It is amazing to think one of the greatest psychological horror films of all time was directed by the same guy who directed The Sound of Music and West Side Story. The Haunting was one of the few books I read in grade school that I didn't feel was a chore and this movie adaptation is just as a good. The idea of what you don't see being scarier than what you do see is always an interesting idea. This film comes at what can be considered the end of the black and white movie era in the West and used black and white filming techniques superbly.
A swf named Eleanor living unhappily with her asshole-sister's family is chosen to stay with other specially chosen people at a strange mansion called Hill House with a paranormal researcher for his project. Eleanor is not the most socially-trained person (she spends the whole movie having a mental breakdown), but luckily for her her haunted-housemates are all assholes so it all balances out. Meanwhile we learn that Hill House is basically a slaughterhouse for all the people who have ever lived in it and the two caretakers who work there won't go anywhere near the property after sundown. As the gang stay at the house, strange things do indeed start happening and Eleanor and the others debate whether the house is haunted or not. It all comes to a head when an unexpected visitor arrives.
It's a testament that the screenplay is so good given how painfully sixties the acting is. That can be credited to it being co-written by the author of the novel the movie was based on: Shirley Jackson. Claire Bloom was the best of the bunch for me. What makes this movie work is the set-design and cinematography combining to give the film such a terrifying atmosphere. The crowning achievement of this film is the refusal to use any visual special effects (compared to the disastrous 1999 adaptation that tried to cram as many special effects in it as possible). It would be interesting to compare this to the Roger Corman adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher.
No comments:
Post a Comment