The Haunting 1963

Tap Dancing to Hell and a Pot O'Gold — Part Four.

After searching and searching for Zombos, Iloz Zoc and Curly Joe the plumber find themselves lost in the great underground tunnels beneath the mansion. Pausing to rest, Curly Joe discovers an ominous message written on the tunnel wall...

"What's this?" Curly Joe asked.

"Find Zombos and Go Home," I read in the dim light of my flashlight. The large letters were written in script across the wall.

"Who the hell would want to write in pink chalk down here?" Curly Joe said.

"No, not chalk," I said, touching it with my fingertip and tasting it. "Like chalk, I'd say."

"I knew I should have listened to the other plumbers about this place. If I had, I wouldn't have wound up like a character in Zork." He sat on his haunches and put his head in his hands. "You realize you're going to get one hell of a bill, don't you?"

I ignored his comments. "You know, this writing reminds me of that stylishly effective ghost story directed by Robert Wise, The Haunting."

Curly Joe perked up. "Say, I remember that film; pretty scary, even though you never see any ghosts."

Perhaps that's the best way to describe The Haunting; a frightening ghost story that doesn't show any ghosts. Unlike today's floating--in need of a shampoo and cut--ill-tempered ghosts that haunt the screen, Wise chose to show nothing; and in so doing, created the scariest ghost film on celluloid with the devilish use of sound and implication to 'show' the malevolent spirits still gliding through the twisting halls of Hill House.

Taken from the unsettling novel by Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House, Nelson Gidding's screenplay takes the creepiest, most uncanny elements from the novel except for the events that take place outside. Wise wanted the focus to stay within the house, and keep the tension building as Dr. Markway's skittish supernatural investigators experience the pulse-quickening manifestations of the house's former tenants.

In the chilling opening montage, Dr. Markway relates the sordid history of the house, from the tragic death of Hugh Crain's first wife, the untimely death of his second down a flight of stairs, and finally ends with the suicide of the lone nurse-companion of Abigail, the embittered and deceased daughter of Hugh Crain. The companion, who inherited the estate because there was no one else, hung herself from the wrought-iron spiral staircase in the gloomy library; perhaps because she was never really alone in the house. Clearly, Hill House has issues, and that's what draws the attention of Dr. Markway: he's looking for "the key to another world," and believes Hill House will provide it.

As he assembles his team from the dwindling group of people that still want to enter the house--after they hear it's unsavory past--he chooses Eleanor, a deeply-troubled woman with no life of her own. She's a walking, living ghost herself, and after spending the last eleven years taking care of her invalid mother, has nothing to call her own: not a relationship, not a career, not a hobby, not even her own place to live. She sees Dr. Markway's invitation as her escape, her one chance to finally spread her wings and breathe without being stifled.

Another member of Dr. Markway's team is Theo. An amazing psychic, Theo knows everyone else intimately the minute she meets them, but, ironically, doesn't know herself. She's afraid of who she may be deep down. She quickly takes a fancy to Eleanor, but Eleanor's fancy is tickled more by Dr. Markway, which leads to sexual tension in an already tense situation.

Then there's Luke, the tag-along. He's there only because he's going to inherit the house and wants to look after his future interests. He doesn't believe in the supernatural, and prefers his spirits in a bottle. Russ Tamblyn plays Luke with his usual, quick-with-a-quip buoyancy and it fits the role perfectly.

But it's Julie Harris, Wise's choice for the role of Eleanor, or Nell, as Theo calls her, who steals the heart of Hill House, and the film. Her shy, uncertain Nell, desperately wants to belong somewhere, anywhere, leaving her susceptible to the house's influences; and Claire Bloom's alluring but predatory, "nature's mistake" Theo is like a psychic sponge, feeling the house's need for Nell, and dislike for everyone else. Both women alternately bond together and trade biting insults as their tense relationship, between themselves and the house grows more uncertain.

