A blog by Jorge Garcia.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Haunting ('63) Even Scarier


So it was Halloween. Figured I'd set the mood with a classic: The Haunting. It's freaked me out many times before.

But this time. it wasn't the ghosts that scared the crap out of me. The main character Nell says she sleeps on her left side because it wears her heart out faster.

What?! Is this true? Why didn't I know this BEFORE we picked sides of bed?
You know how hard it is to switch which side you sleep on (bed or body)?
I couldn't even lay on the couch without thinking I'm slowly killing myself. I was going to have to sleep head-to-toe.

Well that is until I googled it and found that there really was no proven correlation. Crisis averted.

48 comments:

Eugen Caitaz said...

Hello Jorge if you read my last post you need to look the trailer wich is there!!!

In Halloween i saw film "tHE mIST"---very scared film!!!

Eugen Caitaz said...

Sometimes I think what you and I -we think about the same! it's great! What I write today, you write tomorrow! You understand me??

Hilario Abad said...

I haven't seen "The Haunting" yet... I'll get a copy from my library.

Nene said...

i dont know this movie??
good scary movies are rare, i will give it a try.

Lisa-Maladylis said...

so glad you avoided that one ! Whew. lol had me thinking about which side of the bed I sleep on there for a minute lol

Lisa said...

omg! is that Davy Jones?!

Petra said...

Thank you for my morning giggle!

: ) P

Jules said...

Awww... geez... that makes me wonder if sleeping on the left side of the bed will kill me... thanks for bringing that to my attention.

www.thecrazydaisies.wordpress.com said...

Especially since they tell pregnant women to sleep on their left sides!!!!!! If the kids don't kill ya, the sleeping will. :)

Alisha Rene' said...

LMAO! never saw the film, but if that's what scares you now, you should be concerned ;) HAHAHAHAHA

MandaK said...

Sounds like a great Myth for the Mythbusters to test!

B.R said...

You are slowly killing yourself as you LIVE, so no problem with the left side.

cjcat said...

I love this movie and the book is even better. Shirley Jackson is underrated but then so are most of the best horror writers.

I heard, years ago, not to sleep on your face or you would get wrinkles. I tried to train myself to sleep flat on my back but I could never get comfortable. I'm older now and I don't have a lot of wrinkles so I guess it was as much bull as the left side wears your heart out faster.

Judy in Indiana said...

Pregnant women are told it is good for them to sleep on their left side and even when in distressed labor, the doc had me lay on my left side. Something about good blood flow? I don't remember, but it is supposed to be good for you.

Tammy said...

It's scary that you are watching horror movies and picking up health tips :) Do you know what they say about believing what you see on tv?
My scary movie is one that I saw when I was 7-I have no idea what the name is, it just scared me to death. It was something about a cruise ship and blood came out of the shower-for many many years I hated taking shutting my eyes while washing my hair-just in case the water turned to blood.
Do you have any idea what movie this is?

CrysMir said...

I was told that it is good for your circulation to lay/sleep on your left side and that it is good for your digestion to lay/sleep on your right side.

RHulsey said...

That would have caused me to sleep on my right side for the rest of my life.

cjcat said...

Do you have any idea what movie this is?

I am such a horror movie nerd. I think you are talking about "Death Ship" a B horror movie from 1980.

Here's a clip on youtube.
Here's the imdb link.

jennY said...

An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there... walked alone

yellowdoggranny said...

never live your life from what you learn in a horror movie..except that part about not going back for your girl or best friend if the zombies get them..they're gone and if you go back you'll just have to kill them..no really..this is true.

Sara said...

Oh, thank God. Glad you researched it. I was really about to FREAK OUT! Whew! Seriously, I sleep on my left side all the time. Not cool.

Acacia said...

Thank the Internet Gods for Google. Where would we be without it???

sarda Patchs/maryanne said...

I think about that ALL the time! Thanks for the google search. Left side sleepers UNITE!

Bethany James Leigh Shady said...

okay, first of all, that movie was NOT scary at all. maybe back in the day, but it didn't hold up like "the shining" or "amityville horror".

second of all, the man of the house is supposed to sleep closest to the bedroom door, that's why you're on the side of the bed you're on. that way if a murderer comes in in the night, you die first while i get to escape! it's called chivalry.

third of all, there is NO way i'm sleeping head to toe with my face next to your dirty huck finn feets.

love you!

beth :)

Nene said...

HEHEHE that was a good one, let´s see if jorge answers to that : )

Goof said...

I watched that movie on Halloween one night years ago and it was AWESOME!!! I still refer to that movie as being the best kind of scary movie. It relied on suspense and letting you use your imagination. Thats a lost art form now. Todays movies are all blood, guts and gore and are pathetic.

