THE HAUNTING (1963). Colorized

THE HAUNTING is a 1963 British supernatural horror film directed and produced by Robert Wise, adapted by Nelson Gidding from Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House. It stars Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn. The film depicts the experiences of a small group of people invited by a paranormal investigator to investigate a purportedly haunted house.

PLOT:
Dr. John Markway narrates the history of the 90-year-old Hill House, which was constructed in Massachusetts by Hugh Crain for his wife. She died when her carriage crashed against a tree as she approached the house for the first time. Crain remarried, but his second wife died in the house from a fall down the stairs. Crain's daughter Abigail lived in the house for the rest of her life, never moving out of the nursery room. She died calling for her nurse-companion. The companion inherited the house, but hanged herself from a spiral staircase in the library. Hill House was inherited by Mrs. Sannerson, a distant relative of the companion, although the house has stood empty for some time.

Markway wishes to study the reported paranormal activity at Hill House and sends invitations for people to join his investigation; Mrs. Sannerson demands that Markway allow her heir Luke Sannerson to join. Only two other individuals accept—Theodora, a psychic, and Eleanor Lance, who experienced poltergeist activity as a child. Eleanor has spent her adult life caring for her invalid mother, whose recent death has left Eleanor with severe guilt.

The group find the mansion's walls were constructed with angles askew, resulting in off-center perspectives and doors that open and close by themselves. During their first night in the house, Eleanor and Theo are terrified by banging sounds made against the door, and hear menacing laughter. Luke and the doctor, however, report the house had been silent for them. In the morning, the words "Help Eleanor Come Home" are found scrawled on a wall, distressing Eleanor. The group explores the house, discovering a huge marble composite statue, supposedly of St. Francis curing lepers, which seems to echo the string of characters who have lived in the house (Hugh Crain, Abigail, and the companion), but also resemble Dr. Markway, Luke, Theo, and Eleanor.

The doctor, Luke and Theodora explore the library with the treacherous spiral staircase, but Eleanor has a severe reaction that prevents her from entering. Leaning over the veranda to look at the library's tower, she becomes dizzy and is caught by Markway, who speculates that he should send her home, but Eleanor protests. Dr. Markway discovers a cold spot outside the nursery room. Despite these occurrences, Eleanor feels an affinity to Hill House.

That night, on Markway's insistence, Theo moves into Eleanor's room, and they fall asleep in the twin beds pushed together. Eleanor is awakened by the voice of a man speaking and a woman laughing. Fearful, she asks Theo to hold her hand. As she hears the sound of a girl crying, she shouts. Theo awakens to find that Eleanor has moved from the bed to the couch, and Eleanor realizes it was not Theo's hand she held.

The following day Theo confronts Eleanor about her feelings for Dr. Markway, and Eleanor lashes back at Theo for being "unnatural," implying either Theo's psychic ability to know what Eleanor is thinking or her attraction to Eleanor. Dr. Markway's skeptical wife Grace arrives with plans to join the group for the duration of the investigation, to the consternation of Eleanor, who had begun developing feelings for Markway while unaware that he was married. Grace demands a room in the nursery despite her husband's warning that it is likely the center of the disturbances. That night in the living room, the group experiences loud banging and an unseen intruder attempting to force its way into the room, causing the door to bulge inward. The banging moves toward the nursery, where sounds of destruction are heard. Grace goes missing. Eleanor's mental instability worsens as she enters the library and climbs the spiral staircase, followed by Markway, who tries to coax her down. At the top, Eleanor nearly falls to her death before being rescued by Markway. As they start to descend, Eleanor suddenly glimpses Grace's face through a trap door. Startled, she faints.

Markway becomes alarmed at Eleanor's obsession with Hill House. Eleanor pleads to stay, but he insists that she leave. Eleanor drives off toward the front gates. The steering wheel begins to turn by itself, and she surrenders to the unseen force. A female figure suddenly appears in front of the car, causing Eleanor to crash into a tree and die. Markway and the others arrive to find that it is Grace, who says the House has been keeping her lost on purpose. She ended up in the attic when she was trying to find a way back, and Eleanor saw her. She is unsure of how she found her way outside the house, or got in front of Eleanor's car. Luke observes that Eleanor deliberately aimed the car at the tree, but Markway asserts that something was in the car with her. He notes that the tree was the same one where Mrs. Crain died. Theo remarks that Eleanor got what she wanted—to remain with the house. Convinced of the supernatural forces he once scoffed at, Luke says about the house, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."