The Haunting

A remote country house with a deadly history serves as the setting for a parapsychological experiment. Dr Markway aims to prove the existence of the supernatural. No sooner has night fallen than the building reveals its power: doors shake, walls breathe, footsteps echo through empty corridors – yet the horror remains unseen. Just how quickly fear can spring from one’s own imagination is demonstrated by the versatile director Robert Wise (who went on to direct THE SOUND OF MUSIC) in this prime example of the suggestive. It is no coincidence that the film remains the unrivalled blueprint for haunted house films to this day: by creeping in gradually, the uncanny has an all the more lasting effect.
(Florian Widegger)