‘It ought to be burned down… and the ground sowed with salt...’
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is arguably the greatest ghost story of them all. From its iconic opening paragraph, to its tragic end, Jackson’s seminal novel is visceral and terrifying. This film adaptation from legendary director Robert Wise is also brilliant, not in spite of its deviations from the source material, but because of them…
Dr John Markway (Richard Johnson), a prominent parapsychologist, enlists the help of three very different volunteers to investigate reported paranormal activity at Hill House – a 90 year old mansion with a history of tragedy. Luke Sannerson (Russ Tamblyn) is blithe and cocky; Theodora, bohemian and cruel; and Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris), our hapless protagonist, is on the verge of a breakdown. Together, they make for a combustible combination, especially when paired with the insidious evil of Hill House.
While Jackson always maintained that her source novel was a supernatural tale, Wise, along with scriptwriter Nelson Gidding, learn more into the possibility that everything we are seeing is a symptom of Eleanor’s depression. Harris was suffering from depression in real life whilst filming The Haunting, often reduced to tears whilst sat in the make up chair, and she channels this into what is an astonishing performance. Wise, coming off the back of West Side Story, treats The Haunting with a prestige unheard of for a horror picture in 1963 and the result is a film that drags the haunted house story kicking and screaming into the modern era. In many ways, this is where the modern haunted house movie begins. The Haunting walked so that The Shining, The Changeling and Poltergeist could run. Wise employs every trick in the book to bring Hill House to life, but crucially, much of the horror is implied, or heard rather than seen. This gives the impression that the house’s innate malevolence is always lying in wait just off camera. It’s unnerving and extremely effective.
The Haunting is not just one of the best haunted house movies ever made, and probably the most influential, but it is also one of the most competent and classy horror films period – a horror masterpiece.
