Actors: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn
Director: Robert Wise
Formats: VHS, DVD
Price: £3.49
Mini Review
Do you believe in ghosts? Well a stay at the house on the hill will help you find out. A psychiatrist invites three guests to take part in supernatural research. The guests are given the run of the old Hill House and are asked to report on any goings on. As you can imagine it isn't long before things start going bump in the night. The activities seem to be targeting the most nervous guest, Nell. The mystery of the knockings and banging continue throughout the movie and create quite an oppressive feel. I did find that I wanted to know the source of the occurrences but was not overwhelmed by the "solution". What will the verdict on the ghost be? True, false or something else. Whether you are a seasoned mystery/haunted house movie goer or just venturing in to the genre, this is a great example of a well made movie.
Verdict
I'm always in two minds about this movie. On one hand it is a great watch and would definitely recommend for haunted house movie lovers. There's a strong plot development and the "ghosts" are an interesting take on what should make us afraid. The acting is also rather good for this genre. It's all too easy to put some strangers in a big empty house and the whole movie go very dull, thankfully the actors keep the plot going at a nice pace.
The reason I hesitate in getting too excited about this film though is that it is a little bit predictable. As I had such high hopes for this movie based on other reviews I think that it doesn't quite live up to the ground breaking reviews that it often receives. However, I can honestly say it is a good movie and very cheap to pick up on DVD these days. Give it a go, you may really like this one.
Pros: Very solid movie, good acting and good old fashioned story telling.
Cons: The character of Nell tends to annoy me a bit due to the persistent whining. Overall the story is reasonably predictable if you are familiar with haunted house movies.
The Haunted Cinema Rating: 7 unseen ghosts out of 10.
If you liked this try: The House On Haunted Hill,
Should our review not be enough for you try these links.
IMDB: The Haunting
Wikipedia: The Haunting
The Haunting (1963) Trailer
Happy hauntings, Jiblet.
Your views: Watched this? Own this? Recommend this? Have a question about this? Please feel free to comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment