Chelsea Alexandra
For centuries, haunted houses have fascinated us. Stories of ghosts roaming the halls of a grand Victorian home at night, causing the floorboards to groan. Every whisper of the wind hitting the windows sends chills down your spine. The anxiety makes your heart race with the anticipation that something could be creeping just around the corner. Haunted houses have always embodied the fear of the unknown. From ancient folklore to modern urban legends, haunted houses have persisted in our cultural consciousness as places that challenge our sense of safety and rationality. They are eerie reflections of our deepest fears and suggest that something beyond our comprehension is watching and waiting. They manifest as creaking floorboards, flickering lights, or cold drafts, and they tap into our fear of what we cannot control.
For Eleanor Lance in 1963’s The Haunting, the terror of Hill House is as much about the unknown within herself as it is about the paranormal forces lurking in the mansion. Eleanor’s entire life has been shaped by isolation, repression, and a lack of identity. When she arrives at Hill House, she is desperate for a place to belong. What once was a haunted house becomes a mirror for Eleanor’s fears. Hill House amplifies her insecurities and her longing for connection.
The Haunting, directed by Robert Wise, remains a landmark in the horror genre. Adapted from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, the film explores themes of isolation, fear, and the fragility of the mind. The story begins with Dr. John Markway (played by Richard Johnson), a paranormal investigator, who assembles a team to stay with him at Hill House. The eerie and decaying Hill House is known for its mysterious murders and paranormal activity. Dr. Markway seeks out the current owner to ask permission for him and his team to stay in the house. He is looking to study the paranormal occurrences that may happen while he is there. Permission is granted and Dr. Markway brings with him the future heir of Hill House, Luke Sanderson (played by Russ Tamblyn), a psychic by the name of Theodora (played by Claire Bloom), and finally, a shy and emotionally fragile woman who is grieving the very recent loss of her mother, Eleanor Lance (played by the sensational Julie Harris).
Through Eleanor’s eyes in The Haunting, we experience the unsettling presence of Hill House. The tension, anxiety, and overall horror of The Haunting are driven by Eleanor’s psychological state. When we are first introduced to Eleanor, she is living with her sister, sleeping on the living room couch after the passing of her mother only two months prior. She spent much of her life caring for her mother who was very demanding of Eleanor’s time. It alienated Eleanor from having any normal adult independence and at the bare minimum, purpose.
With little to call her own and a family that treats her as an inconvenience, Eleanor’s journey to Hill House is fueled by a desperate hope that this experience might give her meaning. It is when she arrives at Hill House that she begins to feel a sense of belonging, freedom, and adventure. In a sense, she is arriving with rose-colored glasses on. She sees this place as a chance to finally escape her past, to break free from her life of caretaking and repression. The house, in turn, seems to sense her vulnerability. From the moment she steps into the house, Hill House comes alive.
Hill House is far more than just a setting in The Haunting; it is a living, breathing entity with a dark will. There is a pulsating dark energy within its halls. As soon as it feels Eleanor, it is eager to cling. Immediately the house begins whispering and manipulating Eleanor’s perception. It slowly starts to alter her reality and the true intentions of her stay.
It is made very clear from the moment Eleanor steps foot into the house that she romanticizes this as a “much-needed vacation”. There are many times when Dr. Markway has to bring her back to reality about what they are doing at Hill House. It is not a vacation, it is an experiment. Eleanor’s love for Hill House is also tied to her desperate desire to be important to someone or something. In her mind, the house chooses her, singles her out as special, and makes her feel significant. It is one of the first times she feels important.
A false sense of “want”, gives her a sense of confidence to reinvent herself. However, this confidence is entwined with desperation and the need to feel wanted. She starts to dress with more care and more put together. It is both a signal of feeling both confident and desperate to be seen. She wants her fellow group members to see her. She isn’t seeking someone’s attention. She is seeking anyone’s attention. However, the one who notices her new clothes is Theodora. She takes notice of Eleanor’s pleas to be seen. Theodora’s observations serve as a warning sign, both to Eleanor and to the audience. There is something deeper and more troubling taking place. From the moment they meet, Theodora is very protective of Eleanor and cares deeply for the troubled woman. However, because of Theodora’s perceptive and intuitive gifts, she fears for Eleanor and what will become of her the longer she stays in Hill House.
The relationship between Theodora and Eleanor is emotionally charged from the moment they meet. There is tension between the two when they are at odds but also as they develop a deep emotional connection. It is impossible to discuss Eleanor’s need for acceptance and escapism without discussing her relationship with Theodora. Eleanor is attracted to the person Theodora is but in that same breath, she is envious of her. Theodora represents everything that Eleanor wishes she could be: a free woman. Her freedom is everything that Eleanor has been repressing for so many years. Theodora often tries to draw Eleanor out of her shell. There is a playfulness in their relationship, especially with Theodora’s teasing. This confuses Eleanor and puts her in her own thoughts even more. Her inability to pick up on Theodora’s playfulness provides Eleanor with a feeling of rejection which triggers her fragile mental state. This relationship causes Eleanor to become more vulnerable and allows the house to sink its claws deeper into her psyche.
