“Haven't you noticed that nothing in this house seems to move until you look away and then you just... catch something out of the corner of your eye?” - Theodora in The Haunting (1963)

There are two women that I believe are a huge influence in horror today, Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, and Shirley Jackson who wrote The Haunting of Hill House, which was published in 1959. The film The Haunting, which was based off of Shirley Jackson’s masterpiece, would be released not too far after in 1963.

The Haunting was brilliantly directed by Robert Wise. Wise used various innovative filming techniques that helped set the tone and mood of the film. Wise intentionally shot the film in black and white and his various camera angles would go on to set a standard for films like The Evil Dead. Wise used infrared film in his wide shots to make the film appear darker than usual. Fog like filters were used on the camera lenses and a new Panavison lens, which gave the film a slight distorted look were also used to enhance the mood of the film. The Panavision lenses were so new that Wise had to sign a waver prior to the filming that he was informed that these lenses would distort the film and MGM could not sue Panavison because of this. Wise was thrilled with these camera effects as it made everything appear to be just a bit off. The look achieved was perfect for a film about a house that was born bad. I also want to mention that Wise had prerecorded the frightening sounds for playback in the scenes so the actors could react to the actual sounds of the film.

The screenplay was written by Nelson Gidding. While the film uses the guise of a typical haunted house story, Gidding masterfully takes it to another dimension by exploring the psychological effect on the leading female character, Eleanor Lance and how Hill House consumes her to the point that it seems this all may just be in her head.

This masterpiece is the perfect watch on rainy days or stormy nights. It's been called the holiday Halloween in 114 minutes. It was the blueprint for the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and a major influence on writers like Stephen King who used the archetype of The Haunting characters for many of his own. Jud Crandall from Pet Sematary is based on the caretakers Mr. Dudley played by Valentine Dyall and his wife, Mrs. Dudley played by Rosalie Crutchley. Mrs. Torrance from The Shining is Eleanor, played by Julie Harris, in many ways. Even Eleanor’s sister in the book is named "Carrie" and experiences telekinesis activities.

Directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg have claimed The Haunting is their favorite horror film. It is considered by many to be the perfect gateway film to introduce people to scary movies. Although it's not gory or filled with jump scares, make no mistake this is a straight-forward classic horror movie. It is what Blair Witch and the Paranormal Activity franchise tried desperately to accomplish: apprehension in what is going to happen and the ability to frighten the viewer through their own imagination.

The Haunting is about anthropologist Dr. Markway (played by Richard Johnson, who you might know from Fulci’s Zombi) who has an interest in the super natural and wants to conduct experiments in an alleged haunted mansion; to explore the possibility that ghosts actually do exist. Although the opening of the film has a voice over from Dr. Markway, most of the story is told through Eleanor’s thoughts. After finding out about the history of Hill House he sets forth to get a team together and explore it. After extensive research he finds Theodora (played by Claire Bloom), an empath with ESP abilities and Eleanor, who had personally experienced strange psychic phenomenon. There were others also chosen, but when they did their own research on Hill House they dropped out of Dr. Markway’s experiment. Eleanor and Theodora had no idea what to expect and chose to come on their own accord. The current owner of Hill House, Mrs. Sanders (played by Fay Compton who Tim Burton would base the character Juno The Social Worker in Beetlejuice on) reluctantly decides to let Dr. Markway stay at Hill House and do his research only if he allows their nephew, Luke (played by Russ Tamblyn who was still rocking his Riff character look from West Side Story) to overlook the whole operation. Luke stands to inherent the house and wants to make sure they don't destroy the place. Each night the house appears to become more and more powerful. Dr. Markway seems very concerned about his team however he is a scientist and instead of helping Eleanor, he decides to dangerously watch the deterioration of her mental state. Dr.Markway’s wife (played by Lois Maxwell aka Ms. Moneypenny from the James Bond series) shows up to show him how ridiculous ghost hunting is and then all hell breaks loose at Hill House.

I believe this was the first ghost story I had ever seen that wasn't a comedy. It definitely was the film that inspired my interests in hauntings and things that go bump in the night. I always thought that hauntings were caused from something that tragically or wonderfully had happened at a certain location; that it was an incident stuck frozen in time. Ironically this film is just that; it is a timeless masterpiece.

So sit back, get comfortable, keep your arms and legs inside your doom buggy and remember, “The dead are not quiet in Hill House.”