The Haunting

Rating:
Summary: Superb, understated film version of a literary masterpiece
Review: This is one of the best adaptations of a book ever done. It captures the growing creepiness of Hill House far, far better than the horrid recent version that tried to run everything off special effects and brute force acting. Subtle works better. For example, Claire Bloom's protrayal of a lipstick lesbian -- and Julie Harris's character's almost unconscious discomfort with her ambiguous passes -- are effective because they are so understated. Being swallowed, slowly, by a huge, creepy dragon of a house where you are never quite sure if the noise you wake to in the hall ourside your bedroom is nerves or rats or . . . something else builds to a level of fear far beyond what clumsy hacks can do with computer-generated junk. The relationship between the two women felt real. Miss Harris's portrayal of a spinster's schoolgirl crush on a man was utterly convincing. Even small roles were well-crafted. The housekeeper,both in the book and the film, was an inspired touch. In the dark, in the night, no one can hear your screams. And no one will come.

Rating:
Summary: Hair: RAISED; Bones: CHILLED
Review: I was, well, under the age of 13 when I first saw this horror classic (emphasis on classic). The problem was, my parents wouldn't let me climb in bed with them anymore. No special effects for the sake of special effects in this one, unlike the pathetic remake. Except for the bending door... I never understood how they did that. Yep, this one got to me at that tender age. Last year, I purchased the original from Amazon and watched it again. I hadn't seen it for years and only thought about it occasionally. I gotta tell ya folks, it still gives me "the bumps". A must for any horror movie collection.

Rating:
Summary: subtle yet powerful
Review: Simply the most understated, yet powerful Horror Movie of all time.when Julie Harris has her hand held...when the walls thunder and you can see your breath, make sure you don't watch it alone!

Rating:
Summary: Great Chiller? hmm....
Review: This movie starts out with a very promising intro and then goes nowhere. They all arrive at the house and discuss ghosts a little. Ok, fine. Then Eleanore starts freaking out over nothing. Throughout the entire movie, she wanders around freaking out over nothing and generally being completely insane for no reason that we can tell. We aren't even given any clues about why she's this way. Or any clues about why anything is happening. That is my biggest objection, that nothing in particular happened in this movie. It is not a scay ghost story because there are no ghosts. The banging on the walls could be anything; it's an old house. The door breating and the hand holding are something, but no one in the movie seems to think anything of them except for Eleanore, and she is insane. The other three are just fine with everything that happens. This movie is confused in what it was trying to do; the only thing that saved it was good acting all around, but the characterizations were shallow. They were all quite one dimensional; Eleanore was insane, Luke was concerned about property values and forget anything else that might be going on, Theo annoyed everybody, and the doctor was overly obsessed with cold spots. If one were to watch this movie as a child, with the lights out, then it might be scary, especially if one is watching it with a group of friends who are also already scared, but as an adult, it was not. I do not fall asleep while I'm watching movies, and this one put me to sleep. I thought this was a terrible movie, and that the remake was well done; it went through and corrected the mistakes in this one and added something of its own.

Rating:
Summary: Stands the test of time
Review: I saw this movie on TV one night as a child with my brothers and just saw it again on video; it's just plain eerie! Very well done; Julie Harris is excellent. Most memorable scenes are the "breathing" door and the face in the wall. It scared me so much as a child that I never forgot it! Beautiful B&W cinematography and lots of atmosphere. Great haunted house movie without the gratuitous gore. Be sure to watch it in a darkened room!

Rating:
Summary: This ones better!
Review: This one is better than the recent remake because the 1963 version pulls you into the movie. I felt as though i were there. You get caught up in the movie. It scared me as a kid and it still holds up well. It may not have the effects that the modern movie has but who cares. This one is better. The new one is good but this one is the master! Thats it!

Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this!
Review: See this version first, then read the original story, then see the new movie only if you have nothing better to do and want to waste a few bucks. The original is still the best, and the book is even better.

Rating:
Summary: This movie is way overrated
Review: Hearing how much scarier this movie compared to the 1999remake, I checked it out and was very disappointed. Where are thescares that many people were talking about? Could the lack of spookiness be due to the limitation of the VHS format? I found the noises in this movie just as ludicrous as the visual effects of the 1999 remake (the sound effects of the latter version were actually pretty good.) Personally I believe that the best part of a ghost story is the background story and its interpretation based on the experience of the people who survived the encounter. The 1963 version failed to tell a compellingly consistent story. The opening monologue is probably the best thing about the movie. After that, there are a couple of decent scenes, but a few good scenes do not make a movie.

Rating:
Summary: Well, it's about time that this came out on DVD!
Review: This may be the spookiest film ever made. No, I don't mean spooky in the sense of a bunch of teenagers getting hacked up at camp - I mean DOWNRIGHT CREEPY. Filmed in glorious black and white and with the perfect cast this film hits the ground running (Robert Wise's voiceover:"Hill House has stood for ninety years...") and never lets up. There are a ton of great lines ("No one will come...in the night...in the dark.") and memorable scenes (The "hand holding" scene remains a high-water mark in Horror films). I'll refrain from using the term "Thinking man's horror" because this film is just too much fun to fall into that category. Buy it & watch it this, and every, Halloween.

Rating:
Summary: A Little Switch: Tell, Not Show
Review: Four people investigate a supposedly haunted house in "The Haunting", an exceptionally wise horror film that chills without all those special effects. Seeing this film alone is certainly NOT a good idea. Be sure to read Shirley Jackson's novel, "The Haunting of Hill House", in which this was adapted from.