The Haunting

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music.

Tags: paranormal, horror, suspenseful, psychological, gothic

Review:
Jackson, in her own intriguingly artful manner, asks us in The Haunting of Hill House to contemplate the domestic prison that many women like Eleanor Lance found themselves in.
Today, Dr. Markway, an anthropologist and investigator of paranormal activity, leads a team of four for a stay at Hill House, where they will stay for a period of time in the hope that Markway can prove something paranormal resides thereThe haunted house premise has been a staple for horror film makers since forever.
It hasn't often worked to great effect, in fact the number of genuine scary haunted house movies barely trouble the fingers of both hands.
This is not simply a case of a group of people being haunted by a spectre or otherwise, the mind is a key player here, very much so.Along the way are some truly breath holding scenes; a bending door, pounding in the corridor, a face on the wall (the lighting here genius), Nell's hand holding incident, a rickety spiral staircase that we fear from the off, and the ghostly finale as Hill House reveals its hand and what we thought was a simple and true narrative is actually more clever, more chilling than we first imagined.
As Nell first spies the monolithic frontage she muses that it's a monster waiting to swallow her, a small creature, whole; we know exactly how she feels.Still the template haunted house movie, accept no substitutes and ignore stupid claims of homophobia, this is intelligent, scary and crafted with great skill.
This is one of the best haunted house movies where you actually don't see the ghosts, you just hear them, and you wonder whether they're really there or just the people's imigination.
Even though the rating may seem tame, the film offers a lot more than many of the trashy 80's and 90's horror movies which always seem to make it into video stores and hang around like a bed smell.
This small gem of a movie may not stand out on the shelf and probably wouldn't appeal to many horror fans scouring the shelves for the latest gore flick, but if their eyes were to look past these to 'The Haunting,' they would be in for a pleasant surprise.
Even after my parents were home and I went to bed I found myself looking for faces in the plaster walls of my room and imagining every creak as an approaching but invisible malevolent force.I still get it out every couple of years on a dark dreary night, and though the lines of dialog sound more stilted to my now elderly mind I can still remember the effect it had on me so many decades ago.I had an even more intense reaction from Hitchcock's "The Birds" and I've noticed the commentary about that film to be similar to this.
I have always appreciated subtle and atmospheric horror flourishes and they're not typically lost on me; I really enjoyed the opening and the first half hour or so, where we are introduced to the quirky characters (particularly the neurotic Eleanor) and to the creepy Hill House, with all its spooky history and grandeur.
Robert Wise uses camera angles, sound effects and music to create one of the most terrifying movies of all time.
It doesn't take long before strange things start to happen in the house and it seems to affect Eleanor most of all.Robert Wise's adaptation of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" is a bona fide horror classic that's influenced countless movies over the years.
Like all the great horror films (not just cheap slasher dreck), it's best watched late at night.
The most interesting thing about the book as well as the movie is that it makes the suggestion that there is no ghosts in the house but that in fact it is Elenore who is slowly going insane.
What made her stories good was that it dealt with both supernatural and psychological horror which really do fit together since both ghosts and the demons haunting the human psyche are most of the time felt but not seen or touched.I really love the cinematography; the film is shot in black and white but that to me makes it all the more better it sort of adds to the nightmarish quality of the film.
Could these things somehow be the reason the demons of the house are targeting Elenore for history to repeat itself.Though the other is Elenore herself, throughout the film there is this interesting character study on Elenore whom is the one protagonist that is from beginning to end having the hardest time of all.
But after fifty-years of watching nearly every film of the genre, "The Haunting" remains my all-time favorite, dare I say, a "perfect" movie.
The script by Nelson Gidding, based upon the book "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson, was of equal quality, and the cinematography, in my opinion, was nothing less than masterful, utilizing lighting techniques and camera angles that still surpasses everything else in memory.
He invites the clairvoyant Theodora 'Theo' (Claire Bloom) and the unbalanced and needy psychic Eleanor 'Nell' Lance (Julie Harris) to spend vacation in Hill House, and he goes with the skeptical future inheritor Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) to the mansion.
During the nights, the quartet witness supernatural manifestation in the house and the sanity of Nell is affected by her ghosts."The Haunting" is a scary psychological horror film by the magnificent director Robert Wise.
This movie actually does not show anything at all, it is all power of suggestion.This movie, about a paranormal researcher who hires a small group of people to study a haunted house, is probably the best film ever made dealing with the paranormal and the unknown.
Nothing beats a well-acted (Julie Harris carried very few films, and she's a legend), smartly written, expertly directed haunted house movie.
Based on Shirley Jackson's creepy tale titled ¨The haunting of Hill House¨, is a suspenseful and frightening terror movie by Robert Wise dealing with a haunted mansion and it was subsequently adapted (1999) by Jan De Bont .
