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| Julie
Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, Richard Johnson |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris): Can't
you feel it? It's alive... watching.
A researcher of the paranormal enlists
three others to aid in his research of a haunted mansion.
 This
popular minor classic of suggestion already had an excellent reputation
as one of the better entries in the genre, but Jan de Bont's ill-advised
recent remake worked wonders for the 1963 original, further increasing
demand for this classy haunted-house film. Now that it's finally
out of the vault and readily available on DVD, the film's strengths
and weaknesses can again be identified more easily. For although
it's a strong film with effective sequences, the original The
Haunting also carries some rather glaring flaws.
First and foremost, the adaptation of the constricted perspective
in Shirley Jackson's novel is laborious, and makes key parts of
the film overly reliant on Julie Harris's troubled voice-over,
which
distances
the audience from the narrative more often than not. There's also
an uneven quality to the transitions between the scenes, moving
back and forth between extended, quiet scenes of dialogue and assaultive,
near-hysterical horror scenes. On the plus side, however, the widescreen
framing is a marvel throughout, the actors are all outstanding,
the set design is superb, the editing is simply brilliant, and
the film's general reliance on atmosphere and sound effects over
visual
scares
makes
this
creaky
old thriller
hold up surprisingly well forty years after its premiere. |
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Identical releases are available
for Region 1 and Region 2.
The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 2.35:1. The
intentionally contrasty black-and-white cinematography looks
quite good: there is quite a bit of film grain visible, and
occasional minor bits of print damage pop up (especially
during the opening credits). But the solid blacks and fine
detail make this a pleasing transfer with only occasional
distractions.
The original mono sound mix is presented in Dolby Digital
1.0. Unfortunately for a film so reliant on sound effects
and voice-over narration, the soundtrack sounds muffled and
very thin. There is little his or distortion, but the soundtrack
also has very little dynamic range, and sounds unnaturally
confined in a mix that could have done with some opening
up.
The main extra on-board this
long-awaited DVD release is the newly recorded audio
commentary track featuring director Robert Wise
and the four main cast members. The five speakers were recorded
separately, and the track gives the most time to the eloquent
Richard Jones, while the other cast members chime
in frequently with fond recollections and engaging
anecdotes.
Towards
the
end, the
track starts to run out of steam and longer silences occasionally
fall, but there's plenty of rewarding material here for fans
of the film, although it is rarely scene-specific.
The stills gallery also holds plenty of
worthwhile material, though it's rather unusually presented
as an eight-minute animated sequence, incorporating press
clippings and production and publicity photos. There's also
a collection of seemingly random pages from the original
screenplay, with notes scribbled in by the director.
A selection of text pages titled Things
that go Bump in the Night attempt
to offer some historical context for the haunted-house movie
genre, but ends up too superficial and too brief to offer
any true insight. The theatrical trailer,
in anamorphic widescreen, rounds out these fairly limited
extras. The
menu is a single static page, accompanied by dissonant chords from
the score.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
September 29, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Haunting.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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