The Mother Of All Haunted House Movies Just Got A Huge Upgrade
It's been watched for six decades, and it might be watched for six more.
Director Robert Wise's classic 1963 film The Haunting is the gold standard for haunted house movies. Based on Shirley Jackson's landmark 1959 novel, The Haunting of Hill House, the film keeps its scares both unseen and ambiguous (are the ghosts real, or is the doomed Eleanor having a complete mental collapse?), and confirms that the most terrifying things are often the ones we can't see.
But don't take our word for it: Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg both rate The Haunting as one of the scariest horror films of all time. Its basic premise — that some houses are just “born bad” — its deliberate obfuscation of both the nature and origin of the events that besiege the party of paranormal researchers, and its use of a very unreliable narrator are all aspects still influencing the horror genre today. It’s fitting, then, that the film just received a new 4K UHD Blu-ray from Scream Factory so that modern audiences can properly appreciate it.
How Was The Haunting Initially Received Upon Release?
Like many genre icons of its time, The Haunting is considered a masterpiece now, despite being met with a mixed critical reception and a middling box office in 1963. Audiences were apparently quite spooked, but critics weren’t all won over. The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther said “there is really no point” to the film, while Variety declared that it suffered from “major shortcomings,” although the latter acknowledged that the house had a “monstrous personality” and was “decidedly the star of the film.”
Shirley Jackson herself, while reportedly not thrilled with some plot changes, was impressed with the film’s design and visuals (fortunately, she wasn’t around to see the execrable 1999 remake).
In case you forget where the movie is set.
Why Is It Important to See The Haunting Now?
Because The Haunting is a seminal cinematic text in horror and its “haunted house” subgenre. Robert Wise cut his teeth as an editor with Orson Welles and as a director with producer Val Lewton; the inspiration of the former is felt in the film’s expressionistic imagery and Elliot Scott’s brilliant production design, while the latter’s influence is felt in Wise’s unerring instinct to never show the audience what exactly “walks alone” in Hill House.
The film is mostly told through the viewpoint (and frequent voiceover) of Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris), a traumatized young woman who has spent her adult life caring for her sick mother. She joins paranormal researcher John Markway (Richard Johnson), psychic Theodora (Claire Bloom, whose positive portrayal of a lesbian was a breakthrough for the era), and skeptic Luke Sannerson (Russ Tamblyn) to investigate the mansion, which has a long, sordid history of tragedy and scandal. Not long after they arrive, the manifestations — voices, loud noises, cold spots, writings on the walls, the house itself turning into a labyrinth — begin, with the house clearly targeting the fragile Eleanor. Or is it all in her head?
It’s that tension between whether the events are supernatural or a product of Eleanor’s imagination — an aspect that Jackson herself played down, but screenwriter Nelson Gidding honed in on — that keeps the viewer off-balance throughout The Haunting, a tension aided by Harris’ fantastic, walking-nervous-breakdown performance. That blurring of the line between psychosis and the uncanny has sparked many a horror movie since, including classics and cult favorites like The Shining, The Babadook, and Session 9.
We never learn exactly who or what is haunting Hill House, despite its morbid backstory. Is it the ghost of its cold-hearted builder, Hugh Crain? One of his dead wives? His daughter, who withered away in the house, or her suicidal nurse? It could be all or none of them; it could be the house itself. Wise never trots out a single ghost, monster, or otherworldly entity, making The Haunting a perfect example of how horror can do more with less.
The Haunting’s stunning production design remains memorable.
What New Features Does The Haunting 4K Blu-Ray Have?
The Haunting’s 4K UHD debut finds the film restored from its original negative. The picture is sharp, allowing us to see so much of the detail that went into Hill House, but it still retains the texture and depth of the film’s outstanding black-and-white cinematography. There’s no overdoing it here with the 4K refurbishment. The audio is crisp as well, emphasizing the unnerving sound effects and Humphrey Searle’s eerie, atonal score (an early one for the genre).
Unfortunately, there’s not much in terms of new bonus material, although there are two fresh commentaries — one from actor Tracy Letts and film critic Sean Fennessey, and the other from the hosts of the MonsterTalk podcast. An older commentary featuring Wise, Gidding, and the four principal actors (all recorded separately and edited into one track) has been retained from past releases, along with the theatrical trailer.
Bloom and Tamblyn are still alive (and well into their ‘90s), but new interviews or an archival documentary seem unlikely at this point. That’s a shame, given the rich history of the source material and The Haunting’s vaunted position as, all these decades later, the mother of all haunted house tales. It has stood so for more than 60 years, and might stand for 60 more.
