Haunting

Pros: strong story, good characters
Cons: quick ending

When I saw last year's remake, I was kind of let down, but everyone told me the original was far better. Well, I finally got a chance to see the original and I was quite impressed. Many films were just in black and white, but other films like this one...

Pros: Must use your imagination
Cons: Must use your imagination

Shirley Jackson's short story is thoughtfully brought to the black and white screen in the original 1963 Haunting. This classic did not have the computer-enhanced or high-tech special effects that sometimes detract from the direction or acting in todays...

Pros: It's the best movie ever.
Cons: It you don't like it, you're probably an idiot.

"Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone..."
So began one of the most terrifying experiences of my life....

Pros: Original
Cons: Boring [ as the title states ]

This is the ORIGINAL movie. The remake is called House on Haunted Hill I think. What to say about this movie. I guess for the 70's or 60's or whenever this was made, it was pretty scary for them. Now it just seems like it's all been done before. People...

Pros: way scary for an old black-and-white movie
Cons: let down ending

Not many movies can pull off a truly scary experience without the traditional gore and special effects that today's society has gotten used to. However, the 1963 version of "The Haunting" does just that and more. I watched this movie on a...

Pros: Subtle, intelligent, and terrifying
Cons: None, unless you need gore

Robert Wise's "The Haunting" is more than deserving of its status as one of the great classics of horror. It's one of the most frightening films I've ever seen - I certainly wouldn't want to have watched it for the first time late at night and alone....

Pros: Family oriented- no swearing, nudity, or blood.
Cons: Black and White (though this may serve to heighten the horror).

One of the classic 60's ghost/horror movies, The Haunting relies on suspense and character development to scare the viewer.
Directed by Robert Wise (The Sound Of Music, Star Trek:The Motion Picture), The Haunting never reveals the ghost/monster. Instead we feel its' presence as do the visitors to this haunted house by means of observing its noises and clever manipulations of the visitors. Yes, there is a force at work here, but it has no face. The director wisely never shows us the ghost, but rather lets our imagination take over and fill in the blanks.The result is a scarier experience than if we were to see a ghostly figure.
By seeing the ghost, some of the mystery is lost. At first we may be frightened, but after we have a handle on the vision the horror becomes manageable, because now we know what we're dealing with. Wise never gives us that luxury, our fear remains faceless and therefore more terrible, because our imagination can provide us with our most powerful fear.

Pros: Worthy of the words "frisson of fear"
Cons: Why can't they make more like this?

DVDs are tempting things - full of flashy graphics and promises of delights to come. However the reality is that they rarely fulfill they're promise. Try and think of ten films you could genuinely watch twenty times or more.

Now for me this film is one of those. As a lover of authors such as MR James, Dickens, Lovecraft and Peak I look for something more than gore to frighten me.

Give me a dark room lit by a solitary lamp, a stormy night and a book of ghost stories and I'm happy (or at least sleepless). This is the filmic version of that sort of thrill.

I'm not going to give a plot scenario - that's already covered by the other reviewers. But if your a fan of honest atmosphere building and great B&W photography, go buy this film.