Made in 1963, the original version of The Haunting comes closer to the book that inspired it, The Haunting of Hill House.

written by Shirley Jackson (who wrote that awesome story "The Lottery" every one of you probably had to read in your freshmen English class). It was directed by Robert Wise, who also directed the awesome The Day the Earth Stood Still. The film stars Claire Bloom, Julie Harris, Russ Tamblyn and Richard Johnson.

This version of The Hauntingdiffers from the remake in many ways. While the general plot is the same- four individuals spend time at an allegedly haunted house as part of a professor's experiments and one of them succumbs to the forces in the house- many things are different.

The plot twist at the end of the remake, concerning Nell being a descendant of Crane's isn't there (praise the Lord, that ruined the movie even more), nor does Luke die in the original. The ending to the original version is almost verbatim from the book (except that Doctor Markway's wife wasn't out wandering through the woods), while the new version's ending is...just cheesy.

Yet the most pronounced difference between the two is the tone. The remake is your standard, run-of-the mill big budget, "let's pander to an audience with an attention span of an earthworm," horror film, complete with special effects and unnecessary gore. The original is far more psychological in nature, giving it more in common with the book that inspired it. While the technology for the special effects of the remake didn't exist back in 1963, the original comes across far more chilling than it's predecessor, once again proving that big budget special effects do not a good movie make.