37. The Haunting

(Robert Wise, 1963)

(essay by Troy)

Expectations can effect your view of a horror film as much as anything.  My first foray into The Haunting I wasn’t expecting much more than an intelligent, well-regarded ghost story, because how scary can a G-rated black and white film from 1963 truly be?  Yet this is one of those horror films that if you watch it with the lights down and the sound turned it manages to creep all around you, causing an overwhelming feeling of dread to rise up.  There’s a feeling of someone or something unseen, eyes peering down on you, yet you can’t look back.  Or of your hand hanging by your side and having it suddenly grabbed by an unknown force.  It’s our innate fear of the uncanny that The Haunting exposes so well.

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