Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson), a scientist trying to prove the existence of the paranormal, gets permission to study a supposedly haunted house. To confirm his research, he brings a mentally unstable psychic, Eleanor (Julie Harris), Theo (Claire Bloom), a mind reading, predatory lesbian, and Luke (Russ Tamblyn), the playboy, skeptal nephew of the house’s owner. Eleanor and Theo hear strange noises soon after arriving, and it becomes evident that either the malignant forces of the house want Eleanor, or her strained mind is causing her to imagine things.
A majority of critics take it as a given, a postulate, that genre films are best when everything can be taken as just psychological. “Sure, there might be a monster, but it might be all in your head!” I’m not surprised by this, as genre films are given little respect by mainstream critics, and this is an out, allowing a critic to like a film because they can classify it as being other than horror (or fantasy, or sci-fi). However, this axiom does surprise me when I see it from horror critics. Shouldn’t they like a bit of the supernatural with their supernatural films? Sometimes a picture might benefit from such ambiguity, but it is far from a commandment of good filmmaking. The idea that the evil force may not exist at all is interesting, once. More than that, and it reveals itself to be a close cousin to the “it was all a dream” ending.
It is with the application of that postulate that The Haunting has been given a status far greater than it deserves. It has even been called subtle for not showing a ghost, which is really out of place as it is hard to find a less subtle film. It is not a terrible movie, with some satisfactory (if uneven) camera work, a complex physical setting, and passable acting, but the flaws are huge.
Things start off poorly with an overblown opening voice-over that prattles on about this being “a house that was born bad.” Yes, that’s actually a quote from the film. That is followed by bombastic, ’50s-style, low-budget, horror music. The music is a problem during the entire film, blasting out intrusively whenever anything, no matter how small, happens. At one point, a character says “Hey, look!” and points to a now open door. Instead of letting the audience dwell on that, there is a histrionic ten second blurt of instruments. Subtle indeed.
Soon after, we are introduced to Eleanor, and with her, the greatest mistake of the filmmakers: she has an audible internal dialog. Yup, as she drives, we get to hear the obvious things she is thinking. “I’m going. I’m really going,” she loudly thinks. From the fact that she is, well, going, I’d guessed that she was probably thinking “I’m going.” Shortly afterwards, we get “By now they know the car is missing.” As she took the car from a guarded garage and the owners of the car are overly protective of it, I had worked that one out as well. Never does the overused, and often rambling, voice-over state anything that is needed (not even letting us know that Eleanor’s mind meanders, as that was obvious too). This is an amateur filmmaker’s mistake.
There is also the question of exactly what Markway is trying to do. He is such a silly scientist, it is impossible to take either him, or the entire setup of the film, seriously. It is stated that he is a reputable scientist (we’ll skip that reputable scientists don’t research evil forces), in which case, I’d like to know what kind of research he planned to do at Hill House. He has no instruments of any kind, not even a thermometer to check those “cold spots.” No camera. No tape recorder. No pressure gauge. Not even equipment to check on the physical and psychological condition of his observers. He doesn’t even try to get empirical data. Even if he “found” the paranormal, all he would have afterwards is some rather dubious subjective accounts. Just what kind of scientist is this guy supposed to be?
As for the characters, Luke and Theo are 1-dimensional. Luke is a smartass and Theo is a lesbian, and everything they do can be traced back to those characteristics. In Luke’s case, that means he makes bad jokes, continually points out how much he’ll be able to sell things for (which gets old the second time it pops up), and drinks. For Theo, it means she is constantly trying to pick up Eleanor (sure Eleanor is the only other female in the house, but would she really be chasing the insane girl?), is catty when refused, and reacts violently when even slightly touched by a male. Some critics have said that the film is making a negative statement about homosexuality. I don’t think there is enough evidence in the film to say since I felt no compunction to sympathize with Eleanor on anything, much less her revulsion by Theo’s lifestyle. I just wish she would have had a line which couldn’t have been prefaced with “Because I’m a lesbian.”
The non-scientist, Markway, doesn’t have a character. His only trait is to jabber on and on about paranormal forces. When his wife arrives, my suspension of disbelief was shattered. I’ll give them ghosts, but not that a wife would pop up in the middle of the night at a faraway manor and then choose to immediately run off alone to the nursery.
Which just leaves Eleanor. For The Haunting to work, to pull me in and make me care for these characters plight, I need some entrance into their lives, particularly Eleanor’s. But there was none. An annoying and insipid character can work in a film, but not when the picture requires me to sympathize with that person. In this case, I was hoping the ghosts would be real and kill her early on. No such luck.
The Haunting does manage to be unsettling at times, mainly when the two women are separated from the men and strange sounds occur. The pounding and voices build tension. It’s not enough. For a movie that depends on inspiring fear, there’s not much frightening going on.
Of course if there is not supposed to be anything scary at Hill House, and the story is an account of the disintegration of a troubled mind, then it’s less of a problem that nothing terrifies. Then the picture needs to present something insightful about the fragility of the human psyche, insanity, etc. It doesn’t.
Watch this one for a touch of nostalgia.
It was remade in 1999 as a big budget effects film, also called The Haunting.