Like so many movies this summer, The Haunting, expected by many to be the next Exorcist, rode into theaters on a hype. The film had plenty of potential, it was a scary film about a subject so simple and frightening as a haunted house, it also featured a bunch of cool digital spooks and a strong, but not spectacular cast. The movie had plenty of backing on its hype to be one of the scariest movies ever. However, much of this hype became lost when the movie obtained a PG-13 rating. Set in present day, Liam Neeson plays Dr. David Marrow, a scientist who plans an experiment in fear under the guise of an insomnia research. He takes his three unsuspecting patients to Hill House, a spooky old New England mansion. Here he tells them a scary story, an old rumor about the previous owner of the Hill House, a crazy 18th-century textile tycoon who supposedly killed children in his sweat shops and buried them in his home. He lets the patients work with it, as observing their skepticism and records it all on his tape recorder. And well, you guessed it, the rumors turn out to be true. Not only that, but the spirit of this previous owner still resides in Hill House and terrorizes the guests each night. He particularly takes a fancy to threatening Nell (Lili Taylor), a poor middle-aged patient who takes on the study soon after her mother dies and leaves her without a home. Obviously the filmmakers had dollar bills in their eyes when editing this picture because when it comes down to it, The Haunting just isn't that scary. Sure, it has a standard Skeleton-Jumps-Out-At-You moment and a "What the Hell is that Banging on the Door?" scene, but the film is really more intriguing than anything else, filled with flowing shear fabric drapes and spooky children's laughter. A true horror film requires a display of terror from the characters, which we simply don't get out of this movie (Nell can't even get out a decent blood-curdling scream as a huge ghost with claws coming out of its mouth slowly approaches her, and Luke, another patient, seems to suffer his only true moment of horror when he realizes he may never get to sleep with Theo, a sexy patient played by Catherine Zeta Jones). In fact, The Haunting's strongest character is Hill House, made mostly out of elaborate sets and digital effects. The sight is certainly breathtaking, but director Jan De Bont (Twister) really seems to be aiming for more spectacle than spook. The movie, if rated R, could have been a chilling and frightening masterpiece, but obviously the makers decided it better to throw in timely cracks about Teletubbies and edit it until it was successfully rated PG-13 so that the kids could all come and spend money. Unfortunately this forgettable horror flick will only be haunting its audience until its box office run ends.
-Ethan Kaplan
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7/23/99
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