Ep 174 The Haunting

With housing a seeming perennial nightmare, we’re going to look at some nightmare houses, kicking off with an absolute, stone cold classic - Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” (that’s the 1963 one, not the abomination that is the 1999 version with Qui-Gon Jinn). Adapted from the novel by Shirley Jackson “The Haunting of Hill House” (again, not to be confused with the TV series that bears its name, which, whilst loved by many, can, frankly, suck a fat one compared to the book, or the 1963 film). It’s a film in which we discover that Dr Jacoby is the bastard child of Dean Stockwell and Andy Serkis; that Miss Moneypenny didn’t need to hook up with James Bond when she had the dashing moustache of Dr Markway to come home to; and that the guy who brought us “The Sound of Music” can also scare the living shit out of you, simply by banging on a door. A cinematic masterpiece based on a literary masterpiece, “The Haunting” is still an effectively tense and scary film 60 years after its release, and remains an excellent lesson to filmmakers of how to successfully adapt a book to screen. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.