When it comes to scary movies, sometimes less is more. The Haunting is a prime example of this. Holding it's reputation as one of the scariest movies ever made, it accomplishes much of it's tension through atmosphere and sound design alone. Still, 54 years later this movie still remains one of the more effective haunted house movies ever made.
In an effort to prove the existence of the paranormal, Dr. John Markway (played by Richard Johnson) has secured a lease on the infamous Hill House mansion to conduct a paranormal investigation. He has recruited two women, the meek Eleanor (played by Julie Harris) who has a past with poltergeist activity and the fiercely independent psychic Theodora (played by Claire Bloom). Also accompanying them is the skeptical Luke Sanderson (played by Russ Tamblyn), who stands to inherit the house from the current owner, Mrs. Sanderson (played by Fay Compton). The house has quite the history, being the setting of several deaths, including the wife of the original owner, who died in a carriage crash as the approached the house for the first time. The owner eventually remarried, but she died in the house as well after a fall down the stairs. Their daughter lived in the house' nursery her entire life, rarely leaving and eventually dying in the house as well. The ownership of the house fell to Mrs. Sanderson, who maintains ownership but the house remains unoccupied aside from a small staff who keep up the place but do not stay after dark. This means that after dark, the investigating team will be alone in the isolated mansion, far from town or the nearest neighbors. As the group settles in, the paranormal activity starts, with the group discovering cold spots, hearing loud banging noises they can't find the source of, and doors closing or opening on their own as well as other odd occurrences. The longer they remain in the house, the more the activity intensifies, with a specific target becoming clear: Eleanor.
The film is directed by Robert Wise from a script by Norman Gidding, adapting the novel by Shirley Jackson. Wise decided to film in Black and White as he felt the format helped accentuate the dark shadows of the house which helps create a spooky atmosphere for the film. It was a conscious decision of the filmmakers to not show much in terms of actual ghosts, leaving it up to the audience's imaginations as well as to allow them to interpret if the place was indeed haunted or all in the character's heads. This makes the film that much more frightening in a lot of ways because so much of it is left up to the audience's imagination.
The acting in the film is quite good, with Julie Harris being the big standout as Eleanor. Harris portrays the character quite well as someone who has had an extremely hard life, she had to take care of her invalid mother for much of her adult life until she passed away and has left her with some severe guilt over it. She leapt at the chance to participate in the investigation but when the ghosts of Hill House center their attention on her, she threatens to unravel, so much so that Dr. Markway wants to send her home. Harris does a great job portraying this and makes Eleanor a very sympathetic character where in lesser hands she could have been quite annoying. Claire Bloom is also good as the far more extroverted Theo and makes an interesting pair with Eleanor. Richard Johnson does well, portraying the academic Dr. Markway and does well portraying the excitement his character experiences at the various paranormal occurrences through the film, as well as his growing concern over Eleanor's safety as things escalate. Russ Tamblyn is good as the skeptic Luke, watching him slowly transition from someone trying to explain away the so-called supernatural activity at the beginning to someone who suggests they burn the place to the ground by the end.
The Haunting still stands as a superior classic ghost story and one that understands the role the audience plays in a scary movie by giving them room to fill in the gaps with their own imagination and beliefs and in the process most likely make the film that much scarier. The film was infamously remade in 1999 by director Jan DeBont but was by far the inferior film, overloading the film with subpar CGI overkill. Of the two, this one would be the one to check out and still holds up all these years later.
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