The Haunting
by Jan de Bont
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DVD details
Actor: Bruce Dern, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Owen WilsonDirector: Jan de Bont
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-11-23
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Dreamworks Video
DVD Reviews of The Haunting
DVD Review: Cheesy fun and a good Halloween party movie
Summary: 2 Stars
A glitzy 1999 remake of the classic 1963 film of the same name, with different plot twists and an alternate ending.
* Spectacular sets and a star-studded cast make this movie fun to watch.
* The weak story line bears little resemblance to the brilliant 1963 movie, also called The Haunting.
* Cheesy plot twists and some "good scares" contribute to the fun. It's not a thriller, or even a serious movie.
Do not expect this movie to show you what real ghosts are like. "Hill House" may be a magnificent Hollywood set, but it bears little resemblance to actual haunted houses.
If you're a fan of the terrifying book this movie is based on (The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics), by Shirley Jackson) or the original movie, the new story line may be a huge disappointment, too.
To put it simply, this is a high-budget, slightly cheesy movie that you'll watch for laughs and a few "good scares".
I loved the sets and I was hopeful when I saw the cast list. However, I just didn't connect with the characters. On the other hand, the special effects were amusing and a few events startled me.
There were several moments that I thought, "No, they aren't really going to do that...," and then -- sure enough -- they did. The reverse psychology of it took me by surprise every time.
However, the moralizing conclusion of the movie was too cutesy and predictable. It also dragged on far too long, oblivious to several confusing lapses in logic.
This movie is probably worth seeing once, for fun, and a second time to savor the gorgeous sets.
Cook up some popcorn, turn down the lights, and expect a few shrieks... and shrieks of laughter as you and friends watch this somewhat silly movie.
Trivia: The spiral staircase from the original movie makes a cameo appearance in this film. It also gave Liam Neeson a genuine fright, since he is not fond of heights.
DVD Review: Gorgeous production, awful movie
Summary: 2 Stars
Get this one just to look at the sets and the stunning effects. I would say watch it with the sound off, but some of the sound design is impressive as well. They obviously spent a lot of money making this movie as beautiful as possible ... too bad they couldn't make it GOOD.
Shirley Jackson's novel _The Haunting of Hill House_ is one of my all-time favorites. I re-read it when I heard this movie was coming out, and I was eager to see it. It started well enough. Even though the premise behind the characters being there was changed, and "that's not what Hill House is supposed to look like!" I was willing to forgive these slight details, especially since Mrs. Dudley speaks a whole paragraph straight out of the book in her scene. I thought "they're actually going to do it! They're actually going to do a faithful rendition of the book!"
Nope.
When Mrs. Dudley exited screen right, so did any resemblance to the original novel. Hugh Crain's past, and the reason for the haunting (left so maddeningly unexplained in the original) are painfully and meticulously spelled out in an ever-more-stupid story arc that would have made even Barney the Dinosaur snort in derision at its utter childishness. This movie is not smart, it's not scary .. it doesn't even manage to be funny. It comes across as more of an insult, a slap in the face to fans of the original book. The 1963 movie version captured the novel's atmosphere much better. This version doesn't so much trample Shirley Jackson's grave as dump syrup all over it. Utterly horrible.
But it has great production values. You needn't feel ashamed of watching it for that. It's a great LOOKING movie, and that's why I was generous enough to give it 2 stars. Definitely worth a rental if you have a few hours to kill and don't feel like thinking.
DVD Review: Microwaved horror
Summary: 2 Stars
Hollywood reheats a classic, but this cheap serving is hardly very appetizing. This remake throws some heavy morsels of CGI down your throat and will give you indigestion. Same basic story, some people volunteer to stay in an extravagant mansion. This time they aren't told about the house's dark past. They believe they are part of a study on insomnia. The truth is they are part of a controlled experiment on group fear.
Now I thought this was a nice alteration to the story. But unfortunately it starts to get extremely ridiculous. Nothing subtle here, there are plenty of cheap scares--like ghostly images or moving statues. As it turns out this house is basically a holding cell for dead children's souls. The evil landlord's spirit keeps watch over them in this purgatory. Great, a perverted pedaphile ghost.
This turns into more of a goofy adventure flick. No spooky atmosphere or mystery. No suspense. No reason to bother.
DVD Review: I've seen scarier episodes of Scooby Doo.
Summary: 1 Stars
"I'm not afraid of you Grandpa!!!"
That's nice.
Easily in the top twenty of worst horror movies EVER!!!
I never saw the original nor do I want to.
YET another movie I paid to see in the theater. I figured, if Liam Neeson is in it, it might be pretty good. WRONG!!!
A Hollyturd if there ever was one, The Haunting succeeds only at scaring me with it's utter worthlessness.
Dreadful acting, a story line that couldn't scare a toddler, lame direction......
Bad....JUST BAD!!!
From start to finish, a craptastic classic.
Coming close to being, "so bad it's good" but not quite.
Don't even bother with this disaster,
NOT RECOMMENDED!!!
DVD Review: Not bad
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this to replace the VHS version I had that had seen better days. This movie won't win any awards but as horror movies go it wasn't bad. It has a talented cast and I enjoy watching it from time to time.
Description of The Haunting
Suffering from the extreme bad luck of being released at the same time as the low-budget The Blair Witch Project, this adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House attempts to update Shirley Jackson's psychologically terrifying ghost story to the era of big-budget, computerized special effects. Does it work? Well, let's just say that showing isn't exactly the same as telling. A prime example of bloated studio filmmaking, The Haunting telegraphs all its frights so blatantly that it forsakes any of Jackson's subtle horrors for the remedial scares of a clunky carnival ride. The story remains basically the same, with four people called to an old mansion for experiments in the supernatural, but instead of getting inside the heads of its main characters (as the 1963 adaptation by Robert Wise did so well), Jan DeBont's film deserts character development for the huge, glorious set design provided by Eugenio Zanetti (Restoration). Thus, instead of a well-drawn story you get... a well-drawn house, one that four very talented and underutilized actors--Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Liam Neeson, and Owen Wilson--wander around in endlessly (as Zeta-Jones puts it, the house is "sort of Charles Foster Kane meets the Munsters"). Taylor, as the hypersensitive Nell, is the unknowing lynchpin in the battle between good and bad ghosts and gets saddled with most of the expository dialogue of the mansion's gothic backstory. Zeta-Jones (showing some spark) and Neeson (showing none) are sadly reduced to providing reactionary shots of the film's disastrous climax, which mixes hapless new-age affirmations with computer-generated effects of ghosts and exploding windows, walls, doors, etc. For this haunted-house story, take a quick tour of the breathtaking rooms, but definitely don't stay the night. --Mark EnglehartGeneral DVDs
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