Horror Review: The Haunting (1963)

July 18, 2010 Horror Reviews, Movie Review, Reviews

I first saw this movie when I was a kid, and I loved it then. It took me four years of active searching through video and electronic stores to track this down and watch it again as an adult.

The Haunting (1963)

This movie, shot completely in black and white does a lot of things really, really well. At this time, it is incrediably easy to do blood in movies. As everything is only B&W, you just need something of a similar consistency and dark, and you’re all set. If someone has only seen the remake (to be reviewed here at a later date), one would expect to see a lot of that. They’d be sorely disappoited.

The Haunting is a psychological suspense film. Thing build slowly upon one another, and each character’s fears flow into one another, building things up. The viewer isn’t entirely sure what is actually real, and what is made up. We’re left to wonder whether the characters are starting to lose their marbles or if the the house is actually haunted. No cheap floating sheet trick in this movie, but plenty of strange happenings to keep you on your toes. Plenty of odd coincidences that build things up even more.

On occasion the camera gives us the view of the main character of the movie. It is in these moments we get a brief view into the way she is seeing the world. There are plenty of other moments where we can see things starting to go wrong, but it is only from the brief glimpes from her eyes that we can truly see just what is happening.

There’s a lot more I would love to say about this piece, but it’s hard to say more without spoiling the fun. This movie is a definite must for lovers of the genre.

Four and a half skulls (out of five)

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Tags: Horror Review, Movie Review, The Haunting (1963)