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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! Amazon.com essential video: Certain to remain one of the greatest haunted-house movies ever made, Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963) is antithetical to all the gory horror films of subsequent decades, because its considerable frights remain implicitly rooted in the viewer's sensitivity to abject fear. A classic spook-fest based on Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House (which also inspired the 1999 remake directed by Jan de Bont), the film begins with a prologue that concisely establishes the dark history of Hill House, a massive New England mansion (actually filmed in England) that will play host to four daring guests determined to investigate--and hopefully debunk--the legacy of death and ghostly possession that has given the mansion its terrifying reputation. 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 Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-24
Scary? Hardly. More Like Narcolepsy-Inducing
The SCARIEST thing about this 1963 film is that it has generated so many 5 star reviews.
It plods. It thumps. It repeats itself over and over and over.
I did manage to finish it, but what a waste of time.
I think people reviewed it based on their grade-school memories of it, because this film HAS NOT aged well.
Save your money. Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-21
Stay Behind that Door Eleanor!!!
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
Rating:
Date: 2008-06-05
An Adaptation Masterpiece
Few movies adapted from novels are as good as the original book. Even fewer are *better* than the original book. I feel that THE HAUNTING, adapted in 1963 by master director Robert Wise (also known for THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL in 1951, THE SOUND OF MUSIC in 1965, and WEST SIDE STORY in 1961), is one of those rare movies in the latter category.
That's not to say that Shirley Jackson's original novel, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, is anything but groundbreaking. In fact her novel in 1959 launched the haunted house sub-genre as we know it today. Are you familiar with the theme in which a group of people spend the night in a haunted building in order to experience the paranormal? Shirley Jackson came up with that, and it's been re-used in many ways.
But the novel is primarily a study on the character of Eleanor, and spends a great deal of time exploring her brooding and depressed thoughts. The haunted house is not the focal point of the novel, but the stage on which her psychosis would play itself out. When Eleanor heard strange sounds, Jackson felt compelled to explore her character's reactions rather than frighten the reader with them.
The movie, however, bled the story for its horror potential. It did not abandon Eleanor's thoughts, we hear them in her narration throughout. But Robert Wise took advantage of the implicit horror that is brought about when you hear an unexplainable sound in a house that you "know" is empty. He magnified the tension exponentially, using sound and camera angles to frighten you.
THE HAUNTING is one of the finest examples of minimalist horror.
Minimalist horror is storytelling that creates fear with minimal direction. You will not see a single ghost in the entire movie. You will only imagine ghosts because you can hear them. Hauntings are also evidenced by doors. Doors play an important role in the movie. They open and close by themselves, their knobs jiggle, and in one powerful scene a shut door swells in and out as if something gigantic must be pressing against the other side. One suspects that the use of doors in THE HAUNTING symbolizes "the other side" of reality. Metaphor or not, a menacing and unexplainable sound on the other side of a closed, unlocked door is a powerful source of anxiety. But we never get to see what's behind it. That's what makes it minimalist.
You will rarely hear music when there are hauntings about, because this would work against its goal. (Compare this movie with the embarrassing 1999 re-adaptation directed by Jan de Bont and you'll see what I mean. In the awful 1999 treatment, the music and sound effects just wouldn't stop, and the audience couldn't sort out what the characters were really hearing.)
A modern horror movie overuses sound effects and music because the director thinks it will bring more anxiety. Most of the time it's actually distracting. The directors don't seem to trust the imagination of the audience. One trick of the trade is to strike a loud sound when something dashes by the camera. John Carpenter probably started that trend with HALLOWEEN) (1978), and he's one of the few directors who can work it really effectively. Fear brought about by a sudden, loud sound has been used countless times since THE EXORCIST (1973), but few directors are daring enough to repeat the subtle, minimalist formula of THE HAUNTING.
However, there are two more recent and effective examples of minimalist ghost stories, which I also recommend. THE SIXTH SENSE (1999) directed by M. Night Shyamalan (himself well known as a minimalist director), and THE OTHERS (2001) directed by Alejandro Amenábar.
Eleanor was played by Julie Harris, with whom I had the pleasure of working on THE FIRST OF MAY, and she told me that shooting THE HAUNTING was not a happy experience for her. In fact she felt as alone and depressed as her character, and did not consort with the other actors much. She was able to bring this to her role, and helped to create one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Rating: 
Date: 2008-05-30
OK movie
I bought this movie from the reviews it had, it is good but just needs a little more bang for the buck, worth watching but I wish I had rented instead of buying. Rating: 
Date: 2008-04-05
Classic
This film is a classic that is great for its time and still holding up today. It's absolutely worth seeing, not a bad purchase, but be forwarned- I'm as big a fan of atmospheric horror as anyone, but this film is not the chiller so many other reviews/lists claim it is. There are a couple tense moments, but they are not comparible to many other films like The Thing, The Exorcist, The Omen (original), Poltergeist- just to name a few well known ones .
If you like chillers, I have a recommendation not many people have seen. There is a relatively new film called Sublime, which is a little abstract, but uncomfortable and it keeps you guessing. Nothing but atmosphere and wonder. |
