Tonight’s Creeptober movie is the second out of three haunted house movies we’re watching during October. We did not save the best for last, because this is what I consider to be the very best haunted house movie ever made. Tonight we watch The Haunting (1963).
Reacting to The Haunting
The Haunting has been my favorite haunted house movie for decades. There are plenty of great movies in the genre. The Innocents (1961), The Changeling (1980), The Uninvited (1944), etc. But nothing before or since has topped The Haunting. It even beats the highly acclaimed series The Haunting of Hill House (2018), which I only mention because it’s adapted from the same novel by Shirley Jackson. Why do I think The Haunting is the best? Well, there are a few reasons.
First, The Haunting manages to create a frightening atmosphere almost exclusively through sound and the characters’ reactions. The only supernatural thing anyone actually sees is when a door looks like it’s breathing towards the end of the movie. Other than that, we see a couple of door knobs move slightly, and that’s it. Everything else supernatural comes in the form of noise. There’s also the writing on the wall, the cold spot near the nursery, and doors shutting on their own, but we don’t actually see those things as they’re happening.
To me, it shows true mastery to be able to construct a frightening film with this kind of restraint, and it’s actually more effective this way. Just as a comparison, last night’s Creeptober movie was What Lies Beneath. It’s very good, but the jump scares in that, like when we briefly see the face of the ghost, don’t come close to the lasting terror created by supernatural scenes in The Haunting. For instance, the scene where Eleanor wakes up during the night to hear sounds growing louder and someone gripping her hand has stuck with me ever since I first saw it. Jump scares can be great, but I don’t think about those in the middle of the night. I do sometimes get spooked if I hear noises though.
I also think The Haunting is amazing because of how well it blends the psychological side of the story with the supernatural. Psychological horror is as big as it’s ever been in the modern era, and movies with ghosts and hauntings being metaphors for psychological issues are made quite often. For me though, The Haunting perfected the balance of mental vulnerability and paranormal activity. They coexist and feed off of each other. Hill House feels like it’s smothering Nell at times, but she eventually begins to feel that she needs to be there.
I love how the complexity of Eleanor’s feelings allow for many interpretations about her character and the nature of the haunting. Does her presence provoke something in the house? Considering her history with accidental psychokinesis, is Nell actually the cause of the haunting we and the characters all experience? I tend to lean towards the first explanation, but many are plausible.
The Haunting is also great because of its characters. Specifically its two lead female characters. I’ve already mentioned Eleanor’s complexity, but I also need to talk about Theo. I remember watching the movie decades ago and thinking that Theodora isn’t very nice, but after watching it a few times I came to realize that she’s actually looking out for Nell the entire time in her own way.
This is of course made obvious when Dr. Markway tells Eleanor that Theo is trying to get a rise out of her so she’ll stop being scared. But it’s more than just that. Theo repeatedly pushes and nudges Nell emotionally. I see it as Theo trying to get Nell to put up her defenses after gleaning insight about Eleanor through her ESP (such as when she correctly assumed that Eleanor wanted to change her hair). Theo knows that Nell will be defensive if she is confronted directly about certain things, like her fragile state of mind and her growing infatuation with Dr. Markway. So Theo is willing to risk Nell’s anger if it means she’ll be better protected by whatever is inside the house and inside her own mind.
And finally, I love The Haunting because it looks amazing. The set design alone is unsettling. It’s cluttered to the point of feeling oppressive in every shot, but it all feels intentional. Statues are constantly in scenes, like the house itself is watching the characters at any given moment. Hallways seem to go on longer than they should. The layout of the house is intentionally obscure to keep viewers off balance. It’s about as perfectly shot as a movie can get.
As I write this I keep thinking of more reasons why The Haunting is the best haunted house movie, but I’ll stop there. This is a movie I could talk about all day, but we still have a bunch of movies to watch before the month is over.
