The film's director, Robert Wise, was in his office one day, reading a review of this new book that had just been released, 'The Haunting of Hill House'. He got himself a copy, and started reading it. Almost halfway through the book, while reading it in his office, one of his assistants came bursting in through the door (to bring him something or to say 'Hi', I do not know), causing Wise to leap out of his chair, frightened and jumpy from what he was just reading. It was then he realized that if he can get scared easily by this book, then it certainly would make a pretty good film. And so began pre-production of the greatest horror movie ever brought to the screen.
My introduction to this film was on a night I will never forget. I cannot really remember whether it was the night before Halloween, or a couple of nights after. I was around 13 years old at the time, and for a kid of my age with a history of anxiety disorder, I still had a slight fascination with horror movies. My mother had asked me and my little sister to sit down and watch this old scary movie that she had remembered from when she was a little girl. "Oh, this is old fashioned, you guys will probably not even get scared by this silly movie", my mother said to us before starting 'The Haunting'. Afterwards, I literally could not sleep for two nights straight.
From 'The Haunting' to 'The Shawshank Redemption', you can tell that I certainly owe a great amount of my love of movies to my parents.
In an attempt to find out whether or not the supernatural really exists, Dr. John Markway sets up a reservation to stay at the infamous Hill House, believed to be "haunted", though some say there are many logical explanations for what could be happening. Markway is not alone in his expedition. He hires a group of assistants to help him in his experiments at Hill House. One of them is named Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris), who desperately wants to get away from her home, after the death of her invalid mother, and live somewhere else. The other members of the group are Theodora (Claire Bloom) and Luke (Russ Tamblyn). Once arriving at Hill House, it is quite clear that this place is unusual. It is almost like the house itself is "staring" at you, with it's windows like the eyes of demons. There are things that "go bump in the night", unnatural voices chanting, doors that close by themselves. But, is there a single "ghost" seen in this film? Are any of these haunting events real? Could this all be just happening inside the group's heads?
What I absolutely love about this film is it's lack of special effects, manipulating it's audience into thinking they see something, when in fact, they probably do not. It is what you do not see that frightens you. Much like Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' (1980), many of the films mysteries go about simply as this: Unexplained. We do not get the cliched explain-every-plot-detail ending. It is all left up to the audience to figure out for themselves. That is the key to what makes this a brilliant horror film.
Another key element that works effectively in the film is yet again a subtle touch. Eleanor Lance is clearly, from the start, a disturbed woman, and we understand that how? Not just by her personality and body language, but through her own voice-over. Almost every little thought Eleanor is thinking to herself, we the audience hear it. When she is driving in her car, when she is wandering trance-like through the hallways of Hill House, we hear her every thought. She is basically playing the audience, experiencing exactly what we are. When she is scared, we are scared. When she is laughing, we are laughing. When she looks in horror at the "face" that suddenly appears in the wallpaper, we are right there with her.
The technical aspects about this film are nothing short but a stroke of genius: The cinematography, the unique camera angles that simulate a demented mindset. The lighting, with it's contrasts from bright sets to shadowy corners. These are all brilliant, and equally terrifying. And conveniently, the black-and-white photography helps with creating the film's creepy atmosphere. One of the best examples is during the scene near the end of the film where Eleanor slowly makes her dreaded ascent up the ominous spiral staircase, a representation of insanity, in the library.
What I love about Robert Wise, as a filmmaker, is his genius with genres. He has made just about every kind of movie there is. From a Sci-fi classic like 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', a romance/musical like 'West Side Story', this horror film by the name of 'The Haunting', another musical called 'The Sound of Music', and a brilliant war epic like 'The Sand Pebbles'. But 'The Haunting', I believe, is his crowning achievement. Wise once said, "I have had so many people tell me, 'Mr. Wise, you have made one of the scariest pictures I've ever seen, and you didn't show anything. How did you do it?' It's mainly by suggestion. We don't show any horrific effects in it, or any monstrous things at all. It's all a kind of suggestion: Is it, or is it not?" That is quite the question.
'The Haunting' is full of intelligence. The script is tight, the characters are smart and engaging, the scares are genuine and the events are interesting, in a ghostly kind of way. I think, in the case of this film, I can certainly say that they do not make them like they used to. This is honestly one the greatest films ever made, and one of my all time favorites. Next Halloween, or just whenever you feel like having a good scare, watch 'The Haunting'. I only dare you to watch this one alone... in the night... in the dark.
4/4
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