The Haunting (1963)
Directed by Robert Wise

Film Review

On every die-hard horror fan's list of favourite haunted house films Robert Wise's spine-chilling The Haunting is likely to be right at the top, surpassed only by Jack Clayton's equally blood-curdling The Innocents (1961).  It is a film that stands apart in a pretty crowded sub-genre on account of the restraint and apparent ease with which it conjures up a sense of all-pervading evil and slowly escalating terror.   It achieves this impression not by employing the kind of computer generated gimmickry that has lately become de rigueur but merely through some extremely effective art design and camerawork.  In common with Jean Epstein's La Chute de la maison Usher (1928) and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), the setting, a decaying old house, appears not only to be a conscious entity, observing everything that happens within its walls, but something that is infected with pure, undiluted evil.  As is stated in the creepy prologue, Hill House was born bad.  By the end of this film, you will be convinced that buildings do have souls, and nasty ones at that.

Incredibly, Robert Wise made this film between West Side Story and The Sound of Music, two life-affirming musical extravaganzas that could hardly be more different from The Haunting in tone, style and impact.  Deservedly, Wise has a reputation as one of Hollywood's most versatile filmmakers, as adept at directing sci-fi thrillers such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) as historical epics like Helen of Troy (1956).  In crafting the distinctive visual design of The Haunting, Wise was clearly influenced by the films produced by his mentor Val Lewton.  A highly respected producer at RKO, Lewton made a string of popular B-movie thrillers in the 1940s which included Cat People (1942) and The Body Snatcher (1945), the latter of which was directed by Wise.

What makes The Haunting so effective and so terrifying is the extraordinary restraint and precision with which the horror elements are employed.  There are no sights of gaunt and grisly spectres, no cheap thrills or slasher hi-jinks. The presence of supernatural phenomena is conveyed far more subtly, by eerie demonic sounds and distorted images of the house interior.  It is left to us to conclude whether these experiences are real or merely the product of a slowly disintegrating mind.  A combination of atmospheric lighting and skewed camera angles suggest a feeling of slowly escalating menace.  Wise's use of an infra-red camera for the exterior shots is inspired, since this gives the house a genuinely frightening ethereal quality.  It is as though the house itself were a living entity carved from Satan's soul, with evil abiding in every shadow and a deathly cold malignancy grafted onto every stone.  This is truly the stuff of nightmares.

With the setting having such a potent and evocative personality, it seems appropriate that the human protagonists are little more than crude stereotypes - the driven scientist, the sad spinster, the lesbian vamp and the cocksure juvenile.  As the film progresses, these characters appear less real, whilst the building they are in takes on a life of its own and increasingly resembles a conscious entity.  The only character that acquires a sense of reality is the spinster, Eleanor, who serves as a bridge between the normal and the paranormal.  As she is drawn to the house, like a classical romantic heroine to her lover, she convinces us that not only is the house alive, but that it has tangible needs, in particular the need to gorge upon human souls.  If the film's dire 1999 remake tells us anything it is how truly inspired was the original The Haunting.  This is terror or an altogether different plane, a harrowing venture into the realm of the supernatural that will haunt you forever.

Film Synopsis

Dr John Markway is a professor of anthropology with a keen interest in the paranormal.  For years he has been looking for proof that will convince a sceptical scientific community of the existence of supernatural phenomena.  At last, he believes he has found an ideal subject to achieve this goal - an old New England mansion named Hill House that has a long history of visitations by ghostly apparitions.  Markway decides to spend a period of time in the house, observing a hand-picked group of individuals who are thought to be receptive to the paranormal.  Only two of the people he contacts show up at the house, neurotic spinster Eleanor Lance and unexcitable lesbian Theodora.   The party is completed by Luke Sanderson, a young man who stands to inherit the house in the not too distant future.  As soon as she enters the house, Eleanor senses that it is alive and calling out to her.  That first night, she is disturbed by strange ethereal noises, sounds that would drive anyone insane.  Yet far from making her mad these experiences awaken something within her.  She is seized by the realisation that the house needs her and will never let her go...