Product: The Haunting [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 2.0
A remake that completely misses the mark--the performances are fine but the film lacks subtly
Jan de Bont tackles "The Haunting" as less of a remake of Robert Wise's original 1963 film and more of a fresh adaption of Shirley Jackson's novel but, unfortunately, de Bont's film is too literal; he wants to show us EVERYTHING. The lack of subtly is the undoing of this film. The only thing that the film gets right is in the area of casting with Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor and Owen Wilson nicely capturing what makes their characters tick.Sometimes what we don't see is much scary than what we DO see.The DVD looks fine--the transfer is a bit dated though and would benefit from a sharper, high def transfer. The featurette on the making of the film gives us a good idea as to what the director, cast and writer wanted to achieve but it fails to provide us much information as to WHY they did't achieve it although I suspect it is because de Bont had no understanding of what made Robert Wise's film work so well--the creepy psychological tension.Perhaps modern film fans will scoff at the original which hints at Theo being a lesbian and the fact that Nell is as haunted as the house itself witout any overwhelming "horrific" gore but there's something to be said for creating a mood vs. showing us every single bit of gore or CGI as most modern horror flicks do.