So Bad, It May Keep You Up At Night (The Haunting (DVD))

Member Name: samueltyler

Product:	The Haunting (DVD)
Date:	17/08/07 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: OTT, Cheesy

Disadvantages: Poor acting, 12 cert, Not scary

*Film only review*

Ask someone to name a ride that will be in every fun fair and amusement park and people will probably start off with – a rollercoaster. However, after this the only other staple ride is the Ghost Ride/Haunted House. It must be noted that there are two distinct types of haunted house; the good ones and the absolute rubbish ones. Many a time as a small child in my local village fate I would go on into the haunted house to be confronted by aging models and screams emanating from aged and crackling speakers. However, visit somewhere like Euro Disney and you will see a top quality haunted house that has top of the range animatronics and jolly songs. What all these rides have in common is a lack of real scares – a trait that 1999 film ‘The Haunting’ shares.

Dr David Marrow is a psychiatrist who is studying the effects of fear and mass hysteria. To achieve his latest findings he invites three unsuspecting people to an old manor house pretending that it is a study for insomniacs. The house was once owned by an eccentric industrialist who filed it will elaborate gothic art pieces. There are rooms full of mirrors and hallways that turn into ponds. With patients Nell, Theo and Luke in the house it soon become clear that Nell is not as stable as Dr Marrow would have liked. Almost immediately she begins to hear the voices of dead children and see the house moving. Is this all part of Dr Marrow’s elaborate experiment or is their more to the unoccupied house that sits on the hill?

‘The Haunting’ is one of those films that I love to hate. It is a huge expensive mess than manages to fail on almost ever level – but what a failure! Firstly, the set design must be praised for being the most over the top and gothic style in film in years. It’s a style similar to comedies such as ‘The Addams Family’, but in this case it’s meant to be a horror. There are rooms in the house that become merry-go-rounds and a wonderful indoor garden. The designers must have been inspired by the feeling you get at top quality haunted houses as it looks fantastic.

This over the top feel continues in the direction of the film and you can not expect much less from Jan de Bont. De Bont is one of the cheesiest directors around with films like ‘Twister’ and ‘Speed 2: Cruise Control’ in his portfolio. Once the actual haunting in the film begins he uses all the classic techniques and cranks them up to 11. Why not have a giant moving bed or a haunted painting that drags itself off the wall? The tone is so completely wrong that you sit slack jawed at the unscariness of it all. If you go into the film thinking it’s a light hearted comedy and not an attempt to thrill you can actually enjoy yourself.

The main reasons that the film fails to be scary is probably a combination of the certificate and the CGI in use. ‘The Haunting;’ came out in 1999 and aimed for a teen market using the new fangled CGI effects. As many people now realise with CGI sometimes more is less. At the end of the 90s this was not the case and it seems that de Bont was determined to get his moneys worth. Every action sequence is overblown and too full. There are very few subtle scares here, instead de Bont adopts an explosive position and has the whole house chasing his heroes. Add to this the fact that the film was constrained by a 12 certificate and you soon realise that you are not going to witness the levels of gore that you would expect from a horror film.

The entire film in a hammy example of the medium and I get the feeling that the actors knew this as soon as they walked on set. Reportedly the makers of the film built a full scale set of the house so that the film would have an epic feel. Actors such as Owen Wilson, Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta Jones must have known that this film was not going to be an Oscar winner almost instantly. Therefore, each actor plays their role in an overly dramatic fashion. Personally I found it quite fun, but Wilson was a bit annoying. This was somewhat resolved by Zeta Jones coming across as likable for the first time in any Hollywood film that she has made.

Neeson, Wilson and Zeta Jones, are all household names but none of them are the star of the film and this causes another issue. Instead that dubious pleasure is left to Lili Taylor as Nell; the annoying one. Taylor pops up in films every now and again, usually of the indie variety or as the psycho girlfriend. As Nell she is an incredibly wet character and although the film is set up for you to feel sympathetic to her, you just don’t. I can forgive the elaborate sets, dynamic direction and hammy acting – but the central performance by Taylor is just bad and it’s clear why she never went on to bigger roles.

‘The Haunting’ is currently doing the terrestrial TV rounds and as a guilty pleasure it’s an ok watch. I did not enjoy the film the way that it was meant to be enjoyed, but as a lesson is so bad its good. Saying this, I can only give the film 2 stars because the vast majority of people will only see the poor acting, OTT sets and naff direction. If you want to see a modern scary film try ‘The Descent’.

Director: Jan de Bont
Year: 1999
Cert: 12
Starring: Liam Neeson, Luke Wilson and Catherine Zeta Jones
Price: Amazon uk £4.97
Play.com £5.99

Summary: About as scary as 'The Care Bears Movie'