The Haunting of Hill House

source: The Haunting of Hill House

Being a fan of the haunted house genre, when I first saw the teaser trailer in the theater, I was extremely excited. That excitement didn't last long. This movie was a ridiculous remake of one of the classic haunted house films, and I'd never recommend this. Special effects are not scarry. What you don't see but know is there is what will make people remember the story and come back time and time again. Rent or buy the original instead, it's much creepier.

A vulgar, inept reworking of the classic novel by Shirley Jackson, and its very fine film adaptation from Robert Wise in 1963. The only thing this one has going for it are the lovely, imaginative sets. All else--the script, performances, and especially the direction by Jan DeBont are, to put it kindly, not good. All the subtlety and ambiguity of the original are tossed out the window in favor of a lot of noisy special effects that wouldn't scare a 5 year old. The only frightening thing about this nonsense is that it received as many positive reader comments on this board as it did! Rating: 4/10 for the sets and a certain amount of campy, so-bad-it's-fun entertainment value.

This is a very very bad movie. Where to start the cast just look like they're just wandering around overreacting to special effects. It's not scary. Catherine Zeta Jones should hand back her salary for this. Liam Neeson fairs little better and Owen Wilson is just Owen Wilson.. The main character whose name escapes me just basically runs about screaming the entire time. The story such as it is concerns an evil house with a shady and frankly quite tedious past. Save yourself the pain of this and watch The Shining again.