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The Haunting (1963) -
This deserves to be considered one of the great haunted house movies even though Hill House is not actually haunted...or is it? That’s what Dr. Markway (Johnson) wants to find out, and he hired three very different people to assist him. They include Luke (Tamblyn), the heir to the house, Theo (Bloom), a psychic, and Eleanor (Harris), who may have encountered a ghost in her youth. The latter has an unenviable adult life that is eerily similar to the long-dead Abigail, who spent the entirety of hers in the mansion's nursery. While strange events occur during their stay, could they just be in Eleanor's head?
This movie may prove that all you need to make a haunted house scary in a movie is really good camerawork...well, a few unexplained window and door closings do not hurt, either. With the split diopters, unusual angles (conforming to Hill House's appropriately off-center construction, I might add), etc., Davis Boulton provides a masterclass in cinematography here. What makes it more impressive is how the camera makes you question if it's all a product of Eleanor's imagination. Harris's work as one of the most miserable characters I can remember seeing in a movie also makes it work as well as it does. I've read reviews about how unlikeable and annoying she is, which confuse me since her behavior, a result of spending most of her adulthood as a caretaker and in a family that would rather browbeat than help, is more than justifiable. No less effective is Johnson, who ably provides another layer of ambiguity, albeit one inspiring anger rather than terror: is he an ally to Eleanor or is he exploiting her for his own gain? The same goes for Theo's perhaps more trustworthy ally, especially for how subtly scorned she is at Eleanor not exactly believing she is one, as well as for the always amusing Russ Tamblyn's comic relief/audience surrogate.
Again, this movie earns its classic haunted house movie status despite how tangential Hill House seems to the story in retrospect. I did not find the house to be a character in and of itself like it is in other such haunted house classics like The Changeling or The Legend of Hell House, in other words. This is more observation than criticism, however, especially since the movie successfully argues that there is something perhaps scarier than a vengeful ghost: an entire life that is not only lived for others, but also for ones who neither respect nor believe you. It's been a few days since I watched it, and the haunting has been mine as much as it is the house's.
This deserves to be considered one of the great haunted house movies even though Hill House is not actually haunted...or is it? That’s what Dr. Markway (Johnson) wants to find out, and he hired three very different people to assist him. They include Luke (Tamblyn), the heir to the house, Theo (Bloom), a psychic, and Eleanor (Harris), who may have encountered a ghost in her youth. The latter has an unenviable adult life that is eerily similar to the long-dead Abigail, who spent the entirety of hers in the mansion's nursery. While strange events occur during their stay, could they just be in Eleanor's head?
This movie may prove that all you need to make a haunted house scary in a movie is really good camerawork...well, a few unexplained window and door closings do not hurt, either. With the split diopters, unusual angles (conforming to Hill House's appropriately off-center construction, I might add), etc., Davis Boulton provides a masterclass in cinematography here. What makes it more impressive is how the camera makes you question if it's all a product of Eleanor's imagination. Harris's work as one of the most miserable characters I can remember seeing in a movie also makes it work as well as it does. I've read reviews about how unlikeable and annoying she is, which confuse me since her behavior, a result of spending most of her adulthood as a caretaker and in a family that would rather browbeat than help, is more than justifiable. No less effective is Johnson, who ably provides another layer of ambiguity, albeit one inspiring anger rather than terror: is he an ally to Eleanor or is he exploiting her for his own gain? The same goes for Theo's perhaps more trustworthy ally, especially for how subtly scorned she is at Eleanor not exactly believing she is one, as well as for the always amusing Russ Tamblyn's comic relief/audience surrogate.
Again, this movie earns its classic haunted house movie status despite how tangential Hill House seems to the story in retrospect. I did not find the house to be a character in and of itself like it is in other such haunted house classics like The Changeling or The Legend of Hell House, in other words. This is more observation than criticism, however, especially since the movie successfully argues that there is something perhaps scarier than a vengeful ghost: an entire life that is not only lived for others, but also for ones who neither respect nor believe you. It's been a few days since I watched it, and the haunting has been mine as much as it is the house's.