Product: The Haunting [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 1.0
what the heck was he thinking?!?
This is Jan De Bont . . . This film is jan De Bont on drugs. Why would he take a perfectly PERFECT supernatural novel, freak around with it til it made no sense and then film what is, in effect, an expensive "carnival-level" spook-house story? Another example of Hollywood's fetish with drugs, no doubt. This has NOTHING in common with one of the most superior novels ever written (on which it CLAIMS to be based). I think Jackson ought to come back and haunt De Bont for this travesty. Is THIS what happens when you are apportioned 150 trillion dollars for special effects and 2-cents for screenplay development/scriptwriting? For the most honest to the book and TRULY chilling version, check out Robert Wise's 1963 The Haunting which delves into the psychology of all involved: who -- or what --is really haunted? If you are stuck in the "I need to see blood and an intestine swinging from the chandelier" mode, just stick to your "Jason" movies. If you are into intellectual and philosophically based tales, Wise is "da man".