page_title: The Haunting (1963 film)
section_title: Filming
hierarchical_section_title: The Haunting (1963 film) / Production / Filming
caption_attribution_description: English: Ettington Park Wonderful Gothic mansion by John Prichard for E.P.Shirley 1858-63, now a Country House Hotel
context_page_description: The Haunting is a 1963 British horror film directed and produced by Robert Wise and adapted by Nelson Gidding from the 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It stars Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn. The film depicts the experiences of a small group of people invited by a paranormal investigator to investigate a purportedly haunted house.
  Screenwriter Gidding, who had worked with director Wise on the 1958 film I Want to Live!, began a six-month write of the script after reading the book, which Wise had given to him. He perceived the book to be more about mental breakdown than ghosts, and although he was informed after meeting author Shirley Jackson that it was very much a supernatural novel, elements of mental breakdown were introduced into the film. The film was shot at the MGM-British Studios near London, UK on a budget of US$1.05 million, with exteriors and the grounds shot at Ettington Park in the village of Ettington, Warwickshire. Julie Harris was cast by Wise, who found her ideal for the psychologically fragile Eleanor, though during production she suffered from depression and had an uneasy relationship with her co-stars.
context_section_description: Wise called The Haunting one of his top ten or twelve favourites among the films he made, commenting that it was his favourite filmmaking experience. Ettington Park, (now the Ettington Park Hotel), with its grounds near the village of Ettington, Warwickshire, was used for exterior shots of Hill House. According to actor Russ Tamblyn, Wise approached a society that kept track of British haunted houses, and they gave him a list of such places.  Production designer Elliot Scott was sent around the country to look at each house, and Wise personally selected Ettington Park. Some of the cast and crew were housed in Ettington Park during exterior shooting. However, the  location did not sit well with Harris and Bloom who upon arriving at Ettington Park thought it was "scary looking outside", and Wise had to reassure them. Interior sets were constructed and shot at the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The interior sets were designed by Elliot Scott, credited by Wise as a "major contributor" to The Haunting. The sets were designed to be brightly lit, with no dark corners or recesses, and decorated in a Rococo style. All rooms had ceilings to create a claustrophobic effect on film (this was unusual, as most film sets forgo ceilings to add in lighting and filming). Actor Richard Johnson said that the sets' eeriness created a "subdued atmosphere" among the cast and crew.
  Wise says that his contract with MGM specified that the picture could only be shot in black-and-white, which Wise preferred for this genre of film. He attempted to make Ettington Park look more sinister through various lighting effects and camera settings, but this failed. Wise and Boulton then hit on the idea of using infrared film for establishing shots of the house. Infrared film stocks were quickly rushed to the location shoot from Belgium. The new film worked. Wise felt the infrared film brought out the "striations of the stone" and made the mansion look like "more of a monster house". Wise very much wanted to make The Haunting a tribute to Val Lewton, the producer and writer under whom Wise had directed his first film (the supernatural horror picture Curse of the Cat People). Wise says that Lewton's theory of horror was that people were more afraid of the unknown than things they could see. The decision to show little that was supernatural was made very early in the picture's pre-production. Wise and cinematographer Davis Boulton also wanted to make distances in the film (such as hallways) look longer and darker than the audience would anticipate. Wise approached the Panavision company, and wanted an anamorphic, wide-angle lens. The only lens Panavision had was a 40mm. Wise learned that the company was working on a 30mm lens, but it contained distortions and was not ready. Wise kept pressing, and eventually Panavision turned over the 30mm lens on the condition that Wise signed a memorandum in which he acknowledged it was imperfect. Wise and Boulton also planned shots that kept the camera moving, utilised low-angle shots, and incorporated unusual pans and tracking shots. This led to some of the most active camera movements in Wise's film career. To accentuate the feeling that the house was alive, exterior shots were filmed so that the windows appeared to be eyes.
  During the shoot, Harris suffered from depression, and believed that her co-stars did not take the film as seriously as she did. At times, she would cry in her makeup chair prior to the day's shoot. The other actors remember her as being distant, not a part of their socializing and joking, and Harris did not speak to Bloom during filming, which puzzled Bloom. Afterward, Harris told Bloom that the lack of interaction had helped her build her own performance and the two women reconciled.  Harris incorporated her own depression into her performance. Wise heightened the sense of character conflict by having the characters "step on one another's lines", allowing one character to begin talking before the other had finished. On occasion, the characters simply talk at the same time.
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caption: Ettington Park (shown here in 2009) was used for exteriors of haunted Hill House.
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