The Haunting

Hill House is a New England mansion with a long, ugly history. It was built ninety years earlier by Hugh Crain — a stern man whose first wife died in a freak carriage accident as the family arrived; his second wife fell down the spiral staircase and died; his daughter Abigail spent her life in the nursery and died alone, after which her companion-nurse hanged herself in the library tower. The house has been considered haunted for generations.

Dr. John Markway, a paranormal investigator, secures permission from the current owner to study the house with a small team. He selects two participants for psychic sensitivity. Eleanor "Nell" Lance is a fragile, lonely woman in her thirties who spent eleven years caring for her dying mother and now has nowhere of her own. As a child, stones rained on her family's house in a poltergeist incident — the only event in her life that has ever been hers. Theodora "Theo" is glamorous, bohemian, telepathic, and sharp-tongued, recently separated from her female lover. The current heir, Luke Sanderson, joins as the family's representative — feckless and cynical.

The four arrive at Hill House. Markway recounts its history. Eleanor is unnerved from the moment she steps inside. The house has no straight angles. Doors close on their own. Cold spots gather in particular rooms.

That first night, Eleanor and Theo wake to a terrible pounding traveling down the hallway, increasing in force until the door to their room flexes as if something enormous is trying to get in. The men hear nothing — they had been outside chasing a figure across the lawn.

The phenomena escalate. A message appears written in chalk along a corridor: HELP ELEANOR COME HOME. Eleanor is horrified at being singled out, and at the same time begins to feel claimed by the house in a way she cannot resist. Her interior voice — the film's running narration — becomes increasingly dissociated. Theo's intuition picks up on Eleanor's instability and her growing infatuation with Markway. Their friendship strains.

Markway's wife Grace, a brisk skeptic, arrives unannounced and insists on sleeping in the nursery — the most "haunted" room. That night the house mounts its most aggressive event. Grace vanishes. The party searches for hours. They find her near-catatonic at the top of the rotting library spiral staircase — the same staircase where the second Mrs. Crain died.