The Haunting (DVD, 2003)

Ever since compiling a list of my top 10 scary pictures I've wanted to include this film in my home collections.
I original saw this movie in the 70's at an end-of-year showing at my junior high school. I still recall the entire audiance jumping and screaming at various points in the movie.
When I got it I showed it at my daughters 12th birthday party. At first the girls thought it was campy. I just sat back and observed. They eventually settled quietly into watching. Only to be leaping and screaming at the "haunting" suprises. They ended up loving it so much they wanted it shown on the bus trip for their 6th grade outing.
With this movie being so well done, I don't understand why they tried a remake (staring Liam Nieson and Catherine Zetta Jones) that was a horrible flop.

Someone once asked Stephen King what was HIS favorite horror movie? And without hesitation he said.... It has to be "The Haunting" That movie gives me the creeps....And I had to agree because....I remember sitting in a dark movie house watching this amazing movie unfold on screen. I was mesmerized and to this day this movie can still deliver the same goose bumps and prickly hair on the nape of your neck. It's not what you see...It's what you don't see...What is lurking in this old, dark house that wants to evade your dreams. When Eleanor is trying so hard to keep quiet while listening to the abominations emanating from the very walls of this monstrous house....while Theo is seemingly crushing her hand in fear, as they tremble in the dark... and suddenly the lights are on and you see that Theo is way on the other side of the room huddled in her bed and hanging in mid air is Eleanor's tortured hand still gripping..WHAT...OH MY GOD...WHO'S HAND WAS I HOLDING!? After all....don't you want to know what you've touched?..........

The idea that a house is evil is the basic element of the plot.This is a classic psychological thriller movie. It builds slowly and inexorably with tensions. The camera is a character a much as the actors. The shots full of angles and tilts are beautifully composed for type of hysterical distortion being presented. The cutting is designed for shock effect, especially in the library scene and the final car escape. The denouement is sudden and logical on a number of levels.

Potent, scary show. I watched it frist, then the next night my young son and his mom watched. They didn't know it was a horror movie that was this scary. The weather was stormy and they were scared to death. They have talked of it often. Great special effects for its day. Great classic horror movie, as good as they come.

quite possibly the best horror movie ever!! i love this movie.... i wanted to add this to my collection of horror movies, then i found it on ebay, without even leaving the house... unlike the horror movies of today, there is absolutely no blood or gore, very few effects... just what a haunted house might actually look like.. believe me, it is hard to watch with the lights out (alone)... would like to see more movies like this...

I can't say enough about this movie. If you really enjoy being scared, then this is the movie for you. Some of the scariest things are the things you don't see. This movie plays with you mind. It used to come on in the middle of the night and I would stay up to watch it and be scared to death. There is no comparison between the version and the newer version which I couldn't stand to finish. The fact that it's in black and white only adds to the movie. Buy it and you'll love it.

Its in black and white and not much in special effects, but its the best!!
Its like a Hitchcock movie with a lot of suspense..

Even though I've seen this a lot of times, it still scares me when it's dark outside and I'm watching it...good movie

The older psychological thrillers seem to me to be the better ones if you don't mind the drama. The only thing lacking was that I didn't want it to end.

"The Haunting" is perhaps the quintessential haunted house movie - filmed in black and white, which serves to heighten the mood of fear and expectation. The horros is low-key: a cold hand holding Elinor's, the breathing wooden door, all serve as examples of horror at its finiset, without the need for gruesome special efects that add nothing to the story itself.

Try it - preferably in a darkened room.

Jeff McIntosh

I have received at least 10 other items that I bought through other sellers, one being another DVD as well, and I still have not received this DVD.

This movie is one of the best of all times. Even better then the remake with all the special effects. Why? Because this movie let's you use your imagination as to what horrors await the characters in this movie. The black and white filming adds to the creepiness of the house and the ghostly inhabitants in it. This movie out does the remake by 100%.

Arrived quickly, it's clean, neat, plays perfectly and I'd like the seller to contact me with any other movies they think I might like along the horror or sci-fi line. This product rates top of the line. In ten years of ordering,I've only reveived one faulty DVD (Sinbad) from half.com, so it's great that I now own this perfect movie.

Love the movie. They dont make them like that any more. Every thing is left to ones imagination.The graphics are way ahead of it's time.

Have seen the movie years ago and it no longer is shown on tv. It still gives me goosebumps in watching it again after so many years.

I have always loved this movie. It is one of the great horror movies from the past. I feel I purchased it at a good price. I checked out the seller by reading other feedback. I received the item within in an acceptable period after payment was made. I used paypal which makes it easy to pay for. If someone has a lot of negative feedback I usually do not bid on the item.

i bought this to watch on halloween. i have seen it lots of times, read the book, and of course heard about it. stephen king says something like it is the best story of all time...he also says that scary stories can't stay scary as time goes by, but this one really holds up. i had to keep reminding myself that i knew there was nothing to be afraid of. i would recommend her other stories too; The Lottery is posted on the internet. that is a metaphor for anti-semitism--she said so in an interview in the NY Times--but of course it is very scary whether or not you know that. I also like -so-bad-they're-good- movies, but this one is intelligent and very sturdy.

i bought this DVD because I love horror films, and this one in particular because it is a classic, the essence of the film is the story, something that has seemingly become lost in the modern day obsession with eye-candy, this one still scares on the merit of the story, not the dazzle.