"The Haunting"

The haunting is a film about four characters who stay in an old mansion that is believed to be haunted. Throughout their stay at "Hill House" many unusual and scary things happen. Eleanor, one of the individuals staying in the house, is especially terrified because the phrase, "Help Eleanor come home," is mysteriously written on the walls. As the movie progresses, more unusual things happen, banging on the walls and floor occurs, doors mysteriously shut, and the walls and doors look like they are breathing. Eleanor begins going insane in the middle of the film and she begins telling the others that she wants to stay in the house forever because she feels a sense of belonging she has never felt before. The doctor, another person staying at Hill House, is there to conduct an experiment. He brought the other three characters to the house to see if they would experience anything in a supernatural sense. The doctor's wife arrives one night and wants to stay in the house with the others. She decides to stay in the nursey, even when the others tell her not to. That night everyone but Grace, the wife of the doctor, stay in the living room of the mansion. This is when the banging begins again and the door begins to look like it's breathing. Eleanor decides she will give the house what it wants, herself. She runs through the house in search of the monster and discovers the noise is coming from the nursery. She rushes in and finds Grace missing. The movie ends with the doctor making Eleanor leave for her own sake. As she drives off unwillingly, something unseen takes control of her car and caues her to wreck into a tree. This is the same fate that happened to a previous owner of the house years before. Grace reappears and tells her husband and the others that she got lost in the house and ended up outside somehow.
This movie is an example of the Complex Discovery Plot. This type of plot contains four phases; onset, discovery, confirmation, and confrontation. Onset is when the audience has a clue about the monster/situation but the characters do not. An example of this onset phase is the beginning of the movie when the audience learns the history of the house but the characters, excluding the doctor, have no clue about the house's history. The second phase of this plot is called discovery. This means that a monster is discovered by at least one character. An example of the discovery phase is when Eleanor begins to believe that the house will not rest until she gives herself to it. The third phase of the complex discovery plot is called confirmation. An example of confirmation is when Eleanor tries to persuade the others into believing that she must stay in the house forever in order for the actions of the spirirts of the house to cease. The final phase of this tpe of plot is confrontation. Confrontation is when characters confront the monster in order to be rid of it or defeat it. An example of this is when Eleanor confronts an invisible spirit that is taking control of her car. She asks the spirit why it is doing this and she talks to herself saying that the house doesn't want her to leave. Her confrontation ends when Elearnor's car crashes into a tree an she is killed instantly.
Tourneur says that a monster doesn't have to be shown in a film to make the film a horror film. I believe this is the case in "The Haunting." The audience is full of suspense throughout the entire movie. Just the idea of a house doing what it does in the film is frightening to the audience. However, unless the house is considered to be the monster, Carroll wouldn't consider "The Haunting" to be a horror film because a disgusting, repulsive, unnatural monster is never actually shown.
"The Haunting" could also fit into the category of the Fantastic Marvelous. This term means that the plot is resolved on the side of the existance of the supernatural being/event. The supernatural is seen when the "spirits" of the house reak havoc on the four characters. The supernatural is also seen when Eleanor speaks from the grave at the very end of the movie.
I really enjoyed this movie and think that this is the best film we have seen yet. it seemed more real and the special effects were better. The house actually looked like it was breating for example. I think that not showing the monster was a very effective way to give the audience a feeling of suspese and fright.