10/15: The Haunting

Aaaaannnnddd I'm behind again. Here's yesterday's movie. 

10/15: Today's horror movie was The Haunting, a film centering around an investigator and his chosen group of assistants who go explore a notoriously haunted house. Told through a lot (and I mean a lot) of voiceover, the movie is less of a ghost story and more of a rumination on the nature of the supernatural. This movie is certainly the precursor to many of the haunted house films we know today, but does suffer from some of the trappings of older films: the slow burn. Don't get my wrong, I'm a Hitchcock-ophile and I love me some older horror. However, I think we can all agree that on occasion, the very slow burn can wear. And boy, is this film very. 

Unfortunately for the slowness of the burn, it never quite pays off. Part of the storyline revolves around a woman that has a weird attraction to the haunting that is never quite explained. The haunting seems to want her, and I'm not sure why. The movie has atmosphere galore but I never really felt like the story gelled together enough to make this standout. I found this movie on a lot of "the best haunting movies" lists, but it never really quite lived up to that status. I see it's influence all over future films, but I think this is a case of others improving on a formula that The Haunting helped give birth to.

7/10