For some time I have been willing to write about this - very underrated - horror score by the late maestro Jerry Goldsmith. The Haunting was a pleasant if not downright very scary movie in 1999. One of the definitely better aspects of the film was the original score composed by Goldsmith, who was very groundbreaking in the horror genre - The Omen from 1976 still being my absolutely favourite horror score.

However The Haunting couldn't been more different to the 1976 classic Oscar-winning score. Goldsmith creates an atmosphearic, "spacy" mood with the help of magnificent Newman Scoring Stage studio orchestra. You can hear the mysterious noices echoing around the humongous Hill House. The music sort of brings the old manor slowly to life; you got to hear it yourself to truly understand what I mean.

I would say The Haunting belongs to Goldsmith's more leitmotivic works: there is a carousel theme (heard in The Carousel & Return to the Carousel), a lovely and beautiful theme for Eleanor and her connection to Hill House (heard in A Place for Everything, The Curtains & Home Safe) and finally the central main theme or actually the theme for Hill House itself which is present in every track in a form or another.

This is not music that scares the hell out of you. The Haunting is a subtle, sometimes gothic and slowly building score that grows on you every repeated listenings. It is well organized musical work that demands careful listening. I consider it one of the very final masterpieces of Goldsmith's canon. This truly is ghost music at its best!