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HORROR: The Haunting
REVIEWER: Shane Gavin
RATING: D
REVIEW:
Considered to be one of the lemons of the year this film continued
to dissapoint well into the film. A nice acting performance by Lily Talyor
could not in anyway save the film. Jan De Bont (Speed) had no way to promote
this film when he realised that the original was done by Robert Wise (Sound
of Music) and for this reason DeBont a relatively interesting director
has been foiled by the vil Spielberg. Similar to the way Tobe Hooper never
recovered from "Poltergeist", I think it will be a long time
before DeBont fully regains any credability.
The film follows the narrative of Shirley Jackson's novel, "The
House on Haunted Hill", but DeBont seems to shy away from certain
characters traits and any possibilities that surround developling a character.
How is it that Lily Taylor finds herself caring about the ghosts of the
children trapped within the house. We know from reading the book that Lili's
character is way annoyed with being trapped in her own house, looking after
her mother, this is the logical answer but DeBont Shy's away. Catherine
Zeta Jones characters SEX-aholism is kind of quelled as soon as we know
she has it and she thus becomes another background character. Owen Wilson
has the prestige of being the one who dies in this film, whilst Dr Markaway
played by Liam Neeson is not evil enough to be hated. The film should have
fallen into a brilliant cross between the mad scientist/doctor plot and
the discovery plot in horror films. Unfortunately this did not happen and
the audience paid for it with dissapointment.
The house was a lovely testament to what 15 million bucks can buy you,
but I reckon a real mansion that size wouldn't set you back as much. Hugely
expensive sets that at some points simply look like plastic or styro-foam.
The constant use of Brown and the stereotypical feature left nothing scary
about the house. If the house were less extravagant than perhaps the film
would have been more eerie. I haven't been in many houses that extravagant
and therefore I find it hard to relate to such a setting.
The advertising was all about the HOUSE. The film would have made a
better cover story for "Better Homes and Gardens" than it would
have for "Variety" or any other film rag.
The film is funny because it is so bad and FX reliant, but most times
it is just D for Dreary.
D
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, 1998-2000.