The Haunting
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Movie Reviews of The Haunting
Movie Review: The Haunting - A Truly Classic Horror Film
Summary: 5 Stars
The Haunting directed by Robert Wise and based on the novel, The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson is a must see movie. No, I'm not talking about the remake done by Jan DeBont in 1999 with Zeta-Jones. That one was a disgrace to both Jackson and the original black and white film. Whereas Jackson and the black and white film played upon the insecurities of Eleanor - the last name escpaes me right now, but it's either Lance or Vance with my gut leaning towards the latter (in the book I'm sure it's Vance and in the B&W film it's Lance) - who is the main character in the story. However, the '99 remake gave the character confidence, which didn't seem right since Nell - the affectionate term Theo gives her - doesn't know what to do with herself and seems never did know what to do with herself before and after her mother died.On that note of Theo though. The great thing about the novel and the original film was that you got glimpses that Theo is a lesbian. It's the subtle things she does and says to Eleanor that cause you to suspect. The way her tone is while looking at Eleanor in certain scene's also gives you cause to suspect that as well. Whereas in the '99 remake your smacked upside the head so to speak that she's bi.
With my beef about the characters out of the way onto the juicy stuff - the creepy effect of the film. This film like so many other wonderful B&W films in the horror genre around this time relied on techniques that we have today that they didn't have back then and of course no blood, guts or gore (yeah I know *sarcasm* the horror of not seeing people's bowels gutted to give you the complete gross out effect). Unique camera angles used during the movie truly give this film the creepiness it ends up having. The day for night shots aren't the best like so many other older movies, but I prefer it over the CGI effects we can use today. Either way a sense of falsity or corniness is emmited with either choice.
What I love best about this movie is that it's what you don't see rather then what you do see that's most scary. One of the producers from the '99 remake said that as well to give the remake some support, but honestly. If you have to literally knock the head off of one of the four main stars of the film and kill him off when the same character didn't die in the book or original film, then DON'T kill him off in a remake of both of those! Anyway, I'm sidetracking. Like I was saying what I love about this film is what you don't see as opposed to what you do. My favorite scene in this version comes when Eleanor wakes up to knocking on her bedroom wall (coming from outside of her bedroom). Out of 11 years of habit she think's it's her mother calling her (when it's also the ghost of Abagail Crane who died while calling for help from the companion she took in to take care of her when she got to be an old woman) and Eleanor begins to get up to take care of it only to realize it's not her mother and she's not in her own home. Realizing where she is she hears Theo yelling for her and the two end up living out this horrific scene hoping and praying whatever is outside their rooms does not get in. This whole scene though only requires close-up camera shots, moving the door and a loud noise on the other side of the set to give off the feeling of something truly evil on the other side of Theo's door. When it all ends and the Doc and Luke pass by the girl's rooms after telling the two men about it both women break into fits of laughter and comment how something 'Knocked on the door with a cannon ball' followed by the men saying that the wood wasn't scratched and the girls saying, "How nice it didn't mar the woodwork.'
Another prime example of the film's success in scaring you by what you don't see is when the two women as sharing a room. Eleanor goes to bed angry for something Theo says to her. She wakes up in the middle of the night hearing what she thinks is a child crying and screaming. She grabs who she thinks is Theo's hand. After feeling like 'Theo's' hand is crushing hers, Eleanor gathers enough strength to yell stop at who ever is hurting this 'child' and when she does a light comes on and Theo - who is on the other side of the room - asks her what's wrong? Eleanor then gets up out of bed her hand in front of her face and asks out loud, "Who's hand was I holding?" This whole scene was done in darkness with only sounds and the camera around Eleanor. My point after those two examples is this, that these two women were being terrorized and scared by unseen being or force, and by sounds while either in darkness or by themselves not by something they could see that may have been gross or disgusting.
Overall this is a movie that is worth paying every cent for to buy. Simply renting it would not worth seeing it. Buy it and you will never tire of seeing it as often as you like.
Movie Review: A chilling, sinister, sophisticated things that go bump
Summary: 5 Stars
It is not often I love a book and go on to enjoy the Movie adaptation. To Kill a Mockingbird, comes to mind. But this is the case with the marvellous movie The Haunting. Since I adore spooky, sinister tales, I treasured Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. And forget the silly, inane remake, this is the Mount Everest of Haunted House movies, only rivalled by The Legend of Hell House made nearly a decade later with Clive Revill, Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowell and the Innocents with Deborah Kerr and Pamela Franklin. These three would make a super triple-feature of Houses with Things that go Bump, since all three deal not only with the supernatural, the complexities of the mind, but the force of the will lingering after death.The Haunting is a rather faithful adaptation of Jackson's dark and spooky novel. The key word being spooky - not gory. If you are looking for buckets of blood, search on. This is a sophisticated movie that chills rather than shocks. Staring the gorgeous Richard Johnson as Dr. John Markway, a man determined to prove ghosts do exist. And since he believes he will find them at Hill House, he arranges with the current owner to rent the house to carry out his research - though part of the pact is he must accept her grandson Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblin) to keep an eye on things.
