Another
summer movie season, and yet another lousy remake. This time, the guilty party
is director Jan De Bont (Speed, Twister, and Speed 2), an ex-cinematographer turned
action director who seems hell bent on substituting high-tech special effects
for suspense.
In
this updated version of the creepy classic, Liam Neeson rounds up three insomniacs,
takes them to an ominous looking mansion, and proceeds to run tests on them. Little
does he or his patients know that the dreaded Hill House is (surprise!) haunted.
The
Haunting is a horribly written, badly directed mess that offers virtually zero
scares. De Bont should have taken a clue from the films he borrows from--the original
Haunting, The Shining, and Poltergeist are far more scarier than this nonsense.
The old version relied on insinuation, The Shining on atmosphere, and Poltergeist
on characterization. This film has none of these qualities.
Lili
Taylor is the only one involved that shows any depth. Liam Neeson appears for
about twenty minutes, Owen Wilson (Bottle Rocket) walks around being an unfunny
smart aleck, and Catherine Zeta-Jones shows us nothing other than her pretty face.
There's also a lame underlying lesbian tension affair between Jones and Taylor
that is just completely unnecessary.
Attempting
to hold it all together are the state-of-the-art special effects, all of which
add up to nothing when you're dealing with a ridiculous, disjointed story. The
only thing that is effective in this remake is the fabulous art direction. ItÕs
too bad this mansion wasn't featured in a better movie.
I'm
starting to wonder if De Bont's Speed was a fluke. It's certainly starting to
look that way. The Haunting is the worst kind of horror film--the kind that isn't
in the least bit scary. If you're looking for a good haunting, go see The Blair
Witch Project.