The outside shots of the house, the Ettington Park Hotel in England, are made even more broodingly ominous by Wise's shrewd use of infra-red film to sharpen and darken the arched, neo-gothic windows, and towering brick facade of the structure to the point of austerity. As a prelude to a supernatural event, the outside of the mansion becomes even darker as dark clouds swirl overhead and the not so dearly departed stir within.

Choosing the naturally more spooky black and white film stock over color also increases the brooding chiaroscuro of stark shadows and light in the interiors of the mansion, emphasizing the not-quite-right nature of the house that Hugh Crain built, where doors shut by themselves, walls meet at distorted angles, and "nothing seems to move until you look away."

Looking for ways to enhance the foreboding atmosphere of his film, Wise jumped at the chance to use a newly available prototype 35mm lens that presented a slight amount of distortion for his Panavision landscape, increasing the unnaturalness of the mansion's rooms and exteriors in a subtle way. He had to sign a waiver releasing the manufacturer from any liability before he could acquire it, but it was worth the effort.

Wise's unique visual styling of the film aside, it's his economy in depicting the horrifying events that assail Nell and Theo that turn The Haunting into a classic tale of supernatural fright.

Their violent nighttime encounter with something that noisily makes its way through the halls to finally settle on their bedroom door with an ear-splitting pounding, scuffling, and heart-stopping doorknob jiggle is a masterful blend of spiraling camera work, Nell and Theo's horrified reactions as they grab each other for support, and disorientating sounds. While nothing is really shown, much is implied, and it's this impression of what might be behind the door, trying to get in, that generates genuine fear.

Playing on this fear of the unknown, Wise slowly builds the tension between the investigators as Nell begins to lose herself to the unrelenting influences of Hill House. As a kindred spirit--albeit a living one--to Abigail's companion, it is never made clear who or what exactly is enamored with her. She becomes the focus of the haunting, and as the message "Help Eleanor Come Home" is found prominently written in "something like chalk" on the hallway wall, Dr. Markway realizes how vulnerable she is and he's found his key to another world; but at what cost? One side of him wants Eleanor to leave for her own safety, but the other realizes that she is the attraction, the focal point for the haunting.

When Dr. Markway's wife unexpectedly shows up, pleading with him to end his ridiculous ghost-hunting nonsense, Nell, in a fit of jealous pique, mentions the nursery when Mrs. Markway asks for the scariest room to sleep in. Although Nell realizes the seriousness of what she said--the nursery is the evil heart of Hill House--Mrs. Markway insists on staying in the room.

While Mrs. Markway refuses to stay with the others, Dr. Markway insists that everyone else spend the night together for safety, while he and Luke take turns watching the nursery. When Luke sneaks into the parlor for a quick, fortifying drink, the door slams shut with a loud bang, waking the others.

Once again, Wise focuses on the door and what's pounding to get in, the frightened reactions of the others, and Luke's realization that he'll have a lot of trouble trying to sell the house after all. Wise ups the ante with the door in an effects shot that will send chills down your spine.

As the malevolent presence heads upstairs to the nursery, Luke, now a card-carrying believer in the supernatural, fights Dr. Markway to keep the door closed, and Nell visually and metaphorically disappears further into Hill House. Like Abigail's companion, she heads to the library, where, at the top of the unsafe spiral staircase she contemplates a similar fate.

Will Hill House have what it wants? Will Eleanor? And what happens to Mrs. Markway? Will she live long enough to become a believer in the supernatural, too?

The extra features on this Warner Home Video release include commentary by Robert Wise, Nelson Giddings, and the actors; there is also the trailer, a stills gallery, and an inconsequential essay called "Things that Go Bump in the Night." The commentary is a bit of a disappointment as each participant was recorded separately, but informative nonetheless.

The evocatively eerie widescreen landscape that Wise envisioned is beautifully captured, and the audio is adequate, though you may need to turn up and down the volume now and then.

The Haunting must be watched at night with the lights off, or in a darkened theater. It is a sophisticated, well-crafted cinematic foray into the ghostly realm, and one that will leave you exhilarated and scared at the same time.

Comments

[Peter]

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of the script for the The Haunting (1963)?