That film, I think, was more spooky than "The Haunting".Claire Bloom's presence was the only other aspect of the movie that was good.
Considering the praise this movie receives, this is one of the most disappointing two hours I've spent in front of a screen.It's hard to believe any adult actually was frightened by this "hair-raising" (Maltin, again) horror film, which would bore most five-to-85-year-old people.
It really, really gets annoying.This is "scary?" This is "suspenseful?" Give me a break!The shots of "Hill House," outside and inside, are about the only really good thing about this frightfully-overrated film.
Most horror fans (well, at least those who are likely to watch this film) seem to love The Haunting.
Whether they admit it or not, and whether they watch "official" ones or not, most people like soap operas, and I think that's a large part of what attracts people to this film.At least 90 percent of The Haunting consists of the four principal characters standing (or sitting) around and talking.
I know this is why my wife didn't find the film at all scary--she's not routinely scared by Days of Our Lives, either (and they even had a serial killer there, and I think a ghost at one point).But what about that horror stuff?
Shirley Jackson wrote great horror, and The Haunting of Hill House is her very best.
I love a good haunted-house movie that eschews violence and gore for psychological terror ("The Changeling," I think, is an excellent example of the genre) but "The Haunting" falls short in this respect.
From the scariest novel I have ever read, Shirley Jackson's 1959 classic "The Haunting of Hill House," producer/director Robert Wise & Co. were able to create, four years later and to their eternal credit, the most chilling film I have ever seen: "The Haunting." This picture has been sending ice water down my spinal cord for many decades now, and last night, as I watched it for at least the dozenth time with undiminished chills, I tried to figure out just why.
The film, in which a quartet of researchers spends a few nights at the famously haunted New England pile known as Hill House, features nothing per se that is frightening; no visible ghosts, no materializations, no violence or murders.
(Harris' interior monologues are perhaps the picture's single scariest element.) Richard Johnson as head researcher Dr. Markway (Montague in the book...again, why the change?), Claire Bloom as the (subtly inferred lesbian) ESP practitioner, and Russ Tamblyn as the house's brash young owner, all excel in their roles here; Wise's direction is masterful and impeccable; Nelson Gidding's screenplay is both ingenious and witty; and Humphrey Searle's score gives me goosebumps every time I think of it.
The film is well-acted by a group of familiar faces (Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn), Robert Wise ("West Side Story")'s experienced direction is top-notch, and the subtle manipulation of light and shadow produces ample chills.
They all together must find a way to survive a night in Hill House when things start going horribly wrong and attack Elenore.The Haunting is a great horror story that has true originality and is perfectly made, I don't see how this movie could have been made better.
Yes,the one and only;beware of remakes like the eponymous title and plagiarisms like the 1975 appalling version featuring Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowall.It 's gothic horror's peak,with superb performances ,particularly Julie Harris,wonderful ,marvelous actress,who would have deserved a more glorious career.Claire Bloom is fine too and suggests lesbian tendencies with finesse .The settings are haunting (yes!) and the story beguiling.After almost two hours of wandering in threatening rooms,rickety stairs and shock corridors,Robert Wise does not conclude:he left us with our questions in front of a huge hole,and his end is the only one that could satisfy us.A great ,great horror movie,don't miss it and ,for heaven's sake,do avoid the remakes!.
I've heard great things about this movie, which is about four people who are gonna spend some nights in this haunted house, but I was quite disappointed when I saw this.The Haunting features no ghosts or graphic violence, but lots of sounds like knocking on the walls and people screaming and talking, which in this movie is not scary at all, rather quite boring.The actors do a fine job, but are not able to save the movie.
I really wanted to like 'The Haunting' because I am a sucker for horror movies with a slow buildup and I had read good things about this one beforehand, but it honestly didn't do anything for me and I'm very surprised about that myself considering its status as one of the greats of the genre.This movie feels dated and I'd be surprised if it could really scare a modern-day viewer in any way at all.
Joining him in his research are the heir to Hill House, Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn), clairvoyant Theo (Claire Bloom), and repressed, guilt ridden and mentally fragile spinster Eleanor (Julie Harris), whose past supernatural experience suggests that she may have telekinetic powers.On their first night in the house, the foursome are bombarded by terrifying noises and inexplicable phenomena, and nerves are soon frayed; but it is Eleanor who is most severely affected by the spooky goings on, coming to believe that she belongs in the house and that, somehow, the building actually wants her to stay there...
forever!The Haunting is often cited by horror fans as one of the scariest ghost movies of all time, but I'm afraid I am going to have to disagree: what might have seemed original and unbelievably scary in 1963—unseen things that go bump in the night—now seem rather clichéd and predictable, and the film's overly sober tone only goes to undermine any atmosphere that director Robert Wise manages to conjure up through the use of his impressive, ominous building.
