Rent The Haunting (1963)

A clever and scary film - The Haunting review by CP Customer

Reminded in many ways of Psycho with this film, which I think preceded it, but would say I got much more satisfaction with The Haunting.

Genuinely quite scary with long moments (in a similar way to Susan Hill's The Woman In Black) that build the tension.

The clever thing though is the story running in parallel about the main character battling with their own inner demons and trying to stay strong, which is unwittingly playing into the hands of the demons living inside the house

Psychological Horror. - The Haunting review by Steve

Psychological ghost story set in New England, though shot in UK. Robert Wise is obviously influenced by head of RKO horror in the '40s, Val Lewton, who gave Wise his debut as director. The idea is that terror conjured up in the mind of the audience is more daunting than any screen monster. So the horror is offscreen, mostly suggested by sound.

 The set design of the haunted stately home and the expressionist shot compositions are brilliantly unsettling. But we don't see any ghosts. In fact, the ambiguous script implies that the haunting may be happening inside the fractured psyche of the pale, neurotic medium (Julie Harris), who is an unreliable narrator.

Richard Johnson plays an academic who wants to prove the existence (or otherwise) of the paranormal, so enlists two women who have experience of the supernatural, Claire Bloom plays the other, a chic socialite who has the gift of ESP, so knows what everyone is thinking. Russ Tamblyn is a sceptic, who brings the wisecracks and the martinis.

This isn't unlike the kind of B horror William Castle was famous for in the 50s-60s. But there's a bigger budget, and it's more sophisticated... And scarier. The ensemble cast is excellent, but Harris excels as the lonely, unstable conduit for the spirits who possess the old house. Who want her to remain. It's her vulnerability and suffering that stays in the memory.