Markway invites a wide range of people to come and take part, people with a past that showed their lives were brushed by the paranormal. However, only two come: Theodora, a clairvoyant with vague lesbian hints played by Claire Bloom, and Eleanor Lance brought to aching life by the brilliant Julie Harris.
Eleanor is a timid woman, browbeaten her whole life. She spent her youth tending her ailing mother and is now forced to live with her sister and her family. They are quick to take her money for rent, but show her little respect. In her one act of rebellion in her whole life, she accepts the invitation from Markway. When she arrives at Hill House, no one is there except a cranky gatekeeper and his equally cranky wife, who inform her they leave when it gets dark and there won't be anyone to help her.
Eleanor gets spooked, but finds Theodora, a chic, smart woman with a biting sense of humour. Despite the women being total opposites, they instantly like each other and set about to explore the dark, brooding and nearly suffocating house. Just as they are about to panic, they stumble into the dining room where Markway is. He performs introductions, and takes them on a tour, while giving the strange history of the house. Seems despite the house's ancient feel it is not that old. Hugh Crane built it for his first wife. However, she never saw the house, being killed as the carriage crashed into a tree on the way to occupy it. We learn Hugh was an overbearing, macho, zealot who tormented his daughter with devils and Hell rather than nursery rhymes. The second Mrs. Crane met an equally strange death in the house, leaving it to go to Hugh daughter, Abigail. She grows old and dies in the room that was her nursery, tended by a nurse/companion. Since there was no family, the nurse inherited the house. However, her enjoyment is short lived, as she later hangs herself from the ceiling in the library. Since then, no one has been able to live in the house.
It is not long before all sorts of sinister and chilling todos begin plaguing the women, especially Eleanor, for it seems the House has targeted her, even to a mysterious "welcome home, Eleanor" scrawled across the wall. Eleanor begins to remake her
image into the person she would like to be in her heart. She starts to have romantic illusions about Markway, only to have them shattered when his strong willed wife ( Lois Maxwell, Moneypenny from the Connery Bond films!!) shows up demanding he stop this nonsense about ghosts.
The movie is quite believable, walks the thin line in the Henry James' Turn of the Screw style story, of how much is real and how much is within the mind. The acting is faultless with the four leads turning in understated, yet oh so perfect performances. In Black and White, I could not imagine this movie in the brilliant washes of colour needed for colour filming. The dark lensing of The Haunting lets those shadows rule and give it threatening, disturbing feel that sets the tone for the movie.
So turn out the lights and enjoy one of the best haunted house film, and if you are lucky enough have that triple feature with The Innocents and The Legend of Hell House! A great way to spend a rainy Saturday night!
Movie Review: ROBERT WISE PULLS "THE HAUNTING" OUT OF HIS HAT
Summary: 5 Stars
WHAT IT IS: DR. MARKWAY'S WISH -- HOPING FOR THE WORST
This is a speculative, psychological thriller that aims to bring the audience into the terror that is being dramatically fictionalized and focused in the head of Julie Harris who plays Eleanor Vance [Nell].
Is it real or is it Nell?
ROBERT WISE DOES A LOT WITHOUT MODERN SPECIAL EFFECTS
Richard Johnson plays Dr. John Markway, a college professor who has taken a leave of absence from school to do just one thing -- PROVE THAT GHOSTS ARE REAL! With an almost-childlike playfulness and naivete, he and his entourage of psychically sensitive persons and one disbeliever embark on an insane mission to achieve Markway's goal -- stay cooped up in the notorious "Hill House" for an extended period and hope for the worst.
THE PLOT THICKENS:
Basically, we have four main characters who, for four separate reasons of their own, are willing to stay on at Hill House and see the experiment through. First, there is Dr. Markway whom we discussed above. Julie Harris as Nell is a deeply-troubled woman whose personal life or lack of it is at the center of the story. She wants a place for herself, somewhere. WHY NOT HERE AT HILL HOUSE or with Dr. Markway? Third, we have Claire Bloom as Theodora. Theodora brings sexual tension and the hint of a lesbian relationship between the two women to our attention. Theodora, a psychic, spends her entire stay at Hill House as close to Nell as possible while acting very possessively toward her. She teases and taunts Nell, but it seems mostly out of a need to be closer to her, like a jealous lover which, in 1963, is a tough theme to demonstrate effectively on mainstream film. Our fourth intrepid investigator is Luke Sanderson played by Russ Tamblyn. His interest is simple, he expects to inherit Hill House and make his living off it. Naturally he is skeptical toward the supernatural in his "real estate", and has even mentioned selling off the house's library, book-by-book, for a quarter a piece -- the china dishes too!
