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Oct. 13th, 2011 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darchildreWe watched The Haunting last night at Bainbridge, which I had never seen before.
I have a hard time separating my own emotional reaction to the film from what I would say about it to other people. I have an uncomfortable relationship with The Haunting of Hill House, in that I love the book and think it's gorgeous and wonderful and shivery, but I find Eleanor to be very disquieting to read about because I identify with her so strongly. I am not Eleanor but I could be/could have been Eleanor very easily (there but for the grace of god) and so I find her rather terrifying. Watching the film is much the same thing (except that we cannot be quite so firmly and fully in Eleanor's head, even with her constant voice-overs), to the point that I'm not at all sure what the movie is like for people who don't have that extra element of horror working for them. (This film is also especially terrifying for people who, like me, have a particular fear of narrow unstable staircases.)
I would recommend it, I think, because it's a visually pretty film and I'm fairly certain it would be scary for other people. It's a good haunted house story and worth seeing. But I really recommend reading the book, which is not just a good haunted house story but a great one.
I have a hard time separating my own emotional reaction to the film from what I would say about it to other people. I have an uncomfortable relationship with The Haunting of Hill House, in that I love the book and think it's gorgeous and wonderful and shivery, but I find Eleanor to be very disquieting to read about because I identify with her so strongly. I am not Eleanor but I could be/could have been Eleanor very easily (there but for the grace of god) and so I find her rather terrifying. Watching the film is much the same thing (except that we cannot be quite so firmly and fully in Eleanor's head, even with her constant voice-overs), to the point that I'm not at all sure what the movie is like for people who don't have that extra element of horror working for them. (This film is also especially terrifying for people who, like me, have a particular fear of narrow unstable staircases.)
I would recommend it, I think, because it's a visually pretty film and I'm fairly certain it would be scary for other people. It's a good haunted house story and worth seeing. But I really recommend reading the book, which is not just a good haunted house story but a great one.
