Review of The Haunting (1963) by Philip S — 23 Oct 2011

Making a memorable movie is tough enough in today's Hollywood. Making a memorable horror movie is just as difficult, if not more so than a general movie. The reason for the difficulty is that audiences today have become so desesitized to the amount of sex and violence on tv and movies (cue up the family Guy theme song ba-dump-bump-bump). In all seriousness, though, the level of violence and sex in today's horror movies has made them anything but memorable. By comparison, movies the likes of The Haunting (1963) is one of the most memorable horror movies of all time. It's one of the most memorable horror movies of all time because it is so scary. It's so scary because it focuses on quality, rather than quantity.

The Haunting is still so terrifying nearly five decades after its original release because unlike nearly every horror movie released in Hollywood's current era, it actually attempted to scare its audiences. Rather than trying to scare audiences by what they can see, director Robert Wise scares audiences with that they can't see. Audiences never saw the spirits in the mansion. But little things like the cameras focusing on the door to Nell and Theo's room, and their reaction to what happens with it, make it one of the most frightening scenes in horror movie lore. The camera work isn't the only part of the movie's intensity. The sounds that echo throughout the mansion add another level of tension to the movie's mood. They make the movie that much more frightening. Included in those sounds is the beating on the door to Nell's door in the already mentioned scene. That, combined with the camera work make a scene that's already terrifying, that much more terrifying.

The use of audio and video leads to another comparison between older horror movies and the movies of the newer generation. Not only do newer horror movies focus more on sex and violence, but they focus more on special effects than on story. Take for example the remakes of both this classic horror, and the Vincen Price classic, House of Wax. Unlike their original counterparts, the remakes boast everything that is wrong with horror movies today. Yet again, proof that far too many remakes are made not to honor the classics, but simply because Hollywood writers are either out of ideas, or studio heads are far too scared tot ry new things for original ideas to get through.

The success of this classic horror can be summed up with a couple of old adages. One of those adages is "less is more". Far too many of today's horror flicks rely too much on violence and sex. The Haunting is the exact opposite. It's one more movie that used what was at its disposal in order to scare its audiences. And speaking of using what was at its disposal, that leads to the other adage. That adage is "there is no "I" in team. The balance of the camera work, the audio, and general writing led to a movie that grips movies from beginning to end. Even at just under two hours, audiences won't even realize until after the movie is over, that they hadn't checked their watches through the entire movie. That lone factor is proof of just how impressive and scary The Haunting is and always will be.