HAUNTED HOUSES THRIVE ON SURPRISES:
Dr. Markway's wife, to Nell's surprise and Theo's delight, shows up with a "You've got to stop all this childish nonsense" tone to Dr. Markway. According to her, Dr. Markway has not just taken a leave of absence, but has taken leave of his senses as well! Somehow, Mrs. Markway stays the night in the nursery, "the evil heart of Hill House", all alone to make some kind of a point like, "See, it's morning and I slept like the dead." Ha-ha on Mrs. Markway. Well, the point is made and it brings the film to its climax which is quite thrilling. Enough has been said, as more would spoil the film for anyone who has not seen it.
IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS:
This is a terrific film on the order of "The Uninvited" and "Psycho" [mentioned aptly by an earlier reviewer]. There is no gore, no nudity, no foul language, yet the film does instill palpable fear -- the kind of fear that children have of the dark. On the cover of the DVD it says, "YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IN GHOSTS, BUT YOU CAN'T DENY TERROR!" This is certainly true for, whether the ghosts are real or not, we see Nell's nosedive into her own twilight zone -- a fantasy world of ghosts, romance, and impending doom -- which can stand on its own with or without real ghosts.
SO ARE THE GHOSTS REAL?
You'll have to judge for yourself, but it won't be easy!
ABOUT THE DVD:
The less-is-better approach with which Director Robert Wise has saturated "The Haunting" is utilized with appropriately excellent results in the "Special Features". The very clean B/W transfer on "Widescreen" is enough to make the DVD version a must have. There's also a "Theatrical Trailer", an essay -- "Great Ghost Stories", and you can play it in English, French or Spanish.
The best feature, however, is the commentary which is provided on a rotating basis by Director Robert Wise and Stars Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn, plus Screenwriter Nelson Gidding throughout the film. They have relevant things to say and it is worth watching the film for their comments alone at least once.
Movie Review: DR. MARKWAY'S WISH -- HOPING FOR THE WORST
Summary: 5 Stars
WHAT IT IS:
This is a speculative, psychological thriller that aims to bring the audience into the terror that is being dramatically fictionalized and focused in the head of Julie Harris who plays Eleanor Vance [Nell].
Is it real or is it Nell?
WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT:
Richard Johnson plays Dr. John Markway, a college professor who has taken a leave of absence from school to do just one thing -- PROVE THAT GHOSTS ARE REAL! With an almost-childlike playfulness and naivete, he and his entourage of psychically sensitive persons and one disbeliever embark on an insane mission to achieve Markway's goal -- stay cooped up in the notorious "Hill House" for an extended period and hope for the worst.
THE PLOT THICKENS:
Basically, we have four main characters who, for four separate reasons of their own, are willing to stay on at Hill House and see the experiment through. First, there is Dr. Markway whom we discussed above. Julie Harris as Nell is a deeply-troubled woman whose personal life or lack of it is at the center of the story. She wants a place for herself, somewhere. WHY NOT HERE AT HILL HOUSE or with Dr. Markway? Third, we have Claire Bloom as Theodora. Theodora brings sexual tension and the hint of a lesbian relationship between the two women to our attention. Theodora, a psychic, spends her entire stay at Hill House as close to Nell as possible while acting very possessively toward her. She teases and taunts Nell, but it seems mostly out of a need to be closer to her, like a jealous lover which, in 1963, is a tough theme to demonstrate effectively on mainstream film. Our fourth intrepid investigator is Luke Sanderson played by Russ Tamblyn. His interest is simple, he expects to inherit Hill House and make his living off it. Naturally he is skeptical toward the supernatural in his "real estate", and has even mentioned selling off the house's library, book-by-book, for a quarter a piece -- the china dishes too!
HAUNTED HOUSES THRIVE ON SURPRISES:
Dr. Markway's wife, to Nell's surprise and Theo's delight, shows up with a "You've got to stop all this childish nonsense" tone to Dr. Markway. According to her, Dr. Markway has not just taken a leave of absence, but has taken leave of his senses as well! Somehow, Mrs. Markway stays the night in the nursery, "the evil heart of Hill House", all alone to make some kind of a point like, "See, it's morning and I slept like the dead." Ha-ha on Mrs. Markway. Well, the point is made and it brings the film to its climax which is quite thrilling. Enough has been said, as more would spoil the film for anyone who has not seen it.
