Last Sunday I watched that atrocious movie version of the novel? short story? called The Haunting, starring Lily Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones and some other unfortunate actors. It was pretty bad, yet I found the basic idea intriguing, and I was wondering how close it is to the original story. Can anyone illuminate me on this? And is the original worth reading?

I'm looking at Amazon, it's a haunted house story, what's the intriguing idea?

The movie's based on a book by one Shirley Jackson. And I dimly recall a Stepen King movie that seems very similar.

In the movie, the intriguing (although, admittedly, not original) idea was that the psychologist was conducting his test on how subjects experience fear in a place that he thought would get their imagination going - when the place was really haunted, so their imagination didn't even come into it.

It's a bit like the first Dune book, where the prophecy disseminated across the planets for political reasons ("Hey, perhaps we can create a straw Messiah for them to follow!") turns out to be completely true, and the guy really *is* a Messiah ("Whoops, that didn't exactly go according to plan..."). Of course that might just be my faulty reading, and I don't know how Herbert continues the story.

The first Dune works just fine as a stand-alone. But the Sisterhood really was actively breeding for a Messiah for generations, the myth-seeding was intended to make people pliable ("Be respectful and obedient to women in robes who know all the right phrases")

There was an original movie based on the story in black and white which was much better- a subtle, psychological thriller, which got its scares from suggestion and mood rather than flashy visuals and LOUD SOUND EFFECTS. I watched it with my parents. It was very scary for an old movie. Even for a regular movie. It was excellent. I don't know who did it though. It wasn't Steven King- too early.

I've read the book and I highly recommend it. I was blown away from page 1. It has one of those great, classic openings.

I've seen the older movie with Claire Bloom, and it's pretty good. I've avoided the remake because I've heard nothing but terrible things about it.

quote:

Originally posted by ZoneSeek, Lord of the Dustbunnies:
I'm looking at Amazon, it's a haunted house story, what's the intriguing idea?

It's the way the book plays out. I can't say any more without ruining the book, but it doesn't play like your typical haunted house book, probably partly because it existed before the stereotypes were in place. Don't go in expected descriptions of gruesomeness and ghouls, though.

quote:

The movie's based on a book by one Shirley Jackson. And I dimly recall a Stepen King movie that seems very similar.

It was a TV movie called Rose Red that was inferior to The Haunting, if such a thing is possible. Quite wretched.

And The Haunting is about as divergent from the book the book as the title of the movie is from the title of the book. Similar ideas, radically different execution, and much better in the book.

my old university dorm was called Hill House, 'cause it was on a hill

wasn't haunted... too new. smelled like a prison or a hospital

The 1963 Robert Wise 'The Haunting' is one of my favourite films. It's spooky and creepy, full of tension and the scariest door ever. It also sticks pretty close to the books plot and, almost more importantly, to the atmosphere of the book. The remake is an abomination. Felt like the ending was the equivalent of facing an end of level boss. In a game that you were finishing because you'd paid for the damn thing and no other reason.

When I was a kid, I worked stage crew for the play of The Haunting of Hill House. I beleive Shirley Jackson wrote the script. It was your typical fluffy Samuel French community theatre Halloween fare.

But it was pretty fun to work on...we had one flat made of stretch material that us stage hands pressed out faces and hands against to give the spooky people-in-walls illusion. And we had one wall built with squirt-guns filled with fake blood. So while the play wasn't incredible, working back stage rocked.

Now that's the stage work I love. Sod helicopters descending, gore the audience.

you just gave me an ending for my play due tommorow. Thanks

Ooo! Whats your play about? Can I be in it?

*frantically tosses headshot and resume at Tlon*

*tap-dances spastically*

See? I have the It factor! See? See?

its, um, a bunch of Sydney indie kinds trapped in a lift, spouting 'witty' dialogue that I wrote. and then they pile their shoes on the floor and flick blood on it, and everything goes crazy, and it ends.

you could be in it if you were in Australia, sure... there's a part for a girl