The Haunting is a 1963 British horror film directed and produced by Robert Wise. It was adapted from the 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The film was released in the UK on 18 September 1963, and in the U.S. on 19 September 1963. In 2010, The Guardian newspaper ranked it as the 13th-best horror film of all time.
About The Haunting (1963 film) in brief
The Haunting is a 1963 British horror film directed and produced by Robert Wise and adapted by Nelson Gidding from the 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It stars Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn. The film depicts the experiences of a small group of people invited by a paranormal investigator to investigate a purportedly haunted house. In 2010, The Guardian newspaper ranked it as the 13th-best horror film of all time. Director Martin Scorsese has placed The H haunting first on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of alltime. It was remade in 1999 by director Jan de Bont, starring Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Owen Wilson, but that version was heavily panned by critics and audiences. It has been released on DVD in its original screen format with commentary in 2003, and was released on Blu-ray on 15 October 2013, and on DVD again on 15 November 2013, as part of a two-disc set with a commentary by the director and producer of I Want to Live! The film was released in the UK on 18 September 1963, and in the U.S. on 19 September 1963. It is now considered one of the best horror films ever made, along with The Conjuring and The Exorcist. The original novel was published in 1959, and the film was adapted by Gidding for the big screen in 1963. The interior sets were by Elliot Scott, credited by Wise as instrumental in the making of the film. The exterior sets were designed to be brightly lit, with no dark corners or recesses, and decorated in a Rococo style; all the rooms had ceilings to create a claustrophobic effect on film.
Wise used a 30mm anamorphic, wide-angle lens Panavision camera that was not technically ready for use and caused distortions. He was only given to Wise on condition that he sign a memorandum in which he acknowledged that the lens was imperfect. The house was constructed with angles askew, resulting in off-centre perspectives and doors that open and close by themselves. The library contains the ramshackle spiral staircase from which the previous owner hanged herself. Dr. John Markway narrates the history of the 90-year-old Hill House, which was constructed in Massachusetts by Hugh Crain as a home for his wife. Theodora, a psychic, and Eleanor Lance, who experienced poltergeist activity as a child, are the only two individuals who accept Markway’s invitation to join the investigation. Markway wishes to study the reported paranormal activity at Hill House. He is allowed to begin his investigation oncondition that he has Mrs. Sanderson’s heir Luke Sanderson come with him. The team explores the house, discovering a cold spot outside the nursery and discovering a young girl’s scrawled on a wall in chalk. As Eleanor feels a crushing grip on her hand and soon she hears the sound of a man speaking indistinctly and a woman’s laughter.
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