the haunting (1963 robert wise)

i started watching this movie several months ago, but never got around to finishing it, until today! it's so funny that now that for so long, i would not watch scary movies, and now that i do, it's a challenge to find a movie that does actually frieghten me. this film did not scare me, but it was a worthwhile film nonetheless. i hate plot summaries and i don't plan on making this blog a collection of them, so i'll sum it up as briefly as i can. basically, the story is about a lonely woman who ends up as part of an experiment at a supposed haunted house. she's already kind of kooky when she gets there, but Hill House does a real number on her psychologically.

it was amusing to have seen the (awful) remake of this film and have owen wilson in mind while watching russ tamblyn playing luke sanderson, the hier to Hill House. i enjoyed richard johnson as dr. markway and claire bloom was quite sexy as the psychic theo(although i don't remember her ever showing off her abilities).

visually, this film is quite pleasing. i think that black and white is so much creepier than color films and that horror filmmakers should use the b&w format more often.

the special effects used to simulate the haunting itself were very simple, mostly the filmmakers made use of muffled moans and cries and a pretty cool bending door effect. i'm not huge on special effects, except when it comes to horror films. i do believe in the less is more philosophy, but being a visual person it would have been significantly more freightening if there had been some sort of visable manifestation of the ghost(s) besides the bulging door.

i like that this film is psychological, yet, at the same time, it does not explain away the supernatural. so often a film takes one route or the other, but this film allowed for both madness and a definite presence of something spiritual and inexplainable. what happens to elenor occurs because she is so vulnerable to the spirits in the house because of her weak emotional state.
on the other hand, i didn't think the plot was good enough to give the film the chilling effect it could have had or maybe did have forty years ago.

3 1/2 (out of 5) stars