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| Directed by Jan de Bont; Starring Lili Taylor, Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Marian Seldes, and Bruce Dern |
Yet another loss for Jan de Bont. After making a great directorial debut with Speed in 1994, he has continually shown that Speed was just a fluke. In 1996 he made Twister, which did have some very nice visuals, but was brought down by a hideous script, followed by Speed 2: Cruise Control which was just completely hideous. Now he brings out a new take on the classic novel The Haunting of Hill House. Made into a thrilling and truly scary 1963 film by Robert Wise, this version of The Haunting lacks any of the scare factor that made the original so stunning. When there was a bump in the night in the original that was frightening thanks to its ambiguity, this film will take a humongous CGI concoction to make that bump scarier. Not once was I actually scared during this film.
Instead of the grouping of people that were there to prove the existence of the supernatural in 1963, the characters in this version are under the belief that their stay at the mysterious and creepy mansion is to do a test on insomnia, though their guide (Neeson) actually has them there to do a test on the fear produced by the human psyche. There are six set to stay at the mansion: Dr. Morrow (Neeson), there to make a test on fear, Carrie Fredericks (Madsen), Morrow’s assistant, Todd Fredericks (Field), Carrie’s husband, Theo (Zeta-Jones), a lesbian who lives luxuriously, Luke (Wilson), an everyday man chosen by his openness on secrets (a toy that Morrow needs to make the test work), and Eleanor (Taylor), a nervous woman getting over the recent death of the mother she had taken care of for years.
I must admit that there were some great visuals in the film, as de Bant works some direction well, though the CGI graphics got old quickly. The real star of the film is its art direction. The set of the house is unbelievable and almost makes the film worth seeing just to gawk at it. Even though Wilson and Taylor give flat performances, Neeson and Zeta-Jones seem to work. Still the film has some of the worst dialogue of the year (climaxing in easily the worst monologue I’ve seen in years). There is nothing really scary about the film and the writing is rather shabby. As the most expensive episode of Scooby Doo ever, The Haunting serves as merely something to make fun of.
