Saturday, October 21, 2023
1:30am – The #Haunting (1963) (#TCM)
https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1560/the-haunting/#articles-reviews?articleId=961613
"SYNOPSIS
"Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide. The history of Hill House was ideal." Thus begins Oscar®-winning director Robert Wise's spectacularly spooky and stylish #film adaptation of Shirley Jackson's bestselling 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, one of the quintessential #ghost stories of modern literature.
Hill House is a sprawling and remote New England mansion with a long and sinister history with whisperings of ghostly inhabitants. Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) is an anthropologist who is fascinated by the #occult and wants to do a scientific study of the #paranormal activity within Hill House. To assist him with the experiment, Markway invites the emotionally fragile Eleanor (Julie Harris) and the worldly Theodora (Claire Bloom), two very different women who have both demonstrated a sensitivity to the supernatural. Joined by the young heir apparent to Hill House Luke (Russ Tamblyn) -- the only skeptic in the group -- Dr. Markway, Eleanor and Theo come together to watch and listen for things that go bump in the night. As each moment spent in the eerie house becomes more terrifying than the last, it soon becomes clear that the spirits of the past have their sights set on claiming Eleanor as one of their own.
CAST AND CREW
Director: Robert Wise
Writer: Nelson Gidding
Producer: Robert Wise
Based on the book The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Cinematography: Davis Boulton
Art Direction: Elliot Scott
Set Decorator: John Jarvis
Editing: Ernest Walter
Music: Humphrey Searle
Special Effects: Tom Howard
Cast: Julie Harris (Eleanor Lance), Claire Bloom (Theodora), Richard Johnson (Dr. John Markway), Russ Tamblyn (Luke Sanderson), Lois Maxwell (Grace), Fay Compton (Mrs. Sanderson)
B and W - 112 min.
Why THE HAUNTING is Essential
The Haunting is widely considered to be one of the most frightening horror films ever made and the quintessential haunted house film.
The Haunting features a particularly distinguished cast including Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn. The accomplished actors added a touch of class and helped the stylish horror film be taken seriously within a genre that was often dismissed.
The timeless haunted house story based on Shirley Jackson's chilling 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House influenced countless modern storytellers and filmmakers, including famed horror author Stephen King and director Martin Scorsese.
The bone-chilling horror that director Robert Wise achieved with The Haunting was a superior exercise in the power of suggestion. The scares that come from The Haunting are subtle and psychological, proving that the biggest fears often come from the mind's imagination.
by Andrea Passafiume"
