The Haunting (1963) Review

The Haunting (1963) Review

There’s one type of horror film that I’ve never found to be scary, and that is the classic “haunted house” film. However, The Haunting does something different with the concept, and that’s why it’s now considered to be a horror classic. 

The film begins with an extensive and disturbing backstory to Hill House, a foreboding mansion that seems to be cursed, with the original family who moved in plagued by tragedy. Dr. Markway, an anthropologist interested in studying the paranormal, conducts an experiment, and recruits some people to stay with him at the house, to see if it really is haunted. The story focuses on one of the subjects, Eleanor, who has a rough life and is haunted by many demons of her own. Staying with her at Hill House is the doctor, as well as Theodora, who supposedly has psychic powers, and the heir to the house, Luke, who is the most-skeptical member of the group. Spooky things occur, but can any of it really be explained by the supernatural, or is something else going on? 

What I love the most about The Haunting is how open it is for interpretation. The scariest things the “ghosts” do? Bang on the walls and make the air cold. No ghosts are seen, the only (possibly) supernatural thing witnessed is a door bending, it’s all just noise and characters thinking they see or feel something. It’s almost a meta-horror film like Scream, with the way the characters openly discuss supernatural phenomena and try to interpret what occurs as logically as possible. They don’t just instantly assume it’s a ghost when a door closes by itself, they investigate, and find out the house was built slightly askew, and the doors don’t hang properly, which is why they close by themselves. The house itself is very eerie. There are shadows everywhere, and lots of mirrors, which makes some of the sets appear even larger, and almost distorted. 

While I don’t find The Haunting to be particularly terrifying, it does manage to create extended periods of tension and numerous moments of fright out of very little. As I said, you don’t see any of the ghosts, so whether there were any at all or if it was all in Eleanor’s head is not made completely clear, and the dark ending leaves you without a firm answer, which is brilliant, because you can’t help but feel there probably was something supernatural, but again, nothing is confirmed.

The Haunting was based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House, and was remade in 1999 (ironically, the same year the House on Haunted Hill remake came out, another famous haunted house film), but the remake is one of the worst horror remakes I’ve ever seen, mainly because the ending is completely changed and there’s no mystery whatsoever. 

It’s slow-paced, the horror is minimal compared to the psychological thrills, and it’s slightly cliché, but the original The Haunting is still one of the best haunted house films, mainly for its simplicity, the great cinematography, and effective ambiguity.