Oh and I sleep on my left. Good to know its not a problem :p

Malea said...

You and Beth seem to deserve each other. And I mean that as a compliment. Thank goodness for Google, right? Now if everyone would start using Snopes before they forward me their doom and gloom emails, then my email box would be a happier place....Hey, have you tried "The Changeling"? (Not the Angelina Jolie one) It's about 30 years old. It's a classic scary for me.

Unknown said...

Ha, ha! All of October was classic horror movies for me and The Haunting was one of them. It was my first time watching the original.

Unknown said...

Sorry for the second post.

Malea, The Changling was one of the ones I watched, too.

I've been watching movies off the list of Bravo's 100 scariest movie moments.

I sleep on my right. Unfortunately for me, that's bad for acid reflux.

Deborah Godin said...

That was such a classic scary movie, and for me, far better in than the 1999 CGI rehash of it. Scariest of all is Shirley Jackson's original book, The Haunting of Hill House.

Michael Couchman said...

I'm totally going to make a solid effort to watch this movie. Been looking for something freaky and I haven't seen this yet!


www.michaelcouchman.com

Rowie68 said...

Wow... I just watched this movie for the first time the week before Halloween! Didn't scare me. Unfortunately I can't get scared the way I used to when I was young. Now only not being able to pay the bills or health issues scare me. LOL. But the best line from the movie is when Nell drives up to Hill House for the first time and while looking at it thinks, "Its staring at me." Great line!

Michelangelo said...

I heard that when I was about 13 years old and switched sides. Then I got in nursing school and heard that sleeping on the right strains the kidneys! (Very minimally, and usually only in pregnancy.)

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

*~Dani~* said...

Beth needs to come over to my house and talk to my husband. I sleep on the side by the door. No one is protecting me from any murderers unless you count our very big cat.

I am screwed.

James Hernandez said...

Jorge,

I have never actually watched "The Haunting.' Maybe its something I should put on my 'do' list!

Unknown said...

is this orignial version of the haunting that scary? the remake w/owen wilson and kathrine Z-Jones was oookaaaay... kind of kookie if you as me. i guess i don't see old movies as scary.

Lynn Faruque said...

That movie scared the crap out of me.

Oh yeah, how do you ever change sides of the bed when you get used to one? No way.

Lyn said...

LOL Jorge! But seriously - you're right about this original version of The Haunting..... I never even saw the remake because I knew it couldn't match the psychological terror of this one. And Beth is right about the man sleeping near the door....

groovymom said...

I'm pretty sure if you're having a heart attack, they lay you on your left side. Also true about the preggers thing. I think it's actually laying on the right side that is a problem. (If memory serves me, I think it puts pressure on some artery or something - and it can be dangerous.) Google that, just to check!

PEACE!

Christina Bauer said...

Google to the rescue! Good to know we don't have anything to worry about.

cc said...

One of my all time favorites! To this day it scares me.. When she thinks her friend is in bed next to her holding her hand... but... but.. Well, you know the rest, don't want to spoil it for everyone.. The left side thing - I also remember seeing a mention in an old WC Fields movie about this. The wife nagged (told) him not to sleep on his left side, bad for his heart. I have a hard time on my left side (of body, not bed) sometimes the heart does little flip-floppy things..

Jennifer said...

When our daughter was born, it was early September but still hot enough to need the A/C, which I sleep nearest. Since we had her in a bassinet by our bed, we switched sides for the first month of her life.

It was HORRID: not only were we sleep deprived from having a newborn, but we were both all discombobulated by the switching.

But at least we weren't too hot. Gak.

Karla said...

I first saw The Haunting when I was 12, scared the crap out of me, the part where she is on that shaky spiral staircase still freaks me out! Oh hell, the whole movie freaks me out! Awesome!

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Prissy said...

I watched The Haunting when I was around 13. The whole sleeping on the left side thing scared me so much that for a long time after that I sometimes woke up in the middle of the night and thought I was going to die because I accidentally changed positions during the night. Yikes.

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MissusDe said...

Oh, excellent choice. The Haunting scared the crap out of me when I first saw it. The part that got me was when the girls are in bed and are scared to pieces, and they reach across to hold each other's hands for comfort. In the morning, one of the girls finds out the other one hadn't been sleeping in the room with her after all ... and she says, "Who was holding my hand??!?"

Here's some trivia for you: the movie was based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House, written by Shirley Jackson - who also wrote The Lottery. (She's one of my favorite authors ever).

Elizabeth Treisner said...

I love that movie - barely anyone seems to know about it though!