The Haunting (1963)

Directed by: Robert Wise
Starring: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, Fay Compton
Duration: 112’

 

A lonely and sentimentally fragile woman accepts to become the fourth member of a research team which undertakes the task of investigating whether a gothic residence, which is burdened by supernatural stories from the past and morbid rumors, is indeed inhabited by ghosts. What follows is not only the most beautiful film on the particular tale, but also a role model which had it been taken into account as such by the horror films that succeeded it, the entire genre would be much better off today.

By applying the insinuating methods of the emblematic producer Val Lewton («Cat People» and «I Walked with a Zombie») and by making the most out of sets, ambiance and rhythms into a perfectly imposing sum, Wise exhausts all the phobic and psychological aspects of Shirley Jackson's great novel upon which he was based («The Haunting of Hill House»), masterfully directing his film between two levels: a metaphysical one (the house is indeed haunted) and a realistic one (the demons basically exist in the heroine's mind). Whichever of the two explanations is chosen by the audience, the experience of watching the film remains equally riveting. Not at all undeservingly, the «Haunting» keeps steadily decorating the lists with the ten best horror creations in the history of film and its screening within the framework of the 8th Athens Open Air Film Festival celebrates the 55 years from its first release in the movie theaters. Loukas Katsikas