The cavernous, lavishly-ornate mansion where the action takes place in Jan de Bont's new remake of "The Haunting" is an example of how superb set-designers (Eugenio Zanetti and Cosmas A. Demetriou) and special effects technicians can completely take over a film. The movie's breathtakingly and beautifully designed Hill House borrows a significant amount -- including a huge grand staircase, fireplace, and mirrored hallway -- from "Citizen Kane's" extravagant Xanadu.
But unlike "Citizen Kane," which critics often consider to be the single best film ever made, de Bont's "The Haunting" is one of the worst films ever to appear on the silver screen. The movie is also a perfect example of what happens when a director decides that special effects -- and nothing else -- can keep an audience's attention for over two hours.
The surprising thing about de Bont's "The Haunting" is that Robert Wise's original 1963 version is one of the best horror films in the genre. The fact that de Bont managed to adapt Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House" and Wise's original version into such a conglomeration of garbage is astounding.
Known for its subtle direction, Wise's older version of "The Haunting" skillfully keeps the special-effects to a minimum and uses off-screen space to suggest to viewers what might be there. On the other hand, with his remake, de Bont obviously has no restraint -- not even a little. We see everything, and while the special effects are impressive, they are also laughable. When the mansion's previous owner appeared from purgatory as a huge, stomping spirit, or when a bedroom door turned into a huge computer-generated fist, the audience was howling -- but only with laughter.
This horrendous lack of self-control becomes even more apparent when compared with the already critically-acclaimed "The Blair Witch Project." Although the film is only in limited release right now (we will all be able to see it July 30), rumor has it that the director's restraint and refusal to show what happens off-screen is what supposedly makes the film work. Obviously, de Bont missed that class in film school -- if he went to one.
The story is well-known by now. Dr. David Marrow (Liam Neeson) decides to run a psychological experiment on fear with three subjects by inviting them to the haunted Hill House. Marrow immorally tells the three guests that he is researching insomnia so they will cooperate with his plan.
Nell (Lili Taylor) arrives first and immediately feels a strange and powerful attraction to the mansion. Luke (Owen Wilson) and Theo (Catherine Zeta-Jones) arrive later and become frightened of and intimidated by the house. Of course, all four become tormented by the house's spirits, everyone gets scared, a couple of them die, and in the end, the Hill House is supposed to teach us something about ethics or fear -- or something.
The movie's actors are another surprising thing about the movie. "Schindler's List's" Liam Neeson has stooped to an all-time low with "The Haunting." His performance is as believable as he can make it -- which is not very believable, considering the outlandish dialogue and silly not-at-all-suspenseful collapsing double-helix staircase finale.
Lili Taylor, who is also an accomplished actress, also manages to bungle her lines in the second half of the movie. She says everything with so much emotion, she could induce vomiting in audience members. The best example of this is during her final monologue, when she is surrounded by a distracting, over-the-top wind special effect, and she delivers a nauseating speech to Hill House's spirit, including the line, "Forget purgatory, you're going to hell!" Of course, immediately following this, she dies -- in slow motion.
Again, this is more scriptwriter David Self's and director de Bont's fault than her's, but she probably should not have taken the project to begin with, considering the script.
But both Neeson and Taylor do a high-quality job when compared with Owen Wilson, who cannot seem to deliver one line convincingly. I would have been relieved that his head gets chopped off at the end by an enormous stone lion head -- except that the manner in which it was done was so artificial and silly that the scene was more insulting than relieving. Don't be angry that I revealed Luke's fate either; the movie is so excruciating that there's little chance anyone would want to sit through the entire film. Fortunately, the only interesting part of the film is the beginning, when Nell and Theo get to explore the beautifully gothic Hill House.
In the rare chance you do watch until the credits however, it becomes obvious that the movie has nothing more to boast than its special effects -- which, without good dialogue, acting or direction -- amounts to almost nothing. The fact that a movie this bad could make it pass studio executives is scarier than the film itself.
