I was looking forward to THE HAUNTING because I'd read some good things about it, not least of which was a list composed by the great Martin Scorsese of what he thinks are the scariest movies of all time. Sadly, I was disappointed. THE HAUNTING suffers from some of the same problems as THE AMITYVILLE HORROR as characters are determined to deem a house haunted regardless of what actually happens (or doesn't happen) during the course of the film.
I'm sick of movies where cold houses or loud noises at night count as ghosts. I understand why this stuff counts as ghosts in real life. In real life, there are no ghosts, so people are forced to use their imaginations. You'll never see a ghost, so you have to assume bumps in the night or mundane things like cold spots in your house are super natural. It's still dumb, but it makes more sense than the world of fiction where anything can happen that you can imagine. So, why should a film about an allegedly haunted house adhere so strictly to the type of stuff that can be so easily written off?
I guess you could argue that the film is more of a psychological thriller -- maybe director Robert Wise is trying to make a point about super natural phenomena and how it can all happen in your head. If so, the movie makes a good point. Still, the film is about paranormal investigation and the resident experts never explore this possibility. They go into the house knowing it's haunted, and attribute everything they experience to the haunting.
The story involves the miserable main character Eleanor (Julie Harris) a middle-aged woman who has spent her entire life taking care of her aging mother. Now that mom is dead, Eleanor has moved into her sister's hosue where she's treated like a child. She also acts like a child, though, and we see how whiny and self centered she is in the endless opening sequence in which she demands to borrow her sister's car. We really have to sit through all this? It's 45 minutes before we get to anything ghostly.
Now, this is kind of a double standard -- after all, plenty of great horror movies wait nice and long before the actual monster makes an appearance. Take KING KONG and JAWS, for example. But those movies do a few things right that THE HAUNTING does not. One is, they have likable characters you can identify with. Eleanor is not likable. She's an old spinster who complains about everything, is obsessed with herself, and even her goddamn voice overs take over most of the soundtrack. Secondly, flicks like KING KONG and JAWS manage to entertain during the long passages of suspense leading up to the first "incident." THE HAUNTING does not. Instead, we sit through boring passages of unlikable, inhuman characters sitting around.
Anyway, Dr. Markaway (Richard Johnson) is a paranormal investigator who invites several people to a haunted house with a tragic history of death to see if the house is really haunted or not. The guests include the afore-mentioned Eleanor, a supposed psychic named Theo (Claire Bloom) who never seems to use her powers or even possess any powers during the movie's run, and the only dude I could identify with, token skeptic Luke (Russ Tamblyn).
Markaway's supposedly scientific investigation of the paranormal gets off on the wrong foot when he announces to everyone that the house is haunted. So, we start off with a little poisoning of the well. The first night, there's pounding on the door to the girls' bedroom. They freak out. I don't get it, though. If Theo and Eleanor are in a room together, and there's pounding and foot steps in the hall, couldn't it just be Markaway and Luke? When you know there are other people in the house, this kind of stuff shouldn't be freaky. It's freaky when you're supposed to be alone.
Later, they find some chalk writing on the wall, but still, anyone could have done it. And, they find a "legitimate cold spot." Dr. Markaway says, enthusiastically, "I bet it wouldn't even register on a thermometer!" as if that's any kind of proof. First of all, go get a fucking thermometer and find out! Secondly, if it doesn't register, maybe you're just wrong. Maybe you just THINK it's cold, and it's not. Maybe since you've told everyone the place is haunted, everyone's freaking out for no reason.
There's other explainable stuff, like doors opening and closing on their own, and Eleanor goes increasingly crazy but we know from the opening scenes that she's a huge drama queen who can't get over herself, so even our main character can't be trusted (or liked).
Look, the movie is beautifully shot and well acted. Technically, it's good. But it's boring as hell and I don't get what the big deal is.
NEXT!
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