60’s Gothic Thriller
Recently I saw the movie The Haunting and I would like to give an opinion on it. The Haunting is a gothic thriller that leave you a little puzzled at the end. For it being made is the early 60’s it’s a great movie.
In this gothic thriller, Dr. Markway is doing research to prove the existence of ghosts so investigates Hill House. The house is a large mansion with a history of death and mental insanity. With him he brings 3 characters: Eleanor, Theodora, and Luke. As days go by in the mansion, Eleanor starts to go insane. The movie takes place in 1963, New England.
The most standout actress of this thriller was Julie Harris who played Eleanor. She did a fantastic job playing the lead actress and she knows how to really act insane, almost seemed real. Julie’s supporting actress was Clair Bloom who played as Theodora. Theodora was a mentally supporting character to Eleanor. Although Clair was shown throughout the movie, she wasn’t the main focus point as much as Julie was. For the most standout actor is a tie. One of the two actors is Richard Johnson who played Dr. John Markway then you have Russ Tamblyn who played Luke Sanderson. I found this hard to choose between the two because Richard plays the more serious role and Russ is the actor who is kind of the comic relief of this gothic thriller.
The Haunting had some really good hair spiking scenes in it, not bad in my opinion for a movie being made in the 60’s. Before watching the film I had my doubts about it thinking it wasn’t going to be scary at all because it’s an old film, but boy was it surprised me with the scenes it had. The only this I would have to say negative about the film would be Director Robert Wise’s choice of sound effects. In the middle of the film when the supernatural events start to unfold, there is this scene where Eleanor is laying in the bed next to Theodora who is asleep. Laying there Eleanor starts to hear a voice and a scream, then form of a face starts to appear on the wall next to. While all this is happening