‘A closed mind is the worst defence against the supernatural… If it happens to you, your liable to have that shut door in your mind ripped right off it’s hinges.’
Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, Richard Johnson
Synopsis: Dr John Markway (Richard Johnson) is a paranormal investigator. He gathers a team of unlikely assistants to come and stay in what (he hopes) is a haunted house. But they could never have expected the terror and trauma that awaits them in Hill House.
There’s nothing like a good ol’ fashioned ghost story. If it’s done well, there will be no need for blood and gore and if it’s done VERY well, you won’t have to see anything horrific at all. No killer, no climatic demon that doesn’t live up to expectations. The horror is in your head and the terror in intangible.
What makes THE HAUNTING so very frightening is fact that you do not see anything. You see no ghosts or ghouls, the malevolence of the haunted house is created by Wise’s superb camera work and sound effects. They merely provide the trigger for your imagination and, as the above quote suggests, an open mind will help. Robert Wise (WEST SIDE STORY, THE SOUND OF MUSIC) and his cinematographer Davis Boulton create a disjointed and unreal environment with the movement of their camera, which must have been a direct influence on Sam Raimi for his EVIL DEAD series. It pans, swerves and swivels around, utilising different heights and peculiar panoramas to create a manic, ghastly environment for the poor souls within the house. Wise and Boulton use shadow and depth of field to turn corridors into nightmarish vistas and are so skilled they manage to make doors frightening. These techniques are most effective when coupled with the harrowing sound effects. The sequence in which Eleanor (Julie Harris) and Theo (Claire Bloom, portraying that rare thing in the 1960s, a positive gay character) are huddled in their bedroom is particularly nerve wracking, as a constant thudding sound outside gets closer and closer and BANG BANG BANGS on their door. It plays to the primal fear in all of us; there is something terrible and unknown just outside and it wants to come in. It wants to get us. This is all we need to know and bloody Hell it’s effective. Much like a following scene where Eleanor is lying in bed, tormented by ghostly laughing from next door which becomes the sound of a tortured child. Again, we see nothing supernatural. Instead, the camera cuts between Eleanor’s barely lit face and a point on the wall on which she focuses. Never before has a piece of wallpaper been so chilling.
THE HAUNTING is rightly considered one of the great celluloid frighteners, with The Guardian newspaper ranking it the 13th best horror film of all time, while Martin Scorsese calls it the best scary movie ever made. There was a remake in 1999 which was chock full of CG ghosts, a decapitation and Catherine Zeta Jones. It’s a big bowl of bum biscuits that only serves to emphasise just how fantastic the original, minimal work of art really is.
Horror Highlight: In the wallpaper scene, Eleanor grabs Theo’s hand in the dark to help her through the trauma she’s hearing. When the lights come on Theo is in a bed on the other side of the room. Then who… Oh dear God!
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