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The Haunting

The Haunting

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $15.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AWESOME MOVIE!
Review: This movie has to be the scarriest piece of film ever made. Director Robert Wise did a fantastic job with this movie, based on the fantastic book written by Shirley Jackson. When I first saw this movie several years ago, I was all alone, sitting in the dark, and let me tell you, that wasn't the smartest thing to do. Anyway, great acting from the stars, especially Julie Harris. If you are looking for cheep thrills, i.e. blood and guts and psycho killers, you're not going to find them here. This is a first-rate film, where all of the scarring goes on in your head. Also, I chose five stars only because there weren't any more than that.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The BEST Haunted House Movie Ever Made.
Review: The scariest part is after you turn off the TV, get up from the couch and try to walk up the stairs without turning around to see what's behind you. Just like a kid again. The banging walls, the breathing doors, the poor tortured souls...wow.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the only "The Haunting" to see.
Review: As Hollywood obviously has nothing better to do these days but to remake older films, and to do a terrible job at that, I hasten to declare that this original film version of Shirley Jackson's novel, The Haunting of Hill House, is the only one to see. The remake is a shameless fraud, so much so that it laughs at itself in due coarse. The original film is a streamlined, and possibly tightened up, version of the excellent novel. I think that it actually improves on the original plot in a few ways. The newer film pretends to be based on the book, but is in fact based on the earlier film -- to the extent that it is based on anything at all. And it fails miserably.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's What You Don't See That's Scary
Review: Directed with restraint by Robert Wise (who later would show us the hills are alive with "The Sound of Music"), this is proof that less is more. Staying close to the original book by Shirley Jackson, the film builds it's chills beautifully through the slow breakdown of it's main characters and the imagined fear of what is just beyond camera sight. It is one of the best examples of a goreless horror film, using sound, camera angles, and acting to make the terror come to life.While the 1999 remake certainly has some amazing special effects, it trades sublety and plot (for the most part, only names and some character profiles remain from the novel and the original film) for over the top ghost antics. Fun as that might be, the Robert Wise version is the one that will continue haunting you long after the video has ended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ten times better than the new version
Review: Shows how a good script is so much more effective than special effects in telling a ghost story. A fabulously atmospheric and spooky version of the classic Shirley Jackson novel.

If your idea of a scary movie is a lot of dead naked teenagers, this movie probably isn't for you. This is a subtle movie, requiring brains to enjoy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This film is a classic tale of hauntings and horror!
Review: I first saw this film several weeks ago, immediately falling in love with it. As a fan of horror/suspense thrillers, this film has to rank on the top of my lists! This is one of the first movies that I have seen that was truly terrifying. It terror is extremely effective, depending on your own mind to fill in the form of the haunting entities. Thus, you create your own monsters and demons. This film, an all-time horror classic, will terrify anyone with an open mind. Watch it alone... just don't say that I did not warn you. After all "Whatever walks here.. walks ALONE!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Terror through imagination, not gore. How refreshing!
Review: Teacher and viewer, Effort, Pa. The Haunting has to be regarded as one of the best horror films ever made. Little wonder! If have ever read the novel you will know why. The film sticks very close to the original story line. Even after 36 years it can still evoke waves of fear over the viewer. I have used the movie with my students to show them that fear and horror need not come from blood and gore. Fear can be generated by that which is unseen; that which relies on the reader's or in this case viewer's imagination. It is also an excellent way to introduce the student to some top shelf writing. The film allows the audience to participate in the experiment which is taking place in Hill House. On the character side, each one displays unique traits which reveal a multitude of emotions and feelings. Listening in on Eleanore's thoughts allows the audience to become sympathetic with this tragic heroin. I have seen the remake and while it is not that bad it does rely heavily on special effects in order to dazzle the viewer. It has also deviated from the orginal story line in order to neatly tie in Elanore Lance's connection to the house. The orginal Haunting gives a new meaning to the phrase " things that go bump in the night." The quility of this movie has lasted for 36 years and will probably last " 90 years more " and then some.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best of its Genre
Review: It's nice to know I wasn't alone in having this movie permanently etched in my psyche. I first saw this movie some 30 years ago on a nine-inch TV. I was about 9 or 10 at the time and fed on a diet of all the old and new horror flicks at the time. I could not believe how frightening The Haunting was. I never forgot it. I did not watch it again until about 5 years ago, and again relived the childhood terror I experienced when I first watched it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not very haunting
Review: This movie is hardly scary, just some banging and slamming doors. To witness REAL horror check out The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Shining, The Exorcist III, The Amityville Horror 1&2, and Suspiria. I have yet to see The Blair Witch Project.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best horror film ever.
Review: The Haunting is truly the greatest horror film ever. No bloody hands, no knife-weilding pschopaths, no half-naked blonde bimbos tripping over air bubbles, just pure terror. The movie thrives on the premise that what is unseen is what truly terrifies people. The acting is excellent, you really feel like the horrible events are unfolding around you. An absolute classic.


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