The Haunting [DVD] [1963]

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

Made in 1963 The Haunting is one of the best-ever movie ghost stories and was adapted from Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House. Suave ghost-hunter Richard Johnson takes a couple of psychic women--neurotic spinster Julie Harris and elegant lesbian Claire Bloom--to stay in Hill House, which has unsettling architecture (the spiral staircase is especially unnerving) and a bad reputation. Russ Tamblyn is along as a jive-talking sceptic, but he soon shuts up as the eerie phenomena mount up. The scene with a breathing door is a wonderful terror highlight, and the business about whose hand Harris is holding in the dark (she thinks it's Bloom, but Bloom is on the other side of the room) provides a moment of unmatched creepiness. Perhaps director Robert Wise allows too much psychology into the picture, letting you off the hook with the possibility that the twitchy Harris is behind all the spookery, but he fills the widescreen frame with really scary stuff and the cast are perfect. Lois Maxwell, of Miss Moneypenny fame, makes a marvellously chilling sudden appearance from the dark. Forget the remake, this is the real deal.

On the DVD: The Haunting comes to DVD with a trailer narrated in character by Johnson, a satisfyingly packed file of stills and an interesting commentary featuring input recorded separately from Wise, screenwriter Nelson Gidding and all four principal cast members. --Kim Newman

Commentary by Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, director Robert Wise, and screenwriter Nelson Gidding
Theatrical trailer(s)
Stills gallery
"Things That Go Bump in the Night" essay
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 (16x9 Letterbox)
Sound Mono