10 Horror Films With Terrifying Sound Design
9. The Haunting (1963)
Not to be confused with the rather awful 1999 remake of the same name, the original 1963 version of The Haunting comes to us curtesy of four-time Oscar-winning director Robert Wise and writer Nelson Gidding, Wise's frequent collaborator.
An adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s chilling novel The Haunting Of Hill House, the film follows a group of strangers partake in an experiment led by an esteemed professor (Richard Johnson) to determine whether the supposedly haunted Hill House really is haunted.
During their stay, plenty of strange phenomena is observed around the house as Eleanor (Julie Harris), one of the guests invited to the study, gradually becomes obsessed with the house despite her initial worries. Unlike the 1999 version, the real horror of this film comes from its ambiguity. Is the house as evil as its history suggests, or are these occurrences a result of Eleanor’s deteriorating mental health?
A spine-tingling Gothic marvel, The Haunting utilises its sound design to play on the ambiguous nature of its premise. Pipes rattle and doors bang as if the house is alive. And in one famous scene disembodied whispers and laughter echoes through the night.
Ghosts or not, the effect is chilling either way.