The Haunting (1963)

DVD review from The Movie Snob

The Haunting (B+). Usually these old movies aren't so great, but this one was a pretty effective chiller. Hill House is a big, creepy house with a dark past -- irresistible to a gung-ho professor with an acute interest in the supernatural. He recruits two women, plus the brash young man who stands to inherit the place, to move into the place with him and help him investigate any unusual phenomena. One of the women, Eleanor, is already a little unhinged when she arrives, and the weird goings-on soon threaten her fragile sanity. Or is everything already all in her mind? The movie is surprisingly scary. Director Robert Wise (The Sound of Music) makes do with minimal special visual effects and virtually no things that jump out and go boo. Camera angles and sound effects effectively create an atmosphere of paranoia and dread. If you like scary movies, this one is worth seeing.