Happy Goat Horror

Dark bleatings, my beloved tribe! The Haunting is one of my favourite ghost films, right up there in the Top 5 for sure. Not that remake… the original, of course! Behold my 5 favourite fun facts!

5. Did you know… that the supposed errors are intentional?

Fans (picky ones, like me) have gone to great lengths over the years to highlight the many continuity errors throughout the film. You can find conversations about them around the Interwebs. However, many of them are not mistakes at all, but intentional oddities intended to disorientate the viewer. Eleanor isn’t well, and spends a lot of the film confused and frightened, and so these “errors” are supposed to help place the viewer in a similar state of mind to make imprinting on the protagonist more seamless. I’ve a theory that this inspired Stanely Kubrick to do the same thing when he made The Shining, because you’ll find many weird irregularities when you watch that, too.

My favourite example of this is a scene in which sunlight is streaming through one window, but in the same room, the view from another window shows us it’s night.

4. Did you know… the depression depicted wasn’t all an act?

Julie Harris, who played Eleanor, was unfortunately suffering with depression in real life during filming. Several of the cast commented that they thought she was antisocial, but later on, Harris revealed that she often cried between takes, and intentionally kept herself isolated from the cast in order to enhance her performance, and the way the others responded to her on camera.

3. Did you know… Theodora is gay?

I’m sure you probably do know that, it’s not a secret. In 1963, they couldn’t very well just go ahead and make it obvious, because back then people were still prejudiced dickheads. I say “back then” but I still hear people comment that they “have no problem with the gays but what if the kids see them on TV?!” Because God forbid we have characters that reflect a range of real-life people. But I digress (sorry, the topic makes me mad).

Theodora’s sexuality is implied, but the filmmakers were afraid of making it obvious, lest there be complaints. They were so afraid of this, in fact, that they cut a scene from the final edit in which Theo discusses breaking up with her partner. Apparently, it was too explicit! I’m over here clutching my pearls at the mere thought, good heavens!

One of the many reasons that I love Mike Flanagan is because he went ahead and stayed true to the source material in his limited series adaptation of the source material, but without fear of backlash. Theo is such a great character and deserves to be seen and loved!

2. Did you know… the characters talk over each other a lot?

I mean, you will probably have noticed that if you watched the film. It’s a writing technique seldom used in cinema, because it confuses the viewer and frustrates the cast. Which was the point, in this case. Also, though it can be irritating to try to follow the simultaneous conversations of two sets of people, it is a much more naturalistic way of writing dialogue, if you’re trying to create realism.

1. Did you know… they considered setting the whole film in Eleanor’s mind?

I am SO glad that they ditched this idea, but it was discussed. The idea was to shoot the film and then reveal that Eleanor was in a hospital the whole time, imagining everything, with all the scary noises actually caused by the surrounding patients. Thankfully, Robert Wise (the director) scrapped this idea in favour of staying true to the book, which is a ghost story.

Do you know any cool facts about The Haunting? Either the original or the remake, I’d love to hear them!