Film Review
On every die-hard horror fan's list of favourite haunted house films
Robert Wise's spine-chilling
The
Haunting is likely to be right at the top, surpassed only by
Jack Clayton's equally blood-curdling
The
Innocents (1961). It is a film that stands apart in a
pretty crowded sub-genre on account of the restraint and apparent ease
with which it conjures up a sense of all-pervading evil and slowly
escalating terror. It achieves this impression not by
employing the kind of computer generated gimmickry that has lately
become de rigueur but merely through some extremely effective art design
and camerawork. In common with Jean Epstein's
La Chute de la maison Usher
(1928) and Stanley Kubrick's
The Shining (1980), the
setting, a decaying old house, appears not only to be a conscious
entity, observing everything that happens within its walls, but
something that is infected with pure, undiluted evil. As is
stated in the creepy prologue, Hill House was born bad. By the
end of this film, you will be convinced that buildings do have souls, and nasty ones at that.
Incredibly, Robert Wise made this film between
West Side Story and
The Sound of Music, two
life-affirming musical extravaganzas that could hardly be more
different from
The Haunting
in tone, style and impact. Deservedly, Wise has a reputation as
one of Hollywood's most versatile filmmakers, as adept at
directing sci-fi thrillers such as
The Day the Earth Stood Still
(1951) as historical epics like
Helen
of Troy (1956). In crafting the distinctive visual design
of
The Haunting, Wise was
clearly influenced by the films produced by his mentor Val
Lewton. A highly respected producer at RKO, Lewton made a string
of popular B-movie thrillers in the 1940s which included
Cat
People (1942) and
The
Body Snatcher (1945), the latter of which was directed by Wise.
What makes
The Haunting so
effective and so terrifying is the extraordinary restraint and
precision with which the horror elements are employed. There are
no sights of gaunt and grisly spectres, no cheap thrills or slasher hi-jinks.
The presence of supernatural phenomena is conveyed far more subtly, by
eerie demonic sounds and distorted images of the house interior.
It is left to us to conclude whether these experiences are real or
merely the product of a slowly disintegrating mind. A combination
of atmospheric lighting and skewed camera angles suggest a feeling of
slowly escalating menace. Wise's use of an infra-red camera
for the exterior shots is inspired, since this gives the house
a genuinely frightening ethereal quality. It is as though the house itself were a
living entity carved from Satan's soul, with evil abiding in every
shadow and a deathly cold malignancy grafted onto every stone.
This is truly the stuff of nightmares.
With the setting having such a potent and evocative personality, it
seems appropriate that the human protagonists are little more than
crude stereotypes - the driven scientist, the sad spinster, the lesbian
vamp and the cocksure juvenile. As the film progresses, these
characters appear less real, whilst the building they are in takes on a
life of its own and increasingly resembles a conscious entity.
The only character that acquires a sense of reality is the spinster,
Eleanor, who serves as a bridge between the normal and the
paranormal. As she is drawn to the house, like a classical
romantic heroine to her lover, she convinces us that not only is the
house alive, but that it has tangible needs, in particular the need to
gorge upon human souls. If the film's dire 1999 remake tells us
anything it is how truly inspired was the original
The Haunting. This is terror
or an altogether different plane, a harrowing venture into the realm of
the supernatural that will haunt you forever.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Robert Wise film:
The Sound of Music (1965)
Film Synopsis
Dr John Markway is a professor of anthropology with a keen interest in
the paranormal. For years he has been looking for proof that will
convince a sceptical scientific community of the existence of
supernatural phenomena. At last, he believes he has found an
ideal subject to achieve this goal - an old New England mansion named
Hill House that has a long history of visitations by ghostly
apparitions. Markway decides to spend a period of time in the
house, observing a hand-picked group of individuals who are thought to
be receptive to the paranormal. Only two of the people he
contacts show up at the house, neurotic spinster Eleanor Lance and
unexcitable lesbian Theodora. The party is completed by
Luke Sanderson, a young man who stands to inherit the house in the not
too distant future. As soon as she enters the house, Eleanor
senses that it is alive and calling out to her. That first
night, she is disturbed by strange ethereal noises, sounds that would
drive anyone insane. Yet far from making her mad these
experiences awaken something within her. She is seized by the
realisation that the house needs her and will never let her go...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.