The Haunting

Director: Robert Wise

1963 / 112min / 35mm

The “Old Dark House” setting, a staple of Gothic fiction, was given a new lease on life in this harrowing cinematic dark ride by former Val Lewton director Wise, adapting Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House. An ingenious work of devilish, leering camera trickery in which an ensemble cast including Julie Harris, Russ Tamblyn, and Claire Bloom (whose bohemian wardrobe was designed by mod icon Mary Quant) assemble for a stay at a mansion which appears to house a very unquiet poltergeist.

Part of Women Dressing Women: From Runway to Screen