In addition, the use of an annoying inner monologue from his introspective lead character only serves to lessen the tension even further.The script, based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, is rather ambiguous, leaving the viewer to ponder whether the strange occurrences are actually being caused by the house or by Eleanor's troubled mind, but neither this intriguing theme, nor Theo's suggested lesbian attraction to Eleanor, are explored in a manner that really does them justice.
Sometimes you wonder if the events are real or in one of the character's mind.Modern audiences accustomed to today's gorefests and special effects may be bored by the movie as it conveys the horror through lighting, shadows, sound, camera angles, the odd and creepy house, and the character's reactions.
Maxwell of course is best known as being the love struck Ms. Moneypenny in the James Bond series.The film really belongs to Julie Harris and Claire Bloom as the psychically enhanced women staying at Tamblyn's house.
Fortunately, this rule is obviously something that multi-talented director Robert Wise ('The Day the Earth Stood Still,' 'The Sound of Music') understood diligently, and I was pleased to discover that the 'The Haunting' is one of the most frightening horror films ever made, a masterpiece of paranoia, suspense and near-surrealism.The character of Eleanor "Nell" Lance (Julie Harris) sits at the very heart of the film.
Claire Bloom is a long way from her innocent cinematic debut in Chaplin's 'Limelight (1952),' as Theodora, the cynical clairvoyant who (very possibly) feels an attraction to Nell.All in all, 'The Haunting' is among the finest horror films ever produced, the levels of suspense rivaling that produced by even the greatest of Alfred Hitchcock's works (notably, the excellent 'The Birds' was reduced in the same year).
Less of a horror movie than a psychological thriller, it has Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) coming to old house with several other people invited by Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson).
And the answers to the creepy incidents that have taken place may be closer than anyone realizes.What makes this movie so good is that it relies on camera angle (rather than gore and special effects, as usually seems to happen now) to create the horror.
Another aspect of this film which makes it real spooky is "Hill House" and when you see Eleanor Lance driving up to the house and she remarks " the house is watching me" and the camera takes you to the turrets and spires of the house that scene alone is scary.
Not really scary stuff, with time you just get used to it and laugh it off.But when your alone and late at night you don't watch ghost films just in case.So that's really the reason why I consider The Haunting to be just about the best supernatural film made.
If you're fan of intelligent horror films watch this one, and for those who thinks this kind of movie is boring, then rent Freddy Kruger..
There are overt lesbian overtones between her and the other female character (played by Claire Bloom), and Russ Tamblyn, who played Riff in Wise's 1961 film version of "West Side Story," makes an appearance as the lone skeptic of the bunch."The Haunting" is yet one more example of how bad today's horror movies are.
Scientist, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) decides to investigate reports of ghosts at Hill House, a 90-year old New England mansion, in the 1963 thriller The Haunting.
Derived from Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, the film opens with a long voice-over narration describing the dark history of Hill House in great detail, then fast-forwards to the present.Dr. Markway comes to investigate Hill House with the disbelieving prospective owner Luke (Russ Tamblyn) and two woman researchers, Eleanor (Julie Harris), a fragile loner who has been living by herself after her mother's death, and Theodora (Claire Bloom), a brazen lesbian clairvoyant.
I know that The Haunting is considered to be one of the best horror films of all time but, for me, it just did not add up to the classic I expected..
The technique used to follow it mostly consists of us 'hearing her thoughts', as she ponders upon the mystery of Hill House.The movie presents a big contrast to the effect seeking likes of Scream(1/2/and 3 I suspect), Urban Legend etc where no actual horror can be found.
Like most good films of this type the viewer can never be sure if the house is really haunted or if it is imagination of the characters.
I have often listed this as probably the best haunted house movie ever made and nothing has come along to make me change my mind..
To me, this movie is a disgrace to classic horror films and truly a disgrace that people actually thought it was good and took the time to write reviews encouraging people to seek it out.
The horror is dissolved by an irritating central performance from Miss Harris, usually such a fine actress.CLAIRE BLOOM, RICHARD JOHNSON and RUSS TAMBLYN are part of a team sent to investigate the supernatural happenings at Hill House.
Yeah, I know this was supposed to really be a psychological kind of horror (which did work reasonably well in "The Legend Of Hell House"), but that angle didn't scare me the least bit in this movie.
The film revolves around Eleanor (Julie Harris), a troubled woman who goes to the supposedly haunted Hill House for a research experiment for the paranormal.
The film is also in black and white, which also gives it the vintage haunted-house feel.
It was truly frightening, and likely one of the scariest moments in the film.Overall, "The Haunting" is a superior horror movie, and is definitely among the best haunted house films of all time.
This and "The Innocents" are both the best haunted house films I've seen - I can't decide which is better, but they both have great things to offer.