Wise's use of the camera is vital to creating a sense of tension and atmosphere; it's practically its own character. Meanwhile, Theo is a vital LGBT character in horror history: an out woman in a 60s film is a true rarity.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 1, 2023

Dripping with queer subtext, this 1963 adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is a master class in reading between the lines.

| Oct 27, 2022

An elegantly sinister scare movie, literate and expensive (though basically a traditional ghost story), with those two fine actresses Claire Bloom and Julie Harris.

| Jul 6, 2022

The Haunting endures as a horror classic, albeit one that doesnt quite the credit it deserves as an unusual queer love story. Heres a movie both scary and romantic as Hell.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 20, 2022

The Haunting is a genuine thriller, directed and acted superbly.

| Jun 29, 2021

The Haunting eventually moves into a static midsection that grows less and less interesting as time progresses...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 16, 2021

The horror stories filled with monsters and dripping blood are just kid stuff in comparison with this skillfully made thriller.

| Oct 26, 2020

Wise brilliantly uses black and white widescreen to strand his characters in odd-shaped rooms or corridors, making the watcher's eye skitter frantically over the letterbox screen to catch every ingeniously rendered detail.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 8, 2020

When The Haunting digs into the internals of its story, summons its spirits and lets them play havoc with cold reason, it has a power and fervor unmatched by any film ghost stories.

| Nov 2, 2018

For the possible overuse of internal monologues and Julie Harris' overwrought but riveting performance as Eleanor, The Haunting still stands up as a relevant and effective study of both the psychology and parapsychology of its themes.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 10, 2017

...one of the most fascinating aspects of The Haunting is the multiple interpretations available for many events, which might be supernatural, or might be the product of a disturbed mind or distorted perceptions.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 6, 2017

This is one of the best supernatural chillers ever made.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 7, 2013

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Oct 10, 2012

Borderline perfect... Strip away all of its frightening elements, and the film remains a sophisticated, complex, and tremendously subtle character study.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 29, 2011

The horror remains admirably attuned to the sense of solitude in a premature spinster

| Sep 6, 2009

People stare about in terror and squeak: 'The house, it's alive!' The picture, it's dead.

| Oct 19, 2008

A dark brooding atmosphere, disturbing psychological insights and a handful of suddenly executed surprises make this old horror as fresh and vital as the day it was made.

| Oct 19, 2008

Properly creepy, unlike like the dodgy remake.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 25, 2007

The artful cinematic strokes of director Robert Wise and staff are not quite enough to override the major shortcomings of Nelson Gidding's screenplay.

| Sep 25, 2007

An undeniably effective adaptation of the Shirley Jackson novel and remains one of the best haunted-house movies.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 25, 2007