Having sat through countless hours of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise as well as the Friday the 13th franchise, I decided in my own best interest to sit down and watch some classic horror movies just to give a nice send off for the month of October as well as the year of 2025. The Haunting was one of those few horror movies I remember watching on TCM (Turner Classic Movies), though more importantly was directed by Robert Wise a legendary filmmaker who brought to life movies like West Side Story, the latest sixtieth Anniversary of Sound of Music, as well as other latest classics like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. While I have seen this movie it's been quite a long time, this was another one of those films I do remember feeling creeped out by.
Dr. John Markway, an anthropologist with an interest in psychic phenomena, takes two specially selected women to Hill House, a reportedly haunted mansion. Eleanor (Julie Harris), a lonely. eccentric woman with supernatural event in her past, and the bold Theodora (Claire Bloom), who has ESP, join John and the mansion heir, cynical Luke (Russ Tamblyn). They are immediately overwhelmed by strange sounds and events, and Eleanor comes to believe the house is alive and speaks directly to her.
Either pre-production or post-production of West Side Story, Robert Wise who was directing the film at the time read a review of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House furthermore read the book, and was later jumped scared while reading the book moreover thought to himself "if this could scare me then this would make a great movie." There is surprisingly a remake to this film in circa 1999 staring Liam Neeson and Owen Wilson, and all I remember about that movie via watching Dish on Demand previews as well as the making of, the film and they're was one to many ghost and special effects, granted I haven't seen the movie yet though don't want to because it's just hard either way don't want to. The first time sitting down watching this creepy classic was some time around in the 2010 decade and all I remember is the creepy imagery and Julie Harris who plays Eleanor giving a great performance as well as being super creepy, when she's figuratively dancing by herself repeating the words "I'm home" and going back and re-watching this great movie I'm still terrified as well as being mesmerized by the way Wise was able to focus more on the psychological horror on the actors faces and it was fantastic as well as terrifying to relive again. If you look back at other films with the theme of a haunted house like House on Haunted Hill or Crimson Peak, they at times don't feel scared or terrifying because they try in their best to bring on more of the ghost and less of the scares and suspense that comes along with it. The Haunting by Robert Wise to me, is like a tribute to the phrase "less is more" where in this movie you don't see any monsters or ghost no sense of typical jump scares you see today, all you see are the knocking on the walls or doors and the actors giving you the belief that there is something terrifying in the house and the belief of being possessed by the ghosts in the house. Absolutely no monsters and ghosts and yet the best choice of imagery Robert Wise chooses is shooting the entire film black and white, for which I would certainly choose black and white because it gives the movie a glim and darkness to the film as well as terrifying imagery. The amazing thing about Robert Wise as a filmmaker is that this film came out at the time between shooting The West Side Story for which he won in Oscar for, and then proceeded to make another film around 1962, then later bringing Shirly Jackson's book to life, then two years later making the Sound of Music for which he won for best director as well as best picture. So, Wise was super busy between 1961 to 1968, which I praise the man for is ability to bring hit after hit, of classic films and I know that it was the sixties and you can pop out a hit of a film year after year during that decade while now you have to take some time or shoot the movies all at once but with Wise through the sixties he cranked out great musicals, an amazing horror story as well as a war movie and a romantic drama, all while winning two out of the three Oscars for best director and best picture, which again this guy needs to be given a round of applause for his strength and ability as a filmmaker crank all of those classic films. I'm not going to spoil a whole lot of the movie, because I want people to watch this underappreciative classic, but the amount of horror movies I've seen that contain a Haunted House, The Haunting is up there in one of the best Haunted House movies, another one that comes close but is not a movie is The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix to which has great scares but overacting and depressing dysfunctional family gibberish. And I don't know how you can make this film now without ghosts or cutting out the black and white format, but Robert Wise's The Haunting delivers a lot on creepy imagery, creative camera techniques that really give you an unsettling feeling about the house in general. Lord knows how I would want to make this film now, but it would be an interesting challenge even though I wouldn't because The Haunting to me, is an amazing and scariest horror movie that I again felt creeped out by after re-living this film and I would highly recommend watching this film on Hulu, though I would make the final weeks of the Halloween season, mainly because it's on Turner Classic Movies and TCM always transition their choices of film to recommend. Though more importantly if I had the time to watch this with my nephews, they would enjoy the movie from beginning to very end, mainly because the film contains no blood or sexual content involved so, I may have to pick a time to watch this with my nephews if I get the chance, though maybe next year hopefully.
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