The Haunting

With his elegant touch – skillfully accompanied by Davis Boulton’s refined B/W – versatile director Robert Wise successfully translates the evocative power of Shirley Jackson’s pages (“The Haunting of Hill House”, 1959) to the big screen in this archetypal haunted house film.

The importance accorded to sound effects (whispered voices, moans, echoed laughter, thuds, creaking, roars, etc.) along with the production design’s magnetic appeal render the horror palpable, even as its incorporeal nature sustains a nagging sense of doubt regarding the true nature of the events we’re witnessing. Whether they’re ultimately supernatural phenomena or simply the product of impressionable minds isn’t revealed.

At any rate, the haunting atmosphere pervading the gloomy mansion progressively chips away at logical constraints, producing situations reminiscent of oneiric activity. Moreover, the frequent recourse to askew camera angles and distorted shots effectively infuses a pervasive aura of menace into the depressing, claustrophobic furnishings of Hill House’s frigid rooms.

As events unfold, the perception of impending danger intersects with a sense of inevitability, something perfectly expressed by one protagonist’s sibylline words: “Now I know where I’m going. I’m disappearing inch by inch into this house“.

Cornerstone of its genre.