[This is movie #23 in my Hooptober 2023 watch.]

Finally got to see this on the big screen — I had been looking forward to seeing what a theatrical presentation might heighten about the movie, what it might make more intense or interesting. And the answer is: Absolutely nothing. It's still very good! Just not a particularly compelling theatrical experience for me, and not nearly as creepy or interesting as many other haunted house/ghost story films to me.

To me, this whole movie hinges around Julie Harris's Nell and Claire Bloom's Theodora. They're the center of the whole thing and their performances are both my favorite in the entire film. Markway was never particularly interesting to me as a character and while I love Russ Tamblyn, his smarmy college kid/house owner is just a silly caricature that doesn't add much, either. The characters in this are just never that interesting to me, and I think that's the central problem with it. It's a fun and interesting ghost story/haunted house story, but the house doesn't feel nearly menacing enough without characters who you actually care about being imperiled.

That said, it's stunningly filmed and constructed. There are a number of visual tricks that I appreciated — what look like split diopters or some other kind of deep focus approach that make foreground and background stay in focus; occasional use of backgrounds to present unsettling commentary on characters' internal states; some good ol' fashioned dutch angles. Wise did a great job of managing both the actors and the space in ways that works to be somewhat unsettling. Not actually scary at all to me, but unsettling.

I was disappointed that the scene with the loud sounds in the hallway never came off as scary or interesting. I had high hopes that this scene, which was so central to the movie, would feel different in a theater with a real stereo system. Alas, it didn't. The bending/breathing door, though? That looked awesome, and was really great to see.

I still have never read the Shirley Jackson source material and I know I'm many years behind in finally getting around to it. I have a handful of Jackson books and should probably read them. I wonder if knowing the source material would let me enjoy this film more for what it is alluding to rather than what is on the screen. I like the movie, I think it's good, but not one of my very, very favorites.