'The dead are not quiet in Hill House'
The Haunting 8.4
After 90 years of strange, suspicious deaths in the Crane family of Hill House, shown in an extended introduction, Dr Markway, a supernatural expert and fanatic convinces the current owner to let him live and conduct tests in Hill House for two weeks to investigate and find an other-worldly explanation. He selects a team to aid him, including Eeanor, who is a weak willed, downtrodden woman who yearns for adventure. Once she arrives she seems particularly susceptible to spookiness. Others come shortly after; Theodora, an ESP specialist and Luke, the sceptic heir to the house. They make an odd team but their dynamic settles quickly and starts to develop nicely. They were all chosen for their areas of expertise, it is revealed that Eleanor was subject of supernatural activity as a child, so may well attract it again.
We see a sweeping panning shot as we first enter Hill House, a gothic mansion overcrowded with all the usual intricate adornments, many light sources, lots of busts and statuettes, abnormally shaped rooms, tall ceilings and the obligatory creepy gardener and housemaid. This reminded me of Mrs Danvers from Hitchcock's great Rebecca, she tells the team there is noone around after hours, so during the night at least they are isolated in the style of The Overlook Hotel. It is a huge house, but always feels cramped and stifling which is down to the design and architecture. It's not just the physical side, but the presentation of the house in the film is important. There are lots of rooms we visit early on, and purposefully we are disorientated with no effort to map the floor plan. This helps the film to cultivate a creepy air, (even outside of any actual supernatural events) which is so important to the overall effect and feel, it is something many other horrors have sorely failed at doing, or have done only superficially. On the other hand, it's bumbling, imperfect narration, somewhat in the style of It's a Wonderful Life, works very well and made me smile, not in a funny way, but in a charming way.
Our perspective sticks with Eleanor, whose background story is revealed bit by bit. On her way to Hill House at the start, whilst driving the car with that head on camera and fairly close up shot, her journey to Hill House is very reminiscent of Marion Crane's to Bates motel. We notice her parallels with that of the family from Hill House previously, shown in the introduction, giving a feeling or providence that she is there. As events go on, this becomes more prevalent, there is definitely some connection between her and the house, and a measure of control it may have on her. This concept of feeling some sort of force like this has been attempted in lots of horrors I have seen, not least The Shining, and this does it extremely well. Partly down to the performance from Julie Harris, which subtly becomes more outspoken as we go, and partly down to the way we are taken into her head more and more. There are lots of great close ups of her face, set off-centre in the frame, often with her internal monologue playing - these are the images that have stuck in my head the most. The later we get in the film, the more we centre on her feeling uncontrollably drawn to the house and something inside it, as if she is willingly becoming possessed, and perhaps reliving the life of someone before her. Alot of it happens with a smile, the scene towards the end where she climbs the spiral staircase, which is about to topple, to the platform where Mrs Crane previously committed suicide, delivers dread in exactly this way.
Technically speaking in terms of the filmmaking, almost every shot is moving camera, the directing really makes a point of it. Many films have a few moments like this, but not many I know of use it constantly, you may think it would be off-putting, but although it is noticeable, it really isn't. There is lots of POV camerawork during the introduction, making it feel almost almost interactive. There is a fine moment when we see Eleanor running towards us, but actually we're looking into a mirror, an idea used and expanded by Robert Zemeckis in the great Contact. In fact mirrors are inventively used in a few moments in the film, and reminded me of great moment of mirror play in other films (it may be worth a list in the future) including classics like Evil Dead 2, La Haine and Duck Soup.
The last half hour I found especially top notch, full of great plot points, filmmaking and effects - all of which made more impressive given how invested I was at this point. The nursery door opening, Luke's torchlight, a door flexing and the camera ascending the staircase all surprised me with their quality. There are perhaps 2 or 3 actual scares, which are done well, the rest of the considerable effect is achieved through very established mood setting. I also like how there was no effort to explain any of the goings on, we, and the characters, just endure them and speculate afterwards. At the end we all only really know what we already suspected and no more, leaving it ripe for retrospection, which, as I have said many times before, can be crucial to a great film.
Although I haven't seen it I know that the miniseries The Haunting of Hill House is now very popular, hopefully compounding the film's legacy for decades to come. Talking of it's legacy, I saw the 1999 remake years ago as a kid, before I was particularly interested in film, but knew even then it was fairly poor and forgettable - if anyone is ever faced with the choice of the 2 versions to watch, there should be no contest - the void between them is huge. I was very pleasantly surprised at how good this was, and just as surprised at how little it is talked of as a classic of the genre in a time where Horror was going through something of a momentous period. 60s and 70s created some of the best around, although to be fair - that wasn't limited to just horrors - most genres seemed to flourish in this highly creative time. The Haunting works alot better than it has the right to. It is riddled with cliches but they all land admirably and come together into an effective, extremely watchable, and I expect rewatchable film of considerable quality.
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