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The Haunting | 
 enlarge | Director: Robert Wise
Actors: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, Fay Compton
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  383 reviews
Sales Rank: 5851
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 112
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.5
MPN: WARD65194D
ISBN: 0790746603
UPC: 012569519428
EAN: 9780790746609
ASIN: B00009NHB6
Theatrical Release Date: September 18, 1963
Release Date: August 5, 2003
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Product Description
Dr. Markway doing research to prove the existence of ghosts investigates hill house a large eerie mansion with a lurid history of violent death and insanity. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/26/2006 Starring: Julie Harris Russ Tamblyn Run time: 112 minutes Rating: G Director: Robert Wise
Amazon.com essential video
Certain to remain one of the greatest haunted-house movies ever made, Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963) is antithetical to all the gory horror films of subsequent decades, because its considerable frights remain implicitly rooted in the viewer's sensitivity to abject fear. A classic spook-fest based on Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House (which also inspired the 1999 remake directed by Jan de Bont), the film begins with a prologue that concisely establishes the dark history of Hill House, a massive New England mansion (actually filmed in England) that will play host to four daring guests determined to investigate--and hopefully debunk--the legacy of death and ghostly possession that has given the mansion its terrifying reputation. Consumed by guilt and grief over her mother's recent death and driven to adventure by her belief in the supernatural, Eleanor Vance (Julie Harris) is the most unstable--and therefore the most vulnerable--visitor to Hill House. She's invited there by anthropologist Dr. Markway (Richard Johnson), along with the bohemian lesbian Theodora (Claire Bloom), who has acute extra-sensory abilities, and glib playboy Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn, from Wise's West Side Story), who will gladly inherit Hill House if it proves to be hospitable. Of course, the shadowy mansion is anything but welcoming to its unwanted intruders. Strange noises, from muffled wails to deafening pounding, set the stage for even scarier occurrences, including a door that appears to breathe (with a slowly turning doorknob that's almost unbearably suspenseful), unexplained writing on walls, and a delicate spiral staircase that seems to have a life of its own. The genius of The Haunting lies in the restraint of Wise and screenwriter Nelson Gidding, who elicit almost all of the film's mounting terror from the psychology of its characters--particularly Eleanor, whose grip on sanity grows increasingly tenuous. The presence of lurking spirits relies heavily on the power of suggestion (likewise the cautious handling of Theodora's attraction to Eleanor) and the film's use of sound is more terrifying than anything Wise could have shown with his camera. Like Jack Clayton's 1961 chiller, The Innocents, The Haunting knows the value of planting the seeds of terror in the mind, as opposed to letting them blossom graphically on the screen. What you don't see is infinitely more frightening than what you do, and with nary a severed head or bloody corpse in sight, The Haunting is guaranteed to chill you to the bone. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 378 more reviews...
 Better than I Expected December 26, 2008
Usually before I watch a movie I look at all the bad and good reviews to see what others say. With that in mind I had a low hope for this movie so I rented it 1st and I was really surprised. I wouldn't say its my favorite of all time but I didn't find myself disliking it. I really enjoyed not seeing but hearing everything which is not something you see often throughout a whole movie. The sound of the knocks and beating is somewhat continuous through the whole movie without much variation besides the main character screaming at her reflection and going kind of crazy. Its not really a bad thing but I can see why people wouldn't like the aspect of not ever seeing a monster or whatever. I really enjoyed it considering this kind of film really doesn't exist anymore.
The dvd version of the movie had low quality with the picture and the sound. The beatings on the wall along with the pounding and pretty much everything has low quality sound and it just doesn't sound as good as it should. The video quality isn't even as it should be on dvd so with these gripes goes my four stars. Overall still a really good movie.
 OK, I guess, but NOT scary December 24, 2008
Maybe I'm jaded and ruined by modern cinema, but to have a neurotic, child-like woman run around in a house at night, dressed in kid's nightgown while hearing "mysterious" pounding on the walls is NOT scary. It was well made, though, and somewhat interesting, mainly because of its lack of a massive special effects budget. The Doctor made me think of the crazy British guy in Rocky Horror Picture Show (which was made more than 10 years later, I know), and Ms Bloom was gorgeous. It is amazing, you must admit, how dated this films looks, though, compared to movies made just a few years later, like The Godfather, Midnight Express etc. The revolution of the sixties transformed the movies from having fictional, somewhat stiff characters with a thousand watts light shone smack in their faces to being about real people, shot in natural light with real dialogue. Movies from before the 60's and earlier can be "interesting" but cannot captivate today's audiences the way anything from the early 70's and on can do.
Just the main character's conversation with the guy that opens the gate when she first arrives to the mansion was almost laughable and might just as easily have been shot in the 40's. The sixties did indeed change a lot more than music and the way we cut our hair.
 All-Time Best Horror Movie. November 22, 2008
I like all genres and all eras and have a very minimal bias. The Haunting may not be on every teen's top ten; it is not a slasher/ gore movie. It IS spooky, frightening and incomparably suspenseful. My wife will rarely submit to watching anything with me but horror movies, and this is her favorite! She has seen them all. If you are under 35 years, and want to see the best of the classics, this is hard to beat. I know, there is competition: The Shining by Kubrick, and a few silent films if you want to get to the roots, but this has my vote!
Mesmerizing, Beautiful, and...Haunting November 4, 2008
The Haunting still remains the definitive haunted house story-- a weird assortment of people gathered together to spend the night in a large, extravagent house with a gruesome history. The movie gives us many strange images and leaves the main question intact: is the house really haunted or not? Although I can't say I was moved by Julie Harris' performance, she does her job in making us question the motives of an unlikable character, which is what the other characters do. The real stand-out in terms of acting is Claire Bloom. This was the first movie I'd seen her in and her character is such a seductive earth-mother you want to get to know her better. The implied sexuality of her Theo is still there, but probably bogged down by the censors. The main complaint I have of the movie is the voiceover. We don't need Julie Harris' Eleanor to constantly tell us what she's thinking because we can see it in her hypnotized, and sometimes terrified, expressions. But it is a great story, complex, and the eerie music and awe-inspiring house are icing on the cake. A must-see for anyone interested in ghosts, writing ghost stories, or psychological thrillers.
Five stars for film, two stars for Warner Bros. DVD treatment November 2, 2008
By far - the best haunted house story (or any film for that matter) ever filmed. I concur with every five star review that I have read on Amazon and do not need to restate the obvious.
But I have a bone to pick with Warner Bros.
The Haunting is considered masterpiece almost unanimously by all the top critic's. Meticulously made and directed by one of the greatest American directors Robert Wise. Yet this DVD version has been given only grade C treatment. The film used for this DVD does not appear to be from a pristine negative bit rather from an OK piece of film stock. It is a bit too grainy and washed out and there are occasional speckles and lines. But my biggest complaint is the lack of dynamics in the sound. The textures of sound, ambient noises, wind, creaks, music, voices, murmurs, "bowling ball" are of the utmost importance in creating the scarey atmosphere. But the sound on this DVD is so flat that it is to the point of sounding canned. I could not begin to get decent sound from this DVD even with a high quality equalizer. The film is much more frightening when the sound is right.
I sincerely hope that some company who cares - maybe Criterion? - will pick up this film and give it the DVD treatment it truly deserves - an ultra clear picture and a clean dynamic surround sound. I for one will gladly re-purchase.
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