BOTTOM LINE:
This is a terrific film on the order of "The Uninvited" and "Psycho" [mentioned aptly by an earlier reviewer]. There is no gore, no nudity, no foul language, yet the film does instill palpable fear -- the kind of fear that children have of the dark. On the cover of the DVD it says, "YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IN GHOSTS, BUT YOU CAN'T DENY TERROR!" This is certainly true for, whether the ghosts are real or not, we see Nell's nosedive into her own twilight zone -- a fantasy world of ghosts, romance, and impending doom -- which can stand on its own with or without real ghosts.
SO ARE THE GHOSTS REAL?
You'll have to judge for yourself, but it won't be easy!
ABOUT THE DVD:
The less-is-better approach with which Director Robert Wise has saturated "The Haunting" is utilized with appropriately excellent results in the "Special Features". The very clean B/W transfer on "Widescreen" is enough to make the DVD version a must have. There's also a "Theatrical Trailer", an essay -- "Great Ghost Stories", and you can play it in English, French or Spanish.
The best feature, however, is the commentary which is provided on a rotating basis by Director Robert Wise and Stars Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn, plus Screenwriter Nelson Gidding throughout the film. They have relevant things to say and it is worth watching the film for their comments alone at least once.
Movie Review: THE PERFECT HAUNTED HOUSE MOVIE. ...WANNA KNOW WHY?
Summary: 5 Stars
The story has, by now, been imitated endlessly. Four people on a haunted house just to study it. But this is just the premisse.The great Robert Wise sets up the most perfect, most classic haunted-house film ever made. The screenplay is built on the principle that you don't have to see it (the gore, the blood, etc.) to feel the fear. So, this is one of those great films where the tension is constructed upon the things you hear... the things you know are there.
In the pre-CGI era, you really had to create something out of what you had. So, Mr. Wise had a great script (years ahead of its time), great characters, great actors, a great cameraman, and settings that are a wow!
This is what makes this film so much better than any other (not to mention its remake - who clearly goes for the predictable cheap-trick CGI effects).
The story is told in the most perfect classic form. From beginning to end, you follow the story in the most careful pace. Beat by beat. From the prologue to the conclusion, the story is peerlessly told.
The characters and actors are great to watch: Julie Harris is the perfect troubled woman haunted by inner ghosts, while Theodora (the beautiful Claire Bloom) is the perfect icy clairvoyant who may or may not be a lesbian (everything is constructed with such taste...). Richard Johnson is great as the Doctor who must keep control of the experiment. Russ Tamblyn is also great as the non-believer who's in just for the adventure. As we will discover, all of them have weak points the house will explore. So it is possible to say that this is one film where the set (in this case the house itself) is one character just like the others.
The house has personality. It's not that unbelievable-monumental-lifeless-overdone-cathedral we see in the remake. This one is more realistic. We all know (and are fascinated by) houses like this one. It has style, visual integrity, proportion and it also puts into the film a nice touch of claustrophobia. As long as the characters are there, they are at its mercy. This "house character" is always present. Trying to get in. Banging at the walls and doors, trying to make itself graphically visible through the shots...
...This is where we get to the camera work - certainly one of the best ever made. In a house so rich with character, the distorted wide-angle lenses (let's not forget that Wise worked with Orson Welles) add much to the final effect. Corridors, statues and other objects are always there to remind you the house is present. They actually keep surprising the characters as if they were saying "we are here". This is why this film is so much superior than its sequel: you don't have to see the statues move... for you know they do when you are not there. In fact, this film constructs a state where you know the things that happen when you don't see them happen. That's pure film magic.
I wonder why nobody does films like this any more. Why do they always go now for the CGI obviousness...
I just love the wide-angle lens that smoothly move through the rooms... the time we are allowed to see those beautiful sets. and all the uncontrolled fear that invades the characters. The soundtrack is another great element. The film is constructed in an almost silence (which is very confortable at the beginning). So much that the noises made by the hauntings are almost unbearable when the things get rough.
This is one of those films that were meant to be seen ONLY in widescreen, for the compositions inside the shots make great use of it (in fact I never saw it in a Pan&Scan version - I cannot imagine how awfull it must be). This DVD edition has a great commentary audio track by the actors and director but lacks any kind of documentary about how it was made (which I'd love to see). But we can't have it all...
If (like me), you love the genre, you will love this film, which is a one-of-a-kind effectively constructed cinematic work. Just don't watch it alone... in the dark... in the night...