I am looking forward to this afternoon's lecture film, 'The Haunting'. I've never seen this original, but I have seen the remake a couple of times when I was younger. I would of thought the newest version has the same plot, which was a group of people suffering from sleeping disorders are invited to a house by a doctor, with him claiming he will be able to help them, however, it turns out that he is testing the affect of fear on the patients, to see how they react. I remember the film getting a bit strange, including parts with lots of crying children coming out of the walls. Hopefully, the one we're watching this afternoon is better.I'll update this post once we've watched it.

EDIT:

I thought the film was quite good, although the pace of it was slow in some places, especially the scenes which consisted of long-winded conversation. I tried to concentrate on the set-design, as Phil mentioned. The way it was filmed gave the house a very strong pressence throughout the film, especially with the first establishing shot of the house looming over the woman character. Once inside, the decoration was very cluttered and the rooms were filled with shiny objects and furniture, this gave the house a very strong personality, as well as a eery feeling. The was the plot unfolded was clever, as it allowed the viewer to choose a explanation, either the slightly more realist one of the main woman, Eleanor, loosing her mind and exaggerating noises and events in the house after the death of her mother or the second explanation: The house was 'haunted'.

The lighting also made the characters seemed trapped, the inside of the house was mostly bright and open, whereas the garden and outside the windows was very dark and unpleasent, almost as if the characters couldn't leave. The camera angles also created a horror feeling, as there were a few shots when the camera seemed to have been pushed a long the floor, or at one point near the end, up the spiral staircase. This made it seem as ifyou were looking through the view-point of something 'supernatural'. Overall, I quite enjoyed the film, it was much better than the recent one as it created suspense and the story was more believable.