The Haunting tells the tale an experiment designed to discover the mysteries of Hill House, a sprawling Gothic mansion believed to be haunted because of its colourful history of death, suicide, and insanity. Dr. Markway (ably played by Richard Johnson) invites a group of people he believes to be sensitive to supernatural occurrences in order to monitor their responses to the house, and indeed, the houses responses to them.
We're introduced to Eleanor (well played by Julie Harris) as she attempts to escape her stifling home environment. After caring for her recently deceased mother for 11 years, she has grown sick of servitude, and longs to escape the confines of the home she shares with her sister and her husband. Despite being denied access to a car she half owns, she sneaks out of the house, and sets off to take part in Markway's experiment.
While ostensibly a film detailing the supernatural vigil held by Markway and his fellow guests, The Haunting is really a film about Eleanor's tragic quest to find her place in the world. 11 years of tending to her dying mother have stunted her emotionally, something which comes across in her interactions with Hill House's other guests (especially Theo) as well as Hill House itself.
She quickly falls under the spell of Hill House, identifying with the stories of its past, and also falls under the spell of the charming Markway, mistaking his pleasantries for romantic advances. It soon all goes wrong for Eleanor however. The sudden exposure to such a different environment from what she's used to begins to take its toll on her sanity, and the audience are invited to share her thoughts via Harris' voice-over.
This is where the film began to lose its grip on me. While I'm capable of appreciating her plight, I couldn't really identify with her or her somewhat flighty thought processes. Her interior monologue puts her across as an unhinged character, which she clearly is, but one that's far removed from a typical modern existence. Although the camera-work and lighting all remains very good, complete with Hitchcockian angles and heavy use of obscuring shadow, without an sympathetic main character it's not really much use. It seems as though there is a good horror story in the source material somewhere, and that this was probably the right way to tell it at the time, but for me it has lost most of its effectiveness as it has aged.
While the staircase set-piece is tense and well-paced, the terror lacks a physical immediacy that would make the film genuinely threatening. The internalisation of the house's effects exclude us, as we only really receive the events through Eleanor's maladjusted eyes.
I can appreciate the merits of the storytelling, I just couldn't connect to the lead character, which means I was left more than a little disappointed by this one.
We're introduced to Eleanor (well played by Julie Harris) as she attempts to escape her stifling home environment. After caring for her recently deceased mother for 11 years, she has grown sick of servitude, and longs to escape the confines of the home she shares with her sister and her husband. Despite being denied access to a car she half owns, she sneaks out of the house, and sets off to take part in Markway's experiment.
While ostensibly a film detailing the supernatural vigil held by Markway and his fellow guests, The Haunting is really a film about Eleanor's tragic quest to find her place in the world. 11 years of tending to her dying mother have stunted her emotionally, something which comes across in her interactions with Hill House's other guests (especially Theo) as well as Hill House itself.
She quickly falls under the spell of Hill House, identifying with the stories of its past, and also falls under the spell of the charming Markway, mistaking his pleasantries for romantic advances. It soon all goes wrong for Eleanor however. The sudden exposure to such a different environment from what she's used to begins to take its toll on her sanity, and the audience are invited to share her thoughts via Harris' voice-over.
This is where the film began to lose its grip on me. While I'm capable of appreciating her plight, I couldn't really identify with her or her somewhat flighty thought processes. Her interior monologue puts her across as an unhinged character, which she clearly is, but one that's far removed from a typical modern existence. Although the camera-work and lighting all remains very good, complete with Hitchcockian angles and heavy use of obscuring shadow, without an sympathetic main character it's not really much use. It seems as though there is a good horror story in the source material somewhere, and that this was probably the right way to tell it at the time, but for me it has lost most of its effectiveness as it has aged.
While the staircase set-piece is tense and well-paced, the terror lacks a physical immediacy that would make the film genuinely threatening. The internalisation of the house's effects exclude us, as we only really receive the events through Eleanor's maladjusted eyes.
I can appreciate the merits of the storytelling, I just couldn't connect to the lead character, which means I was left more than a little disappointed by this one.