209 - The Uninvited

    A man and his sister buy a house on a cliff by the sea.  It turns out to be haunted.  With the help of the prior owner’s daughter, they unravel the mystery behind the ghost.
    I saw this listed as one of the few Criterion horror releases.  I hadn’t heard of it, but it must be worthwhile…
    It’s from 1944.  This means that I have a hard time telling if my expectations are reasonable or not.  It’s dated.  The conventions regarding the handling of supernatural stories hadn’t been fleshed out.  One of the things that the wiki article mentions is that it was the first Hollywood film to play a haunting as a supernatural event, rather than a comedic one.  This is implied by the score, which is remarkably upbeat and lighthearted for most of the movie.
    There are other things… like the premise involving a man and his sister buying a house together.  The man being interested in the daughter of the seller is a little odd, because the ages seem very different.  Later, it’s announced that the daughter is 20, so I suppose that’s alright.  I thought she was supposed to be somewhere between 16-18, but that may have been because of how the grandfather was treating her.
    I can see the influence this movie had, particularly on movies like The Innocents and The Haunting.  The story unfolds in a similar way to most of the other haunted house movies I’ve seen.  Even the trope about animals being aware of ghosts.
    There are some strong points here.  The house, the location, is great.  The layout of the house is great, and the main haunted room is really neat.  The script is fun, if a little slow by modern standards.  The effects work is really good for the time period.
    It’s interesting, at least from a cinematic historical perspective.  I can’t imagine watching it again.  I really wish Criterion would do a nice treatment for The Haunting though.

    Also notable is the fact that the piece Stella By Starlight first appeared in this film.