The Haunting

Rating:
Summary: AN EVIL OLD HOUSE, A HOUSE THAT WAS BORN BAD!
Review: Don't let the other reviews fool you. This movie is stupid and not at all scary. I watched it in the theatre the first day it was released because all the reviews made it sound so good. Let me tell you; it was NOT. I sat through the whole thing but kept asking myself, "Why am I watching this?" And as I left, I wondered why I stayed. Boring, pathetic.


Rating:
Summary: This Movie Should Be Rated R!!!
Review: For years I remembered a movie that I had seen as a little girl. I was only 6 or 7 years old and it was on TV. I had vivid memories of a spiral staircase, a lady in white and a car crash. The movie I had seen literally stayed with me for more than 25 years and yet I couldn't remember the name of it, then while reading Stephen King's book Danse Macabre I realized that the movie that had haunted me for so long was this one, The Haunting. I have never seen a scarier movie. It captures the imagination primarily because it relies on the imagination. There are no severed heads, bleeding wounds or thrilling special effects, just a good story (something truly rare) told in a taut spare manner. As I was watching it again last night it occurred to me that part of the reason this movie scares so effectively is that in it we are scared by the unseen, which is what is most frightening to us in real life. I can't recommend it highly enough. If it could haunt me for 25 years it's well worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Best Horror Movie
Review: I have seen this particular version of this movie at least 5 times since it came out in 1963. I don't ever remember being so frightened by a movie - ever! There are few special effects, great sound effects and the acting is supurb. A must see.

Rating:
Summary: "I wonder if all homeless people feel this way..."
Review: This is one of the true classics of not only spook-cinema but cinema in general... only those who demand multiple mutilations murders and graphic dismemberment will be disappointed (and, yes, there are those who fall into this category).

But the original 1963 B&W version of "The Haunting", directed by legendary filmmaker Robert Wise ("West Side Story", "The Sound of Music", "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and the editor for Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane") and based on Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House", remains the touchstone psychological ghost flick in all of filmdom.
Relying on hovering atmosphere, top-notch performances, fine black-and-white cinematography, eerie score, and effective use of sound, and a strange, almost sacred sense of doom, "The Haunting" achieves its chills the old fashioned way: it EARNS them...
Without gore or overt physicality, the film tells its tale as much thru the shadows in the tormented mind of damaged neurotic Julie Harris as those within the gothic structure she and her three cohorts (Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, Richard Johnson) briefly inhabit... And the movie has the only thing a film can ever have to be really scary: its profoundness sadness.

The hopeless (but probably inevitable) 1999 remake has little in common with Shirley Jackson's book; there's nothing haunting about it. (Spielberg claimed the '63 original was one of his favorite films--- odd then that he would act as a producer [not director, mind you] of this inept and insulting re-do).

Also, dont confuse the classic "the Haunting" (1963) with the the campy "House on Haunted Hill"(1958), or the kinky "Legend of Hell House" (1973), or the "Haunting of Hell House" (1999) as well as the above mentioned '99 "Haunting" remake.

Rating:
Summary: Great creppy movie...
Review: Shirley Jackson is one of my favorite authors, and for the most part this film stays true to her classic novel, The Haunting of Hill House. It offers some really tense moments as the story patiently plays out. This is a good movie for horror buffs and fans of classic suspense. This is no gore-fest like House On Haunted Hill (remake) and not a laughable CGI vehicle like the terrible 1999 remake. It is however a worthy effort and a true milestone in the genre.

Rating:
Summary: A creepy and stylish horror movie!
Review: `The Haunting', directed by Robert Wise, a film adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel, `The Haunting of Hill House', is one of the most best horror movies that I have seen till today. While many would have already seen the 1999 remake of this movie, starring Catherine Zeta Jones, this 1963 original still stands out as being one of the most horrifying movies of its time.

The story starts off with a prologue describing how The Hill House was `born' bad. The people residing in the house undergo tragic consequences, due to which the Hill House is referred to as haunted. Now, we step forward after a span of years, to Dr. John Markway (played by Richard Johnson), who wants to research the house and its history and find out the reason behind the unknown in the house. He selects three people from a list to assist him in his research. They are Eleanor (played by Julie Harris), Theodora (Claire Bloom) and Luke (Russ Tamblyn). The story mainly focuses on Eleanor, who is tired of living with her family, and seeks love and acceptance. When she arrives in Hill House, she feels safe, but later she becomes obsessed with it. She feels Hill House calls out to her, and she is one with it. Will they find out what they are searching for? Will the researchers by able to uncover the mystery of Hill House?

Robert Wise, who we all know directed classics like `West Side Story' and `The Sound of Music', provides us with an eerie, dark atmosphere throughout this movie. There are no zombies, no monsters no blood slashing throughout the movie. There are some creepy sounds that make you jump off your seat once in a while, but apart from that, there is nothing physically scary to look in this movie. It provides more of a psychological terror to the viewer. Apart from `The Blair Witch Project', I have not seen any other movie in the same level as `the Haunting' which was released recently. Julie Harris acted wonderfully as Eleanor. You really sympathize for her in some scenes, yet you feel she is completely insane in some others. After watching the movie, you feel mystified as to how haunted the house really is.

On the whole, this movie is definitely worth watching at least once.