I like a good haunted house movie, but as many as Hollywood has generated over the decades, they're really hard to get right...
To me, the best four entries have been:
THE HAUNTING (1963), directed by Robert Wise and based on Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House." A professor brings together a tiny handful of people with psychic experiences in their backgrounds to investigate an old New England mansion reputed to be haunted. The house seems to develop an immediate connection with a repressed spinster, Eleanor (Julie Harris), or vice versa, with a poltergeist history.
For me, this is the best haunted house movie ever produced. It's mostly faithful to Jackson's story, Wise plays all the moments for the greatest effect, the film is full of shadowed nuance and sadness, and the end-of-the-world/ColdWar/JFK/PSYCHO/TwilightZone era of the early-'60s ought to be the best period to do one of these pictures anyway... The music score, the performances (Russ Tamblyn as the "idiot boy" used to irritate me a little) are all just what they should be.
And yet you never see a thing. For all we know, this could all be going on in Eleanor's mind.
Even though the story the story takes place in America, you never forget for a second they filmed it all in England -- even though the movie takes place almost entirely inside.
THE INNOCENTS (1961) From that same era, Jack Clayton directs Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" scripted by Truman Capote. Another repressed spinster (Deborah Kerr) goes to serve as governess to two spooky children in a huge British mansion.
The story seems to involve two doomed and unhealthy, departed lovers inhabiting the souls of the kids.
There is a lot of contention out there as to which film is better, THE HAUNTING or THE INNOCENTS. For me, THE HAUNTING has the edge. Because despite how many brilliantly-realized macabre vignettes and montages you'll find in THE INNOCENTS (and Freddie Francis' deep focus B&W photography is breathtaking, although the DVD is unforgivably washed out), the narrative in THE HAUNTING holds together better.
I also have a complaint about the leading lady in THE INNOCENTS. Kerr considered this to be her favorite role, and I found her to be an intelligent person, but I also find her to be a bit too shrill and "actressy" in THE INNOCENTS and it distracts from the movie. (Yes, Harris is shrill, too, in THE HAUNTING, but that always strikes me as being more character-appropriate somehow; I suppose Kerr's character is supposed to be equally neurotic, too, but I always find myself blaming the performer in her case, not the role).
THE OTHERS (2001). Almost unheard of in the modern era, a ghost movie which depends on mood and atmosphere, not gore and excessive special effects. The result was a summer sleeper which saw its box office actually rise during the first three months of release instead of drop off quickly (as usually happens, especially for horror films).
It was written, directed, and scored by Alejandro Amenabar.
A war wife (Nicole Kidman) waits and waits and waits for her husband to come home from the front, while her two children must be protected from the sunlight that burns their skin on contact. (Little danger, as the movie is as shrouded and overcast as anything shot in the early-'70s). And, along with the sense of cinematic restraint which makes THE OTHERS so good, the film also seems to understand that without the sadness you can't have the scary.
Kidman, and the rest of the cast, are terrific.
THE UNINVITED (1944). Directed by Lewis Allen, this was the first Hollywood film to take ghosts entirely seriously.
A brother and sister (Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey) buy a cliff-hanging mansion on the coast of Cornwall, and ghostery ensues.
The cast, locations, and lovely score by Victor Young, are all soothingly wonderful. Even Bosley Crowther almost liked it.
The film has a lot in common with REBECCA, by the way, including the implied lesbian dynamic between the late mistress of the manor and her creepy caretaker/maid/doctor.
---
I don't consider HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959), THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973) nor THE CHANGELING (1979) to be in quite the same category, although fans often mention them and are certainly worthy of discussion as to why they do/don't measure up...
To me, the best four entries have been:
THE HAUNTING (1963), directed by Robert Wise and based on Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House." A professor brings together a tiny handful of people with psychic experiences in their backgrounds to investigate an old New England mansion reputed to be haunted. The house seems to develop an immediate connection with a repressed spinster, Eleanor (Julie Harris), or vice versa, with a poltergeist history.
For me, this is the best haunted house movie ever produced. It's mostly faithful to Jackson's story, Wise plays all the moments for the greatest effect, the film is full of shadowed nuance and sadness, and the end-of-the-world/ColdWar/JFK/PSYCHO/TwilightZone era of the early-'60s ought to be the best period to do one of these pictures anyway... The music score, the performances (Russ Tamblyn as the "idiot boy" used to irritate me a little) are all just what they should be.
And yet you never see a thing. For all we know, this could all be going on in Eleanor's mind.
Even though the story the story takes place in America, you never forget for a second they filmed it all in England -- even though the movie takes place almost entirely inside.
THE INNOCENTS (1961) From that same era, Jack Clayton directs Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" scripted by Truman Capote. Another repressed spinster (Deborah Kerr) goes to serve as governess to two spooky children in a huge British mansion.
The story seems to involve two doomed and unhealthy, departed lovers inhabiting the souls of the kids.
There is a lot of contention out there as to which film is better, THE HAUNTING or THE INNOCENTS. For me, THE HAUNTING has the edge. Because despite how many brilliantly-realized macabre vignettes and montages you'll find in THE INNOCENTS (and Freddie Francis' deep focus B&W photography is breathtaking, although the DVD is unforgivably washed out), the narrative in THE HAUNTING holds together better.
I also have a complaint about the leading lady in THE INNOCENTS. Kerr considered this to be her favorite role, and I found her to be an intelligent person, but I also find her to be a bit too shrill and "actressy" in THE INNOCENTS and it distracts from the movie. (Yes, Harris is shrill, too, in THE HAUNTING, but that always strikes me as being more character-appropriate somehow; I suppose Kerr's character is supposed to be equally neurotic, too, but I always find myself blaming the performer in her case, not the role).
THE OTHERS (2001). Almost unheard of in the modern era, a ghost movie which depends on mood and atmosphere, not gore and excessive special effects. The result was a summer sleeper which saw its box office actually rise during the first three months of release instead of drop off quickly (as usually happens, especially for horror films).
It was written, directed, and scored by Alejandro Amenabar.
A war wife (Nicole Kidman) waits and waits and waits for her husband to come home from the front, while her two children must be protected from the sunlight that burns their skin on contact. (Little danger, as the movie is as shrouded and overcast as anything shot in the early-'70s). And, along with the sense of cinematic restraint which makes THE OTHERS so good, the film also seems to understand that without the sadness you can't have the scary.
Kidman, and the rest of the cast, are terrific.
THE UNINVITED (1944). Directed by Lewis Allen, this was the first Hollywood film to take ghosts entirely seriously.
A brother and sister (Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey) buy a cliff-hanging mansion on the coast of Cornwall, and ghostery ensues.
The cast, locations, and lovely score by Victor Young, are all soothingly wonderful. Even Bosley Crowther almost liked it.
The film has a lot in common with REBECCA, by the way, including the implied lesbian dynamic between the late mistress of the manor and her creepy caretaker/maid/doctor.
---
I don't consider HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959), THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973) nor THE CHANGELING (1979) to be in quite the same category, although fans often mention them and are certainly worthy of discussion as to why they do/don't measure up...
Last edited:
...then the town with the evil church and the giant worm must have been another story.
