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The Haunting (1963 film)

1963 film by Robert Wise

The Haunting is a 1963 film about a scientist doing research on the paranormal who invites two women to a haunted mansion.

Directed by Robert Wise. Written by Nelson Gidding, based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
You may not believe in ghosts, but you cannot deny terror.  (taglines)

Eleanor Lance

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  • [voice-over] Hill House has stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Within, walls continue upright, bricks meet, floors are firm, and doors are sensibly shut. Silence lies steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. And we who walk here... walk alone.
  • God! God! Whose hand was I holding?
  • Can't you feel it? It's alive... watching.
  • Human nature could certainly stand some improvement.

Dr. John Markway

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  • [voice-over] An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there... walked alone.
  • A closed mind is the worst defense against the supernatural... If it happens to you, your liable to have that shut door in your mind ripped right off it's hinges!
  • It was an evil house from the beginning - a house that was born bad.
  • Look, I know the supernatural is something that isn't supposed to happen, but it does happen.

Theodora

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  • Poor Nell. You look like Death.
  • What would you call this place? Fun-o-rama?

Luke Sanderson

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  • Only one way to argue with a woman Doc... Don't.
  • [referring to Hill House] It ought to be burned down... and the ground sowed with salt.
  • Doc, I'll let you have the house cheap!

Dialogue

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Theodora: Is this another one of your crazy hallucinations?
Eleanor Lance: I'm not crazy!
Theodora: Crazy as a loon! You really expect me to believe that you're sane and the rest of the world is mad?
Eleanor Lance: Well, why not? The world is full of inconsistencies. Unnatural things. Nature's mistakes they call you for instance!
Dr. John Markway: You wait here, Grace. I'll go in and get your things, and then call the police.
Grace Markway: No, no, no! No one must go back into that house again. Whatever's there might...
Dr. John Markway: I'll be all right. The house has what it wants... for a while.
Mrs. Dudley: [Eleanor has just been shown her room after she arrives] I can't keep the rooms the way I'd like, but there's no one else they could get that would help me.
Eleanor Lance: How very nice.
Mrs. Dudley: I set dinner on the dining room sideboard at 6. I clear up in the morning. I have breakfast for you at 9. I don't wait on people. I don't stay after I set out the dinner, not after it begins to get dark. I leave before the dark.
Eleanor Lance: Your husband?
Mrs. Dudley: We live over in town, miles away.
Eleanor Lance: Yes.
Mrs. Dudley: So there won't be anyone around if you need help.
Eleanor Lance: I understand.
Mrs. Dudley: We couldn't hear you. In the night.
Eleanor Lance: Do you have any idea when Dr. Markway...
Mrs. Dudley: [cuts her off] No one could. No one lives any nearer than town. No one will come any nearer than that.
Eleanor Lance: I know.
Mrs. Dudley: In the night. In the dark. [Mrs. Dudley smiles and leaves]
Dr. John Markway: It has taken 60 million years to develop the carnivorous biped you see before you, Luke Sanderson.
Theodora: Let's see what kind of martinis it makes.
Luke Sanderson: They should be pretty good. I majored in them at college.
Dr. John Markway: Now. Which door?
Theodora: [pointing to her right] That one.
Dr. John Markway: Wrong. I've studied the map, it's this one.
[goes to his right and walks straight into the broom cupboard]
Theodora: [noticing the large sculptures] You know, this could be a family portrait of us.
Eleanor Lance: Don't be ridiculous.
Theodora: You're the companion, I'm Abigail, uh, grown up, and Markway could be old Hugh.
Luke Sanderson: Where do I fit in?
Theodora: The dog.
[the group is huddled in the conservatory, Nell, Theo, and Markway are asleep as Luke enters and takes a drink from a liquor bottle, when the door suddenly slams shut by itself... waking everyone up]
Dr. John Markway: Why aren't you upstairs?
Luke Sanderson: I needed a drink.
[suddenly there are sounds of wind blowing and then distant yet distinct pounding footsteps are heard]
Dr. John Markway: Grace!
Luke Sanderson: Wait a minute! It's nowhere near the nursery... it's down here.
Theodora: Seems we've been on this kick before.
Eleanor Lance: Next vacation I must really go somewhere else!
[the pounding becomes louder and closer]
Eleanor Lance: [thinking; voice-over] It knows my name, this time it knows my name!
Dr. John Markway: I have to go out there.
Eleanor Lance: [shouting] No, No! It hasn't hurt me. Why should it hurt her?
Dr. John Markway: She might try to do something about it!
[the pounding stops]
Eleanor Lance: Is it over, Theo? Is it?
Theodora: No, I'm still cold. It's going to start everything all over again!
[the pounding resumes violently and loudly against the closed door]
Eleanor Lance: [screaming] It can't get in! It can't get in! Don't let it get in!
[the pounding stops and the door knob jiggles]
Eleanor Lance: [whimpering] God, it knows I'm here!
[the door begins to buckle and bend in on itself, Luke in his horror drops his bottle]
Luke Sanderson: Doc... I'll let you have the house cheap!
[the bulging door returns to normal, the wind is heard blowing again. Soon the pounding footsteps resume and head upstairs]
Eleanor Lance: [thinking to herself; voice-over] Go on and on and come back again until it finds me! On and on and on until it finds me!
Theodora: You've got foolishness and wickedness all mixed up.
Grace Markway: Didn't you see me?
Dr. John Markway: No, but Eleanor did and it nearly killed her.
Theodora: It DID kill her, seeing her's what made her crash the car.

Taglines

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  • You may not believe in ghosts, but you cannot deny terror.
  • An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.
  • SCREAM...no one will hear you! RUN...and the silent foosteps will follow, for in Hill House the dead are restless!

Cast

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