Theodora’s attention to Eleanor feels both affectionate and possessive. It hints that there is a deeper emotional attraction to Eleanor. Their interactions are laced with a subtle flirtation that suggests to be true.
Like most films of its time, The Haunting uses queer coding to portray characters whose identities were not openly discussed or represented in mainstream cinema. Explicitly queer characters were almost non-existent in Hollywood at this time due to strict censorship laws and societal norms. However, that didn’t mean these characters weren’t present; they existed in other ways.
Theodora’s queerness is implied and makes her relationship with Eleanor complex and heavily queer-coded. Eleanor’s ambivalence toward Theodora hints at her sexual confusion. Her jealousy, and mood swings when it comes to Theodora, can be read as signs of her grappling with suppressed attraction. Eleanor’s fear of embracing her attraction to Theodora parallels her fear of the house’s supernatural forces. The house “haunts” her just as much as her own internalized repression.
While at breakfast, Dr. Markway asks Eleanor about her “dark romantic secrets”. He tells her that he would have thought she would be hiding some dark romantic secrets from her past, to which she laughs off and simply answers, “Romantic? I’ve spent all my adult life taking care of my invalid mother.” It is a playful question that hits Eleanor at her core. It touches on her longing for connection and intimacy. Dr. Markway tells Eleanor she should not waste her time at Hill House with this newfound freedom. Still, Eleanor never sees Hill House as the problem. It is her escape, the one thing keeping her going because of its “potential”. It is the solution to all of her problems.
This moment of vulnerability she shares with Dr. Markway is sensed by the house immediately. The care that Dr. Markway shows Eleanor changes her perspective of him. It is when she begins to latch a romantic admiration onto him. It is the same admiration that is subtly coded into the relationship between her and Theodora. However, you wonder if these are authentic feelings. The audience is led to question Eleanor’s authenticity. Does Eleanor develop a crush on Dr. Markway or does she want to feel love from anyone who will show her an ounce of attention? This is when we see a shift in Dr. Markway’s perception of Eleanor, becoming more concerned for her fragile mental state. He begins to second-guess her stay and susceptibility to Hill House.
During this same scene, Eleanor prompts Theodora with a question about her fears. Theodora turns to Eleanor and says,“Of knowing what I want.” When looking at the response through a queer lens, it deepens the subtext of their relationship and Theodora’s queerness. It is evident that Theodora also wants to be accepted; however, she is not as vulnerable. She fears facing or admitting those feelings and hides behind a wall. However, Eleanor wears her thoughts on her sleeves according to Theodora early on in the film. It is a subtle moment but a turning point in the story. This significant moment shows Eleanor’s vulnerabilities and lays them out for the audience. It is a moment where she isn’t shy and tells the group her intentions and needs. It solidifies her stance on Hill House and her eagerness to stay in the house of horrors.
The Haunting has its audience questioning whether the haunts and supernatural occurrences are real. Most of the time you even question whether it is a projection of Eleanor’s fragility. The lines become blurred to Eleanor and become blurred to its viewer. Her hallucinations, paranoia, and increasing delusions blur the line between reality and madness. As the camera zooms uncomfortably on Eleanor, creating great tension, her inner monologue often does most of the talking. In her head, she is unraveling and her obsession with Hill House is rapidly growing.
A recurring theme in her monologue is her belief that the house is speaking to her and calling her home. Instead, it could be Eleanor is an unreliable protagonist, which is hard to say. Luke Sanderson, the soon-to-be heir of Hill House, finds a message written in Chalk saying, “HELP ELEANOR COME HOME”. When Luke finds the message on a wall, he immediately shows Dr. Markway and Theodora. Her response to the chalked message is one of both empathy and protective instinct. Above all else, it is in Theodora’s nature to want to protect Eleanor. Theodora is intuitive to Hill House’s malevolent nature and wants to protect Eleanor’s vulnerable mind.
There is a shared concern for Eleanor’s well-being, yet an underlying tension exists as each character grapples with their feelings towards her and the house. While they may come together to support her, they also harbor their fears for her well-being. Dr. Markway shows great concern for Eleanor. His concern for her well-being is more so about preserving the authenticity of his experiment. He understands her very emotional and vulnerable state given her mother’s recent passing. Her mental instability in his eyes, is a liability. Having her at Hill House may cause people to see that his research at Hill House has no standing due to Eleanor’s presence. He also wants to protect Eleanor from the paranormal activity. He grapples with whether to send her home or allow her to stay vulnerable to Hill House.
Up to the end of The Haunting, the audience is left to question what was real and what was not. Was there a trueparanormal presence within Hill House or was this all a projection of Eleanor’s mental state? The tragic fate that meets Eleanor is sealed by her need to be free and less repressed. It doesn’t matter if that means losing herself entirely to the darkness of Hill House. The phrase “Help Eleanor come home” becomes a haunting reminder of her unfulfilled feelings and her psychological unraveling. Hill House, a character in its own right, embodies both her dreams and nightmares.
The film masterfully weaves together themes of psychological turmoil and supernatural terror. The Haunting transcends its status as a horror film; it invites viewers to reflect on the universal human experience of longing for a place to call home and the profound consequences that can arise from that quest.
