HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2019: The Haunting (1963)

Today’s sponsor is Brian Trenchard-Smith, director of such landmarks of Ozploitation as Turkey Shoot, Dead-End Drive-In, BMX Bandits and The Siege of Firebase Gloria and endless fount of film knowledge.  If you have not yet done so, please pick up his crackerjack time-twisting thriller Alice Through The Multiverse.  I am shocked, amazed and gladdened that I can call him a friend.

Brian chose for me a real classic--the Robert Wise adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House. 

I can see a lot of younger horror fans being perplexed at why this film is held in such high regard.  After all, it’s conversation-based, lacking any jump scares, has a running voice over commentary and the closest thing it has a special effect is a door that seems to breathe.  I find it significant that when this film was remade in 1999 by Jan DeBont, he stuffed it with so much excess plot and CGI that it bore so little relation to the Wise version as to be something else entirely.  It was also so, so much poo (although even I will admit that the casting of Lillie Taylor in the Julie Harris role was pretty inspired).

And yet, it’s intense and unsettling and uncomfortable in so many ways that it’s eminently watchable.  And part of the reason for that is some of Wise’s choices, some of it is the actors and a load of it, I strongly suspect, comes from the contributions of set designer/decorator John Jarvis.

You see, the thing that struck me about this viewing of the film (my first viewing was many, many years ago watching a version on WWOR-TV that, among other things, cut out the ten minute prologue about the history of Hill House that I suspect was added at the insistence of MGM, but more on that later) is how the various rooms of Hill House are designed to have multiple patterns and textures at all time to the point where, even though the sets are ‘normal,’ you believe Richard Johnson’s Dr. Markway’s contention that the angles don’t quite add up.  And Wise emphasizes this through his choice of shots--almost every one at a very slight angle, or from a higher or lower perspective than we’re used to--and camera movement.  Sometimes, that movement becomes obtrusive, like when Wise zooms in on a door that someone or something is knocking on, but most of it is very subtle.  These little touches add to the subliminal sense of wrongness the viewer receives, which allows him or her to buy into the premise that this place is ‘born wrong.’

Of course, the veracity of this film would not work without the quality of acting on view.  This film is carried by Julie Harris’ portrayal of Eleanor as an intensely needy, desperate young woman.  It is interesting that Harris seems to imprint first on Claire Bloom’s Theo, then on Markway, in an attempt to belong with--and to--somebody...which makes her the obvious choice to fall under the house’s sway.  And even though an argument could be made that Russell Tamblyn’s Luke and Lois Maxwell’s Grace are unnecessary, they are rather vital to the narrative flow.  Ostensibly, Luke is there for comic relief but is actually fulfilling the honored role of prompting Markway’s exposition, whereas Grace’s third act arrival and disappearance not only provides impetuous to move the plot towards its climax but also emphasizes how Markway’s quest to prove the supernatural real is looked upon by the outside world.

(...and yes, it’s great to see Maxwell in a role that allows her to do things other than moon over James Bond; she was a great character actress, and deserved a little more acclaim)

I want to also make mention of veteran character actors Valentine Dyall and especially Rosalie Crutchly, who play the caretakers of Hill House.  Both make the most of their limited screen time and--in the case of Crutchley--provide some grim but amusing relief from all the atmosphere building in the first act.

 I briefly mentioned above the prologue sequence that recounted the history of the house--that is then recounted in dialogue throughout the film proper.  This smells of studio interference, and is definitely not the only time something was added to a film to explain stuff that’s already clearly explained in the film itself (I’m looking at you, Blade Runner...and you, too, Dark City).  What struck me is how Wise lets this story unravel in a series of impressionistic compositions, choosing to have a broken wheel and a hand entering into shot to portray a carriage accident, or a vertiginous shot of the top of the library where the legs of a woman suddenly drops into shot to portray a suicide.  It helps naturalize the off-kilter, unsettling style of the visual narrative so that we accept the outre’ shots from later in the film.

I’ve said elsewhere that genre films should be in the ninety-to-hundred-five-minute range.  This one is almost an one hundred and fifteen, and makes sure it justifies every last one of those minutes.  This is a recommended film; dare I say it is essential viewing.

Tomorrow, we have no sponsor, so I used the Official Halloween Horrorfest Randomizer to call up Dark Age, an Australian film about a giant crocodile eating random people and the psychic rapport it has with one of the people hunting it down.

If you’d like to get me to watch a movie of your own choice during the Halloween Horrorfest, please consider joining the Domicile of Dread Patreon at the $3 Tier or greater.  Each new patron gets a free slot in this Gauntlet of Ghoulishness!