Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch..
The Screamer: The Haunting
Legendary director Robert Wise helmed this iconic horror classic, based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by queer author Shirley Jackson. It also happens to feature one of the earliest–and most respectful–depictions of lesbianism in Hollywood history.
The Haunting follows the experiences of a small group of supernatural enthusiasts that spend a weekend together in a supposedly haunted house. Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) believes he can use the house to prove the existence of an afterlife and assembles a team of misfits to investigate. They include: his wife Grace (Lois Maxwell); Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn), heir to the Hill fortune; the psychic Theo (Claire Bloom); and Nell Lance (Julie Harris), a shy, guilt-ridden woman that has shown clairvoyant abilities. Tension mounts in the house as strange events transpire around the house, and as Nell’s sanity begins to waver. Is the house really haunted? Or is someone perpetrating an elaborate hoax?
The Haunting ratchets up suspense over the course of its runtime, relying more on character tensions and atmosphere than vulgar special effects. Director Wise knows to trust his actors to sell the material, starting with stage legend Harris, who gives a spectacular performance both heartbreaking and thrilling. In an even more unexpected twist, the movie also leans into the developing lesbian love affair between Nell and Theo. At one point, Theo even professes her lesbianism, and the movie makes her into a heroine of sorts–something almost unimaginable in 1963. Audiences and censors may not have even noticed at the time because the rest of the movie had them scared out of their minds. Even the 1999 remake couldn’t get away with featuring lesbianism, with Theo (played there by Catherine Zeta-Jones) only mentioning her bisexuality in passing (she also shows more interest in men, natch), and the movie eliminating hints of a gay romance.
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The Haunting endures as a horror classic, albeit one that doesn’t quite the credit it deserves as an unusual queer love story. Cinematic lions Martin Scorsese and Steven Speilberg have both named The Haunting as one of the scariest movies ever made, while we praise it for its depiction of gay love. We recommend it for the queerness, for the performances led by Harris’, and for its master class level use of psychological terror. Here’s a movie both scary and romantic as Hell.
Streams on Amazon, YouTube, iTunes & VUDU.
Wheelerman
I never found this film scary. My gaydar is off because I never saw any covert lesbian content. It is a letdown for me as a ghost story.
wikidBSTN
I think you meant “overt” – not “covert”.
RyanMBecker
wikidBSTN,
No, I think he did indeed meant, “covert.” If the lesbianism was “overt,” then he wouldn’t have needed a Gaydar™ to detect it. Covert = hidden, Overt = open, explicitly stated
HankHarris
mmm, Nell appreciates Theo’s attention because she’s lonely and sheltered. There isn’t any hint that she might return Theo’s affection (which are little more that flirting, there’s no real profession of love. The Hill House to lone is the Mike Flanagan version on Netflix.
BaltoSteve
I love this movie much to the husband’s chagrin.
HankHarris
Its a great movie – it was on heavy rotation in the 80s on Cinemax so I saw it often. I still watch it every year around Halloween. Julie and Claire are great.
RyanMBecker
I love old movies, and enjoy being scared now and then, but The Haunting does nothing for me. And it’s not because it lacks jump scares. In fact, I hate jump scares, which I find cheap and lazy. That’s why I especially love Asian horror, which rely more on an overwhelming sense of dread and forboding then jump scares or gore. Yet The Haunting just didn’t hold my interest. Maybe because I love lesbian porn and the movie failed to deliver. Heh. Russ Tamblyn, with his curly hair, was cute though. Heh again.
Jim
Check out the book (Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson). My favorite issue is the psychological aspects. The “horror” was subdued.
Alas, the remake was about special effects.
HankHarris
Ugg the remake with Lily Taylor and Catherine Zeta Jones was beyond awful. Mike Flanagan’s reimagining of The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix was good, like most Netflix series at least one episode too long – but it had a fully realized lesbian character in Theo. Some great scares but also a lot of heart.
Preppy1000
I LOVE this film! I’ve seen it many times and own it on DVD. I was lucky enough to see it up a revival theatre in the 1990s. The audience was screaming and jumping more than once 🙂 Theo is indeed a lesbian but (aside from one scene) it’s not really addressed. In fact she’s called “a mistake of nature”! Still her character is strong, brave and heroic and that’s obviously a good thing. However “The Haunting” is about scares not lesbian love.