Brilliant movie, true horror (The Haunting (Wide Screen) (DVD))

Member Name: Twister

Product:	The Haunting (Wide Screen) (DVD)
Date:	20/08/00 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Truly scary

Disadvantages: Truly scary

I have always believed that the source of real horror is uncertainty. It's what we can't see that scares us most. It's the IDEA that something MIGHT be under the bed, that worries us. For this reason, I have never rated films like Hellraiser as scary - this is simply a gore-fest in which we see the monsters in all their glory, and right at the outset of the story. However, in The Haunting, we never see a thing...not even at the end of the film. This is a real ghost story in its purest and most worrying form. Put this film in the boot of your car, and drive past a field, and it would worry the sheep.

This is a deeply psychological horror film about a professor of parapsychology who invites three people to spend a few days with him at a reportedly haunted house out in the middle of nowhere. His aim is to look for evidence of the entity which haunts the place. Made in the early 60's and in black and white, and relying not on "special effects", but purely on camera manipulation and sound, it is the only film that I still find uncomfortable to watch alone at night. I could watch Blair Witch at midnight in the most haunted house in the Country, knowing that there was not another sole within a hundred miles...but I would hesitate to watch this one in the comfort of my lounge at dusk with a party going on next door.

The recent remake of this film never stood a chance of good critical reviews, simply because the original is so powerful.

Be afraid.

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