robert wise's THE HAUNTING (1963)

it's all too true that they don't make 'em like they used to, just as it's true that Robert Wise managed to make this one like they wouldn't for years to come. The Haunting drags a little towards the beginning, sure, and could use more showing and less telling where Eleanor is concerned, but there's no denying the film's creepy power over the audience, just as there's no underestimating the presence of mind in Wise's craft; though the genre today scrapes by on a much lower brow, horror's hacks and heroes are all still taking cues from The Haunting's accomplishments.