book "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson. The Haunting (the movie) remains faithful to the basic story set forth in Jackson's book. However, like most movies, The Haunting, is not a direct translation of the text to film. The first third or so of the book is quite well represented. However, it would seem for pacing reasons that Gidding constricted the "action" of the middle portion of the book, and for simplicity of character's condensed two characters from the last third of the book (the wife of Dr. Montague [book]/Dr. Markway [film] & her friend Arthur) into one (Markway's wife). The latter change results in a different final act of the movie as compared to the book and leads to the only "overt" scare of the film (which is not present in the book). Otherwise, I believe Wise has brought to screen a creepy rendition of Jackson's book, at least equal in its ability to scare as this classic piece of literature.

The 90's remake of The Haunting is utter garage in comparison. No mood at all, everything is feed to the viewer not by spoon but intravenously. Where Wise assumed that moviegoers would have a brain and enjoy using it, the makers of the 90's version of The Haunting felt we all wanted to be plugged into the "Matrix" and have no personal experience. If you like a thinking persons horror/suspense movie try Wise's materpiece. If you want blood, guts and everything obvious go see a Saw movie.

The Haunting - great cinema, 5 stars!


Stay Behind that Door Eleanor!!!   June 21, 2008
 24 out of 44 found this review helpful

It might entice you folks to know that many Seer moons ago, before your beloved Metamorpho purchased his castle, there was another property I was considering. It was Hill House, a huge Victorian era house that was nestled in the countryside of New England. Aside from the fact that no one would go near the place (a selling feature to me since I had so many over zealous admirers out there that thought nothing of finding ways to seek out my advice. You do remember how they climbed up my buiding to try and meet me at my high rise Manhattan apartment on the 21st floor, don't you?). Not only that, but the place was going cheap. Real cheap.

So, after visiting the house with my guides in tow and a shifty realtor, I decided it wasn't for me. Marshy complained there was no powder room if she came to visit. Guido complained that no woman would dare visit the place and he had a reputation to protect. Chance complained about the lack of mirrors with which to practice his grimaces. And I was leary because it had only 1 bathroom and 86 rooms. Somehow, I thought, that might be a problem. Also, I couldn't bear to keep keeping my pets in the Mythical Pet Motel. Fans kept trying to break into the place for their autographs as well, and they were not happy.

Anyway. I didn't know they made a movie about the place until years later. When I saw this people, I knew that, yet again, the innate wisdom of a beloved Seer is the best hedge against certain disaster!

However, the movie is based on a novel by Shirley Jackson called "The Haunting of Hill House". It goes into a bit of history which I will share with you. Seems this guy in the 19th century, a Hugh Crane, built the house with the idea of sharing it with a new wife. Unfortunately, his wife never made it when, for no reason at all, the horses that drove her carriage got "spooked" and the poor woman got crushed against a tree. Very sad. But, Hugh Crane, being the industrious industrialist, was not to be daunted. No. He married again but his second wife suffered the same fate when, inexpicably, she fell down a long staircase. I think you may now be getting the idea that this is not exactly your typical circus funhouse. So, put those clown wigs away. Especially those orange yarn ones!

Hugh had a young child named Abigail, and, after he went away and passed away (yes! Him too!), she stayed in the house doing nothing but growing old and sleeping in the Nursery. Of course, she had caretakers throughout the years. But the last one, boy she was a negligent thing! She was more interested in a farmhand than doing her job. So Abigail, when banging the wall for help, died in her bed. Don't you worry folks, Abigail has a way of getting even.

So, anyway, the house eventually got as bad a reputation as the caretaker - maybe worse! So, bringing you fine folks up to date, a Paranormal Professor, Dr. Markway, asks the current owner, Mrs. Sanderson, for permission to conduct experiments in the house. She grants his request with one proviso, that he take along her card shark nephew Luke. He hopes to inherit the house one day, sell it, and cash in big. Hah! Fat chance.

But really, this story centers on Eleanor. Poor, middle-aged spinster Eleanor who devoted her life to caring for her sick mother. Unfortunately, the one time her mother needed her, she was not there, and the woman died. Are you getting a connection here? Anyway, she begs her horrible in-laws for a vacation, and is soon off as one of the only two people to take Dr. Markway up on his experiment. The other one, Theo, is a woman with E.S.P. abilities who unnerves Eleanor time and time again. Eleanor, upon arriving at Hill House, gets a feeling that the house is alive and watching her. She wants to run away, yet something inside makes her feel that this is the chance she's been waiting for. A chance for what we ponder? But only she and the house know for sure.

Now, despite you wanting to know more at this point, I have to stop or else the college students out there will use my review as Cliff Notes, and we just can't have that.

Suffice to say, this movie is one of the best psychological terror films on the market. Filmed in glorious black and white, you are treated to expert film technique to provide feelings of dread within the viewer. The bleak, ominous construction of the exterior of the house and the ornate, strange furniture and fixtures within the house (i.e., the decaying circular metal staircase; the face on the doorknocker and doorknobs). Since this movie was made well before digital technology, the special effects are minimalist. Thus, the real strength of this movie is how your own imagination takes over and qualifies your own fear of the unknown. It is mood and atmosphere which propels this movie into a class all it's own. It is not only what you see, but what you don't see which makes it so effective.

I saw this movie a long time ago. Suffice to say, there is something about it which has stayed with me ever since. I would be remiss if I didn't take note of the acting here. All the actors are so well suited for their roles. But, the stand out for me is the superb Julie Harris. She portrays the outsider aura of Eleanor to perfection. She runs the gamut of meekness, shyness, anger, doubt, self-assuredness, and finally a kind of madness that very few actresses are capable of. She becomes Eleanor, and she is astounding to watch.

So, in closing, this selection should be high on your list of terror/ thriller films. It hits upon the fear within all of us, and forces us to confront it, or remain in fear. Now, I am so glad I didn't purchase the house. No. Not for the reasons I've given you so far. But for them raising taxes so high. I would have to double my lecture schedule to afford it, and, in that case, I would never be home! ;)

At the local bar, my old haunt -------- Metamorpho






Hell House   April 7, 2007
 19 out of 19 found this review helpful

This is not only a full-blown haunted house tale but a story of one woman's descent into madness. Actually, Eleanor's instability is crucial to the plot and finely-tuned in the book version. (Author Shirley Jackson was, to say the least, an unusual sort herself.) Eleanor is weak, flawed, extremely vulnerable, a type of woman virtually obsolete in today's world : the repressed spinster who sacrificed her life and happiness for the needs of her family. Eleanor's running commentaries inside her head, her waiting for "something to actually happen" to her, the fact she thinks of a trip to a haunted house as a "vacation," the fact she is awkward in social situations (it was inevitable she would fall for Dr. Markway, likely he was the only man she'd had contact with outside of her brother-in-law), all of this adds up to a remarkably sympathetic character.

The relationship between Eleanor and Theodora is complex, at least on Theo's side, and handled delicately. The house itself is truly beautiful in it's creepy way, overwrought furnishings, odd angles, spooky shadows, weird mirrors and all. And the ghostly happenings are as horrific as your imagination wants to make them.

As mentioned, this movie was filmed in England. Two trivia asides. In the scene where Eleanor drives out of the parking garage in supposed Boston, visible in the back window of the car are two British bobbies standing on the street. And one of the houses she passes on her way to Hill House has a sign outside that reads, "To Let."