The film still holds up though after seeing it several, things do stand out. They shot it in England rather than New England to save money. The English accents of the support players is troublesome. I found Harris's voice-overs unnecessary but those are minor points. It is a classic.
shareA voice over ?????? The acting is superb and the film gives me chills.
shareSorry, it should have been "voice-overs." The direction, cinematographer and sound effect were so strong, they weren't needed.
shareGreat ghost story... what I love is this film is scary without any stupid effects like todays films are showing. Guess todays horror film makers feel we are too stupid to follow a story and have to add cheap scare effects.
This film is great if watching it in dark, alone... sure you will hear more house noises after doing that.
The actress who plays, Theo, Claire Bloom... I see her now on a British show shown on PBS called 'Doc Martin'. She had few roles starting back to 1948 but was 1952 Charles Chaplin's Limelight that made a star and still acting today... good actress. But the whole cast in the Haunting was great.
It's psychological horror, too subtle for many today who have been raised on gore and CGI.
By the way, I loved Claire Bloom in this film. She's a wonderful actress and great in Doc Martin.
This is the Ultimate in Haunted House stories.
The remake was shameful.
Hi joeann_21,
The remake was beyond shameful.
Both were flawed. There were sets from the remake that were much better than the original. The CGI was too much, though.
The Kubrick film IS far superior, in every way.
Hi eweland,
The original was made for little money with a small cast and proved that less is often more. For me the biggest flaw was the English locale instead of the proper setting, New England. I wish they had cast American actors and used actual New England locations. I found the voice overs annoying, but despite my reservations, the original was intelligent psychological horror. The second was a bloated mess without a speck of subtlety; however, I do remember thinking the sets were nice.