{2jtab: Movie Review}

It’s in the voiceover upon first seeing Hill House; that’s what always sends me over the edge.  “It’s staring at me,” says Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) and, indeed, the house is truly staring at her.  This is the psychological territory of director Robert Wise’s fascinating look into the paranoid and the paranormal realms.

1963’s The Haunting (and not the awful 1999 remake!!!) is an intelligent delight and, as never seen before in a movie dealing with ghosts, a great lesson in the practice of restraint.  Less is more and Wise effectively proves in 112 rich minutes that the most frightening thing about horror is what you do not see.

Released by Warner Bros, this 40-year-old, black-and-white film is still a chilling feast for the senses and proves to be the best example of how to use voiceover for those who need the lesson.  It’s aided by some strong POV camerawork from Davis Boulton who adheres nicely to Wise’s decision to show little of the supernatural that plagues Hill House.

Based on Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House, Wise’s film concentrates solely on the idea of a haunting and not on the actual fact of a haunting.  The door is open.  Hill House dates you to enter.  The film begins with the idea that if several generations residing in one house befall strange and tragic deaths in or around the property of a house, does this not an evil house make?  Or is this all just a psychosis of the mind walking alone from hallway to hallway?

Can a house be born bad?  That’s what researcher and parapsychologist Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) and his team of researchers would like to find out.  They get permission from Hill House’s current owner, Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton), to take short-term residence in the Gothic lodge and begin their observations but something is missing.  They need, for lack of a better word, bait.  While Sanderson promises that the dead are not quiet in the house, Markway has a plan for his study.

Eleanor – after living a sheltered life – is seeking an escape from routine; from what is safe.  She had an experience when she was little and Markway and his team – eager to get some proof of a haunting – have invited her to join, thinking that her timid personality might be a magnet for ghostly activity.  But what is it that she sees?  Is it real?  Is it all in her head?  What are those faces she sees in the wallpaper?

Chilling to its final moments, The Haunting is a spooky old film without any creaks or cheap scares.  This is legitimate terror.  Wise is insanely brilliant behind the camera and follows the Val Lewton formula for horror.  Maybe it happened that way and maybe it didn’t.  You decide.

{2jtab: Film Details}

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 112 mins
Director: Robert Wise
Writer: Nelson Gidding
Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson
Genre: Horror
Tagline: SCREAM...no one will hear you! RUN...and the silent foosteps will follow, for in Hill House the dead are restless!
Memorable Movie Quote: "Can't you feel it? It's alive... watching."
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Official Site:
Release Date: September 18, 1963
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: October 15, 2013

Synopsis: Dr. Markway, doing research to prove the existence of ghosts, investigates Hill House, a large, eerie mansion with a lurid history of violent death and insanity. With him are the skeptical young Luke, who stands to inherit the house, the mysterious and clairvoyant Theodora and the insecure Eleanor, whose psychic abilities make her feel somehow attuned to whatever spirits inhabit the old mansion. As time goes by it becomes obvious that they have gotten more than they bargained for as the ghostly presence in the house manifests itself in horrific and deadly ways.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

Component Grades Movie Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - October 15, 2013
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono; German: Dolby Digital Mono; Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono (Spain); Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono; Portuguese: Dolby Digital Mono
Discs: 25GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)

Warner Home Video's Blu-ray is a great improvement over the DVD that came out almost exactly ten years ago. That new HD encoding is sharp and exact, and brings out a full range of B&W tones. Finally, we see for ourselves how the infrared film stock of Hill House’s exterior differs from the normal footage.  We feel the gloom and the cold and isolation a bit more. The detail is a vast improvement, too.  Blacks are solid.  Grays are finely tuned.  Whites are strong.  This is anything but a dull image.  And the carefully tuned mono track comes across as a different item in lossless HD, rich and detailed.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• The commentary track is a mixed bag.  Apparently, only director Wise was on hand to record a running commentary, which is interspersed with occasional, separately recorded comments from Richard Johnson, Julie Harris, etc.  Curiously, Wise doesn’t really offer much in the way of insight into the how and why of his work, but, for anyone with an abiding interest in this film, the track is fun in its own way.

Special Features:

Does the film’s trailer count?  Because that’s all you get.

• Original Theatrical Trailer (3 min)

{2jtab: Trailer}

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