Must See Movie...

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I saw this movie a while ago and thought it was really scary. I'm watching it again and I know I will see things I didn't before. Bruce Dern is a real quirky character even tho he is only in the movie for a hot minute."I don't stay after dinner.....not after it begins to get dark....I leave before dark comes....we live in town....9 miles so there won't be anyone around if you need help....we couldn't even hear you at night...no one could....no one lives any nearer than town....now one will come any nearer than that...in the NIGHT, in the DARK."Adore this movie!!!

In 1963, director Robert Wise unleashed onto the world a pure vision of terror with his film "The Haunting", based on Shirley Jackson's earlier novel "The Haunting of Hill House." An incredibly nuanced and subtle exercise in fear and psychological drama, Wise's film is a incredible achievement by any stretch of the imagination, and to this very day it remains an important and beloved masterwork of horror. Some (myself included) would go so far as to call it one of the greatest horror films ever made....so why not put the remake in the hands of a director known for effects-driven action schlock? What's the worst that could happen? Oh, yeah... the worst that could happen is exactly what DID happen- it's a complete mess!Jan de Bont's 1999 release "The Haunting" (which is most certainly not based on the 1959 William Castle film "House on Haunted Hill", despite several other reviews incorrectly stating this) is one of the more notorious remakes of the past twenty years, in no small part thanks to its complete and utter misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the works that inspired it. Released in the late-90's heyday of then- modern digital effects and in-your-face thrills, the film is a complete and utter betrayal of the original. It takes the careful, methodical and subdued storytelling of the original and replaces it with on- the- nose set and production design and a plethora of "Boo!" scares. It takes the thoughtful and mature character development from that amazing film and replaces it with the broadest and most hackneyed of clichés and stereotypes. And it takes the subtlety of the Robert Wise classic and destroys it by smacking you in the head with its blatancy in every single scene. It's complete trash to the original's treasure.We follow a group of insomniacs who agree to be a part of a study on their condition, set to be held in Hill House- a mansion built in the 19th century by eccentric textile tycoon Hugh Crain. However, things are not what they seem, and the director of the experiment, Dr. Marrow (Liam Neeson) has actually lured the group there under false pretenses. He instead is seeking to study the effects of fear. Soon enough, it becomes all too clear that something is amiss in Hill House, and that the spirits of the past wander the hallways at night. And for some reason, group member Eleanor "Nell" Vance (Lili Taylor) in particular seems to attract the attention of the ghosts around her...To give the film what little credit is due, there are some positive aspects of the production that I could certainly see working with a better script and in the hands of a more confident and clever filmmaker. Lili Taylor makes for a magnificent protagonist and is splendid in a slightly modernized update of the character portrayed by Julie Harris in the 1963 classic. She's the only aspect of the film that felt like it could have fit in perfectly with the original. (Thankfully, she fulfilled this promise recently when she co-starred in the wonderful haunted-house thriller "The Conjuring", which finally made good use of her talents.) I also found the cinematography to be stunning, and the film does look oft-gorgeous. Director de Bont got his start as a cinematographer, so he knows hot to compose a shot, and he works well with DP Karl Walter Lindenlaub.Unfortunately, pretty pictures and a good lead performance do little to combat the negative effects of a contrived script and numerous sequences that are tonally confused at best... and brainlessly nonsensical at worst. The film can never seem to settle on what it wants to be... it tries its hardest to strike fear with Gothic set designs and digitally-assisted jump-scares a-plenty... yet it also wants to be a whimsical and uplifting story about how the "power of love" (ugh) can save the spirits of the damned. So you get a series of jarring and awkward sequences that radically shoot back and forth between two opposing tones in a very inorganic way.The "horror" of the film is poorly handled, and generally revolves around cartoonish "ghosts" that waft through the air with all the grace of a crumpled paper airplane and hilariously tacky digital renderings of the house suddenly "morphing" into devious shapes while horns shriek in the background. I'm not one to bad-mouth digital trickery and computer-generated effects... but they need to be used in moderation in key places to be effective in the confines of a horror film. Here, de Bont seems content with throwing as much at the screen as possible, giving it a kitschy "made for TV" kids-movie vibe. It's like one of the bad episode of "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" with a budget. It's lazy, trite and completely without atmosphere.And to top it off, the story and the characters are all lazily handled and mind-numbing thanks to a script that can only be described by the word "hack." Co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as a character named "Theo", whose only development involves showing off her barely- covered breasts and piling on references to her bisexuality. The story-line is incredibly dumbed-down and every major development smacks you in the face like a brick due to over- explanation. And without spoiling anything... the climax is completely out of left field, preposterous and anything but climactic.Jan de Bont is clearly trying to make the crazed 90's roller-coaster version of Robert Wise's film. And he's relishing in adding in as many loops, twirls, cork-screws and drops to its tracks as possible. But he's made one fatal flaw... he's wasted so much time on aesthetics, he's forgotten to add in the cars for people to enjoy his roller-coaster. And thus, we're left with something that looks exciting on the outside... but it completely empty and without any real fun or purpose."The Haunting" is a 3 out of 10.

What made the original so haunting and unsettling is its atmosphere, and its psychological effect on the main protagonist. This film, however, takes the whole psychological and atmospheric concept and replaces it with crappy CGI and a horribly written story. Since this was during the time when CGI was being exploited, I see what they were trying to do with this. However, its tacky that they should rely on new technological features on a remake of a film that was purely affective for its subtly. In terms of writing quality, if your expecting a film that dives into questioning the parallels between the paranormal and the human psyche like the original, be prepared to be disappointed. There is no mystery behind anything- this purely a light vs. dark movie. It's not smartly written what-so-ever. This being said, I surprisingly do have a couple of pros. (1) the mansion is unbelievably and gothically beautiful, and even more than the one from the first movie. The house they used is called Harlaxton Manor, which is owned by the University of Evansille for students studying abroad. It is the PERFECT setting for a Gothic horror movie. (2) casting is actually decent (minus Owen Wilson. Sorry bud, not your movie). Lily Taylor is actually a pretty good replacement, bringing a gentleness and gravity to the role. These two pros are what really makes me sad. With such an incredible setting and actors who can actually act (once again excluding Owen Wilson), and if they had just lost the CGi and stuck to the psychological story- this could have been a decent movie. Really disappointed!

It's a depressing affair to watch particularly talented young actors trying their best to toothpick through The Haunting's unintentionally funny script and dog-paddling in a thick soup of special effects. Whilst the film boasts a handful of unsettling moments they bear no excuse for the rest of the film's fatal flaws. Lili Taylor's constant bawl scream is unnecessarily frequent and is quite annoying. The characters are over-baked stereotypes - see Catherina Zeta-Jones playing a bisexual "free-love" artist. I found most of the characters to be so unlikeable that I was waiting for each of them to be killed off as soon as possible.