Four people spend a weekend at haunted Hill House as a part of a experimental study of supernatural phenomena in 'The Haunting'. Dr Markway enlists the group to go to the haunted mansion for his study, and that's when we meet our main character Eleanor (Nell). She is a lonely woman whose mother just passed away, and is now looking for an escape of some sort. A weekend at Hill House sounds wonderful to her at first. From the moment she enters the mansion she feels an out of world presence. We meet the other two guests and the doctor who is heading the study. Creepy loud noises occur in the middle of the night frightening Nell and the others, and it's not far after that in which we learn the chilling violent story of the man who owned the house years prior (Hugh Crane).
This original version of 'The Haunting' gets it so right. It looks at Eleanor's mental state and by letting us inside the mind of Eleanor we can sympathize with her, understand her better and appreciate the character. In the 1999 remake, we get none of that therefore do not feel or completely understand why she feels the way she does. We also get a series of disturbing and eerie loud noises and ghostly scares, and this movie does it so well. While watching 'The Haunting' late at night, it's actually unsettling and makes this film a genuinely scary ghost movie.
The acting was well done from everyone involved. Julie Harris played unhinged Eleanor very well, and the supporting cast (Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn) did a great job in their performances as well. Overall, 'The Haunting' was a very well done scary movie from the early sixties. It has some goo performances as well as good scares to keep the audience engaged.
8/10
This original version of 'The Haunting' gets it so right. It looks at Eleanor's mental state and by letting us inside the mind of Eleanor we can sympathize with her, understand her better and appreciate the character. In the 1999 remake, we get none of that therefore do not feel or completely understand why she feels the way she does. We also get a series of disturbing and eerie loud noises and ghostly scares, and this movie does it so well. While watching 'The Haunting' late at night, it's actually unsettling and makes this film a genuinely scary ghost movie.
The acting was well done from everyone involved. Julie Harris played unhinged Eleanor very well, and the supporting cast (Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn) did a great job in their performances as well. Overall, 'The Haunting' was a very well done scary movie from the early sixties. It has some goo performances as well as good scares to keep the audience engaged.
8/10