maybe the best haunted house i’ve ever seen onscreen? every piece of furniture, every wall hanging and cornice and mantelpiece and end table, even the shapes of the windows and doors — everything contributes to the suffocating sense of the unreal and abnormal. you would go mad in this house even before the ghosts laid their hands on you. an absolute triumph of set design and filmmaking, and so profoundly unsettling in a way that few horror films are. wise’s camerawork and editing is crucial to creating the feeling that there’s something unspeakably vile lurking behind every corner, a clawed hand clamped over its mouth to stifle its demonic laughter. the big scare sequences are restrained and utterly chilling: no cheap tricks, just pure dread. i haven’t been so terrified by knocking since the first conjuring. the lead performance by julie harris is in its own way just as claustrophobic as the atmosphere of the house itself. her inner monologue repeats and goes in circles and her interactions with the other characters are layered with strange notes of rage and repressed lust. it’s exhausting to be in her head but the movie never lets us out of it until it’s too late. what’s scariest to me about the film is not the concept of a house that’s steeped in elemental evil but the idea that ordinary life can drive you so mad with loneliness and grief that to exist for eternity as a cursed specter might be preferable. at least you’d have company.