The Haunting (1963)

Also it is fun to mention Lois Maxwell (Mrs. Moneypenny) plays Richard Johnson's skeptical wife.

Love this movie

I never found this movie scary or interesting. It just seemed a mess. ..

I love Shirley Jackson and need something to distract me. I hope I can find it. Thanks, OP.

And whatever walks there, walks alone.

I love Richard Johnson in this, He was so sexy and sophisticated.

Bump

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met nearly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

AUNTIE NELL IS BLINKING!

No one will come any closer than town. No one will come any closer than that...in the night...in the dark.

I didn't care for it.

R10 she was creepy as hell

natures mistakes they're called-YOU for instance!

Every decade I rewatch but it never quite grabs me.

R14 really??

“Then who was that holding my hand ??!!”

Probably Theo because...well...you know...

Proof a film can be quite scary with hardly any special FX.

The best.

Boring

The man who played The Caretaker, hubby of the creepy house keeper, was in another great horror film, Horror Hotel, a few years before.

The scariest thing about the film was Richard Johnson's pornstache.

I usually watch it when TCM shows it. I read the Reader’s Digest condensed version several times as a child and it scared the shit out of me but when I got older I read the actual novel and there was a lot of scary stuff in there that wasn’t in the Reader’s Digest version or the movie.

Also, you could tell it was filmed in England. Almost everyone sounded English.

R21, I usually watch Horror Hotel when TCM shows it too. I first saw it as a kid. I’m actually not into horror movies at all but sometimes if they’re atmospheric enough they’ll get my attention.

I also want to say the remake of The Haunting was so ludicrous and over the top it was laughable.

Maybe Russ Tamblyn was temporarily hot at the box office after WSS but can’t remember when he was ever a real box office draw. Bloom and Harris were bigger names than he was even then.

Bloom had been in several big movies like The Brothers Karamazov, The Buccaneer, I can’t think of them all - plus some big TV anthology shows in things like Anna Karenina.

Julie Harris had been in Member Of The Wedding, East Of Eden, Requiem For A Heavyweight, but was even more famous for all her TV anthology roles like The Heiress, The Lark, Victoria Regina, Doll’s House, Pygmalion, etc.

R25 I think Peyton Place, where he played the sissy Norman Page, put him on the map.

I always enjoy this movie; I think the voice over of Nell's inner dialogue helps create the air of unease and fear. As a character, Nell is an interesting one: pitiable, but also a hysteric with a persecution complex. She's less a liar, more a fabulist - she just lives in her fantasy world. She's probably not unlike a lot of unmarried women of her time who aren't allowed any kind of agency so they turn manipulative & bitter. When she kills herself & becomes part of HH, it's probably the only direct action she's ever taken in her life.

My great grandmother played in the 90s remake.

Insipid and completely dated within a few years of release. Only a melting Mary or a wilting Wanda could be scared by this film today.

I rewatched it a couple of weeks ago when it aired on TCM (last viewing was about a decade ago). I always wind up hating Nell for her attention-seeking histrionics, and breathe a sigh of relief at the denouement.