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List Price: $12.99 | | Label: Dreamworks Video
Salesrank: 86733
Released: August 29, 2000 |
| Our Price: $18.46 |
| Used Price: $1.06 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Suffering from the extreme bad luck of being released at the same time as the low-budget The Blair Witch Project, this adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House attempts to update Shirley Jackson's psychologically terrifying ghost story to the era of big-budget, computerized special effects. Does it work? Well, let's just say that showing isn't exactly the same as telling. A prime example of bloated studio filmmaking, The Haunting telegraphs all its frights so blatantly that it forsakes any of Jackson's subtle horrors for the remedial scares of a clunky carnival ride. The story remains basically the same, with four people called to an old mansion for experiments in the supernatural, but instead of getting inside the heads of its main characters (as the 1963 adaptation by Robert Wise did so well), Jan DeBont's film deserts character development for the huge, glorious set design provided by Eugenio Zanetti (Restoration). Thus, instead of a well-drawn story you get... a well-drawn house, one that four very talented and underutilized actors--Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Liam Neeson, and Owen Wilson--wander around in endlessly (as Zeta-Jones puts it, the house is "sort of Charles Foster Kane meets the Munsters"). Taylor, as the hypersensitive Nell, is the unknowing lynchpin in the battle between good and bad ghosts and gets saddled with most of the expository dialogue of the mansion's gothic backstory. Zeta-Jones (showing some spark) and Neeson (showing none) are sadly reduced to providing reactionary shots of the film's disastrous climax, which mixes hapless new-age affirmations with computer-generated effects of ghosts and exploding windows, walls, doors, etc. For this haunted-house story, take a quick tour of the breathtaking rooms, but definitely don't stay the night. --Mark Englehart
The Haunting Reviews:
A Wanting Haunting 
2009-10-25 - This film recycles every haunted house cliche from the black-and-white movie era, and the tone of the movie often veers into camp (especially with Lili Taylor's performance). The back story is muddied and incoherent too. It's a shame that with such a large budget for special effects and with so many talented actors, The Haunting doesn't generate more thrills for the audience.
Awesome movie! 
2009-08-06 - Great movie for the home theater system.
Make sure you get the DTS version!
Highly recommended!
Promises alot. Delivers little. 
2009-07-20 - I was really stoked to watch this movie. And I honestly enjoyed the first half of the it - the setup. I love the actors here. The look and feel of the picture was great, dug the vibe. A bunch of strangers come together for an insomnia experiment in a haunted house in New England. The Dr, Liam Neeson hasn't told them that he wants to study their reaction to fear. They stay in the house a couple of days and it begins to have an effect on them. Lili Taylor's charactor in particular.
That's about as far as I can go w/o spoilage. I'll just say it becomes predictable haunted house story after that. I didn't get the thrills I was expecting. Such interesting characters. Such potential. I've rarely seen a movie that was such a let down.
Just skip it. 
2009-07-08 - 1. This is one of those rare movies where it's so lame, that I didn't / couldn't finish it.
2. This movie is so lame, that spending more time writing a detailed review is a waste of time.
GREAT MOVIE
2009-04-25 - THIS MOVIE WAS AWESOME ALOT OF THE ACTORS ARE YOUNG, I LOVED THE EFFECTS, FOR A OLDER MOVIE IT HAD SOME AWESOME UPGRADES. I AM SO GLAD I OWN IT.
