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Simply Perfect

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

As with the Berkeley commentator, I too saw The Haunting of M in its theatrical release, likely after a favorable review by Siskel and Ebert. I remember a cold night, no drizzle. I remember a theater in San Francisco, somewhere in the Northpoint area. Three of us saw it, and we were all quite impressed. It had what is now considered an 'indy' feel. I don't think I ever connected the director with any film since, though I've seen a few of them (El Norte, Mi Familia -- both in the Pasadena area on the strength of friends there). I definitely remember the rocking chair, the bare visibility of its movement. I remember an old photo the characters commented on, where a blurred figure in the crowd photographed 'must have moved' to account for its indistinctness. This was very atmospheric, and really more aesthetically 'fit' than many. It's hard to get honestly scary; for me, haunted houses and hauntings generally do the trick, and this is one of the top half-dozen, whatever its budget

I saw this movie over 20 years ago, but with a few others still haunts me. The music of Chopin and Janacek, together with the sepia dark images works very effective on your emotions and mood. Years after I can still feel the effects of this movie with the final epitome when the ghost tries to take the haunted M with him (to the world of ghosts?). A soft wind can be heard blowing through the trees, the music quite soft, sombre and romantic, the light is almost absent: all is set for this final important moment in the movie.Together with the earlier movies of Ingmar Bergman, Antonioni and the also forgotten masterpiece of Schlöndorff "Die Fällschung" (destruction of Beirut), I rank this movie to the highest order of the art.

I was going to write a review, but I found that rrichr had already done it, better than I would have. The film is absolutely perfect, in my opinion, and it's a scandal that it's not available. Twenty-some years after seeing it, in a theater full of Christmas shoppers, I still remember that no one went out to get popcorn or drinks. I doubt that anyone left to go to the bathroom. Parents with children were in the audience, and there was no disturbance. The film eschews all the gore and guts and cheap effects (i.e. it's anti-DePalma) but delivers the goods: see it once, and you'll never forget it.To rrichr's selection of that haunting scene with the rocking chair, I want to add the scene where the women get in the rowboat, where a boatman is waiting. You know exactly what's coming next, but when it comes, and they look up to see you-know-who rowing their boat, you damn near lose it anyway. (Perhaps that explains why no one left to use the bathroom.)This is a jewel, and if anyone finds it and buys it on my recommendation, then decides it wasn't worth it, I'll buy it from them. But that ain't going to happen. If the film has a flaw, I'm damned if I can see it.

I had the good fortune to have seen `The Haunting of M' during its brief theatrical run. It was on an appropriately atmospheric, drizzly Berkeley evening in the now defunct Northside Theatre, a great little two-screen house that could probably have been shoehorned into an average-sized garage. I‘ve never forgotten this remarkable film. Unfortunately for me, and for all fans of the supernatural/ghost story film, it's unavailable, in video or any other medium, a fact that I confirmed during a very pleasant e-mail exchange, some months back, with Anna Thomas, the director (and wife of cinematographer Gregory Nava, who shot this film). Apparently even Ms. Thomas herself no longer has a copy. Having seen many films of this genre, I can say, without the slightest reservation, that `The Haunting of M' stands firmly in its front rank. Sadly, it will probably never be seen again. Given the demands of the stunned-by-overload market that drives much of the film industry's output, films like this may never even be made again. Although years have passed since I saw it, I can remember moments from the film vividly, as though I had seen them just a few days ago. `The Haunting of M' is a compact monument to what can be accomplished when a good story is handled with sensitivity and solid cinematic mechanics.In `The Haunting of M', a 19th family is stalked by the ghost of a former resident of the area, a young man who died, in some tragic way as I recall, before he was able to marry. The young man's spirit has become enamored of one of the family's daughters, whose first name begins with the letter M. The ghost is first discovered hovering just visibly in a family photograph that was taken in an earlier scene, gazing longingly at the object of his affection. His outdated attire signals that, although he might be `there', he is probably not from then. The deceased presence is recognized by someone who knew him in life and speculation begins. At first, the family plays down this incident but their maid knows better. She has been aware for some time that `something walks the night'. Gradually, the ghost makes its presence and plans more evident.As this film is now out of circulation, it's safe to share one stunning scene. A sibling of the haunted daughter hears the sister moaning, apparently during a nightmare, and enters her room to find the ghost seated in a rocking chair at the foot of her bed, staring at the sleeping girl. The sibling recoils in fright and the ghost vanishes, leaving the chair rocking gently. The scene was shot in very low light (the film is in color), at the edge of the film's ability to capture images. Not many film makers would take the risk of shooting a scene in which the central characters in the scene were almost invisible. Some parts of `The Godfather' were shot in quite muted light, using basically ambient lighting, giving the visuals an evocative sepia tone. This was considered something of a breakthrough in lighting design for the time. But the rocking chair scene in `The Haunting of M' was almost pitch black in comparison, and in this aspect lay its chilling impact. If you've ever been afraid of the dark, maybe one of those times during childhood when you were awake, but afraid to even open your eyes, this scene had the power to hurl you back to that place in an instant. There were no special effects, no fright masks leaping out, yet the scene resonated with relentless, supernatural intent. The spirit of the young man had entered the bedroom of the maiden. There was no turning back.The film makers used another very effective device to excellent effect: the appearance of the entity in daylight. They were not the first to employ this approach, but they put a fascinating spin on their version. This approach can make powerful statement as it implies that the spirit's motivations are so coherent that they resist even the light of day. In one of the early scenes in `Night of the Living Dead', a classic in its own way, but primitive compared to `The Haunting of M', it is still daylight when the first zombie of many lurches into the visible background in a rural cemetery. The protagonists are engaged in a trivial spat as the zombie approaches unseen. It's possibly the best and most frightening scene in the entire movie.Ms. Thomas and Mr. Nava went on to make the heart-rending `El Norte', which examines the lives of a teenaged brother and sister, undocumented refugees from a disintegrating Central American country, whose lacerated innocence meets its own disintegration in present-day Southern California. `The Haunting of M' is certainly not `El Norte'. It's an entirely different type of movie. But inside its particular and elegantly spooky envelope, its quality is unimpeachable. Its humanity is more stylized, as it must be in a period piece, but no less real. The film was beautifully photographed, in a natural, Vermeer-esque light. This, coupled with the restrained performances of its cast, gave `The Haunting of M' an unadorned quality, like an Amish hat. Films of this type will never appeal to adrenaline junkies, but this calm approach also throws up the most minimal of barriers between the screen and the viewer. One is gently drawn in. Everything becomes that much more real by implication. So it was with this modest yet excellent film. But when the time came for the scaries to begin, `The Haunting of M' absolutely delivered the goods.