That was an excellent one.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The focus of this is two women and a house. Hill House has stood for over ninety years and it has always been thought to be haunted. One of the women is tired, after caring for her now dead mother for eleven years. There is conflict with her sister but they make their ways to this ancient property. Everything about the place is unfriendly, including the people who care for it. What then transpires is a kind of threat from somewhere to drive this woman (played by Julie Harris) away. At first she rolls with the punches, but eventually is really spooked. Some of the men are accused of playing cruel tricks, but they claim innocence. Of course, there is a supernatural element and soon they realize that they are up against a spirit. A really scary, threatening movie that will keep you guessing.

Perhaps this is a movie that appeals only to certain people. Perhaps it has to be viewed at a particular moment in life. Perhaps it's just too dated for many to get into it. In any case, it's disappointing to see how many simply find it a waste of time.I saw this under special circumstances. I was about 12 years old and my parents were out for the evening when it came on TV. I didn't know anything about it but considered myself quite the connoisseur of horror and sci-fi shown at the small local theater. I figured it would be along the line of Universal monsters and Roger Corman fare, nothing particularly notable.It scared the absolute daylights out of me. Sitting alone the in house at night with the creepy sounds and images emanating from that little B&W screen got to me badly. Even after my parents were home and I went to bed I found myself looking for faces in the plaster walls of my room and imagining every creak as an approaching but invisible malevolent force.I still get it out every couple of years on a dark dreary night, and though the lines of dialog sound more stilted to my now elderly mind I can still remember the effect it had on me so many decades ago.I had an even more intense reaction from Hitchcock's "The Birds" and I've noticed the commentary about that film to be similar to this. Perhaps you just had to be there.

The Haunting has been on my "to watch" list for many Octobers, due to all the incredibly positive reviews. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. This movie is not scary, suspenseful, spooky, moody or any other adjective you've read in other reviews. There is an incessant overload of expository dialogue from wooden characters. There is no buildup of tension. There is a main character who seems a bit psychologically unhinged, and being in the house might be making it worse. But there is very little here to scare any viewers. Unless of course you fear you might be going a bit crazy yourself. The entire movie should have been compressed to a 30-minute prologue to an actual ghost story or haunted house movie. I'm all for moody, atmospheric, subtle horror. This film has none of that. Skip it.

I see all the 10 out of 10 reviews describing the film as the scariest movie ever made and I just don't understand it at all. I'm not a gore fanatic at all and I appreciate subtlety but the film is not remotely frightening and for a haunted house setting with the additional use of black and white, it is not even particularly atmospheric.I keep reading people going on about how terrifying the noises and the turning of the door knob were. To me, this was barely even suspenseful. There is honestly so little of the supernatural within the entire film that I'd hesitate to even describe it as a horror film. Most of the very little tension in the film involves Eleanor fighting with Theodora.Speaking of which, Julie Harris's character who is the protagonist of this film is irritating, boring and not remotely likable. In fact, the rest of the cast is very underwhelming with the possible except of Theodora who has maybe a little more personality than the rest.Despite all this and how disappointed I am with this film, I still can't quite bring myself to give it one star. There is a slight charm to it although I think this owes more to the time period that the film was set in than anything else.I'm writing this in bed at 1:56am and am totally confident that I could go to sleep right now without feeling any fear whatsoever.