Some Houses Are Born Bad

In this edge-of-your seat supernatural thriller featuring Hollywood's hottest stars, a study in fear escalates into a heart-stopping nightmare for a professor and three subjects trapped in a mysterious mansion.

For over a century, the dark and forbidding Hill House has sat alone and abandoned... or so it seemed. Intrigued by the mansion's storied past, Dr. Marrow (Liam Neeson) lures his three subjects - Theo (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Nell (Lili Taylor) and Luke (Owen Wilson) - to the site for a seemingly harmless experiment. But, from the moment of their arrival, Nell seems mysteriously drawn to the house...and the attraction is frighteningly mutual. When night descends, the study goes horrifyingly awry as the subjects discover the haunting secrets that live within the walls of Hill House.

Don't miss the state-of-the-art special effects as Hill House unleashes its supernatural wrath in this latest thriller from the director of Speed! and Twister.

Title: The Haunting
Release: July 23, 1999
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Based On: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Writer: David Self
Director: Jan de Bont
Music By: Jerry Goldsmith
Produced By: Susan Arnold, Donna Roth, Colin Wilson
Distributed By: DreamWorks
Run Time: 113 minutes

Since I watched and reviewed the first Haunting I decided to do the same with the remake. Actually “remake” is too harsh of a word. The 1999 version of The Haunting is more of retelling of a story. You know how when one person tells a story to another person and it keeps getting passed around? Usually the story makes its way back to the original start and by then it’s only vaguely recognizable. That’s what happened in this movie. When I watch a “remake” (or if I’ve seen the remake before the original) I try to come to it like I would a whole new different movie. Sure some things will be the same but more times than not, a lot of things won’t be. Pretty much, the only things that are carried over from the first movie are the names of all the characters and some of the back story.

I did like the characters more in this version, but my favorite is still Theo (she’s played by Catherine Zeta-Jones this time). The house is a lot cooler than the other one, and not just because it’s bigger either! There are book walkways, carousel rooms (complete with moving floors), and castle-worthy bedrooms. Also when the “scary stuff” starts to happen, instead of a door stretching and swelling we get a whole room that becomes an evil face… and that’s just the beginning!

Overall, I think I liked this movie better than the original because it gave you more of a story (although a slightly messy one) and the visual effects were pretty good for a movie made in ‘99. I still could have done without the moving statues though.

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Related Reviews
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting (1963)

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