Product: The Haunting [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 2.0
GOOD MATERIAL POORLY DONE
Fans of Shirley Jackson's classic novel "The Haunting of Hill House" will remember that the story had a genuine frisson quality to it, as did the 1963 film starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. Those of you who are expecting an improvement in either are going to be sorely disappointed (as I was) in this laughable re-make. The gargantuan set was overly done and the producers obviously wasted an AWESOME amount of money on mostly meaningless special effects which, I suspect were meant to give the picture "shock value" Liam Neeson gives a lifeless and uninspired performance and Luke Sanderson is ridiculousy portrayed by Owen Wilson. I like Lilli Taylor and think she's a decent actress, but her playing of Eleanor was not effective, the fault of which lies mainly in the stupidly written script which makes the audience laugh in all the wrong places. There was no "Great-Grandmother" in the original story at all and this makes the film ludicrous as does the insinuation that Hugh Crain is beezlebub himself-he was responsible in the torturing souls of God knows HOW many children?-Implausible and utterly unconvincing, this movie is a sad ,sorry filmization of a potentially terrifying story (it could have been more truly chilling on a quarter of the budget!) Grotesquely overblown, poorly acted and written, the movie leaves ASOLUTELY NOTHING to the imagination which any ten-year old knows is where real creepiness begins. Catherine Zeta-Jones's beauty was the BEST thing in the whole show. Shirley Jackson's masterpiece deserves better, more THOUGHT OUT treatment than this hodgepodge;it would help to follow the original story-these new Hollywoodisms STINK! .