Dr Markway (Richard Johnson), a paranormal investigator, invites a pair of psychic researchers to help him examine the restless spirits at Hill House, a sinister family estate haunted by the angry souls from its troubled past. The owner insists her nephew (Russ Tamblyn) join the team of Theodora (Claire Bloom) and Eleanor (.. Read more
| Starring | Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Wise |
| Genres | Horror |
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Dr Markway (Richard Johnson), a paranormal investigator, invites a pair of psychic researchers to help him examine the restless spirits at Hill House, a sinister family estate haunted by the angry souls from its troubled past. The owner insists her nephew (Russ Tamblyn) join the team of Theodora (Claire Bloom) and Eleanor (Julie Harris) become increasingly obsessed with the history of the huge, ominous house. Based on Shirley Jackson's lyrical novel "The Haunting of Hill House" THE HAUNTING is one of the most frightening psychological horror films ever made, featuring virtually no blood, gore, or monsters for its effective scares. Chilling.
| Starring | Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Wise |
| Studio | WARNER HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 47 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Horror |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 29 Sep 2003 Production year: 1963 |
| Format | DVD |
This is one of the best supernatural chillers ever made. Richard Johnson plays the psychic researcher who brings along two mediums to help him investigate a monstrously haunted mansion steeped in spectral phenomena. All the more effective for keeping its horrors unseen, director Robert Wise's masterful adaptation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is an exercise in invisible terror. All you see are pulsating walls and all you hear are loud pounding noises! Julie Harris shines as the spinster worst affected by the poltergeist events, whose psychological state is cleverly kept in question throughout the tale.
Quite frightening but exhausting and humourless melodrama with a lot of suspense, no visible spooks, and not enough plot for its length. The wide screen is a disadvantage.
Contemporary movie makers could learn a lot from Robert Wises', The Haunting. Forget the recent remake with Leeson/Zeta Jones as this creeps the crap right out of it! Black and white, kind of Gothic, but what did it for me were the camera angles, use of space and perspective, and the power of suggestion. Its dark: its brooding, its ALIVE! muuahhahahah!
Not the classic I was led to believe, The Haunting, Robert Wise's 1963 adaptation of the novel The House on Haunted Hill is a slightly overwrought melodrama which centres as much on the demons in our minds as well as any supernatural manifestations. Lead characters Eleanors internal dialogue show us shes a person at war with her herself before she even reaches the impressively oppressive house. If we are in any doubt her diva'ish behaviour confirms it.
Too much of this movie is wasted on her tantrums and not enough on the actual haunting itself which when it does manifest itself is beautifully handled, utilising sound and shadow to powerfully plant the visage of true evil in our midst. Eleanor is a woman so desperate to be wanted by someone she imagines the entity has focused on her.
There is an interesting sub-text in the script about the supernatural actually being a preternatural phenomenon and that one day science will explain it all which is something I agree with and could have been developed further in the film. Rather this than more extravagant hand wringing.
The Haunting is impressively directed and the performances are fine but unlike modern Japanese ghost films it lacks atmosphere but it does have one very salient moment when a character points outs that newspapers have a ghost or celebrity story at least once a week. Now its celebritys everyday and ghosts?
Well they dont exist.
Do they?
Some things never change, like the scary properties of an old dark house and things that go bump in the night. American horror seems transfixed by graphic sadism right now, but the acclaimed Spanish chiller "El Orfanato" harks back to an older tradition of psychological scares epitomized by classics like The Innocents, The Haunting, and Cat People. First-time director Juan Antonio Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G Sanchez make it as a point of honor to take classic horror movie talismans - dark Read more