| The Haunting | | Cast : | Lili Taylor, Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson | | Director : | Jan de Bont | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | , 1999 | | DVD Released Date : | November 23, 1999 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | This Movie Should Be Considered To Be "A Pathetic Comedy!!!" | Content
 | In this sorry excuse for a Horror movie we see Liam Neelson who lures a group of insomniacs to a Gothic Mansion in the pretext that he will be assessing their various Sleep Disorders. Catherine Zeta Jones is beautiful as always but her character is a bisexual barbituate swallowing fashion victim who thinks that one of life's necessities is 'sex". Poor Catherine states' Do you ever feel that you are the only one at the party?". Stephen King once stated that' CHARACTERIZATION is all important in a Horror book or movie. If the viewer likes the characters then he or she will have some empathy with their fate. Sadly none of these people are very likeable and as a result you don't care about what happens to them. The special effects are (unintentionally ) very funny. Wood carvings of cherubs seem to come to life. This reminds me of my wild reckless youth where after consuming too much Jim Beam things started to shift and move too. I give this movie 5 stars because Catherine looks so good in it. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | Furniture attacking the characters in a horror-movie... | Content
| ...such as "The Haunting" is not a good idea, and despite its' talented cast and perfect locations (the haunted mansion is actually the main star of the movie!) this somewhat pale horror-piece only manages to entertain, and never reaches to its' main purpose; To scare the hell out of you!
A bit sad, it has potential. It starts out with an unpleasant atmosphere, which of course suits a good horror-movie -but the story is weak, the acting uninspired it seems, and what is Liam Neeson doing in such a part? He's a far too brilliant actor to waste his talent on a movie such as "The Haunting".
A shame, but on the plus side he is far from ruining the movie. If you are a fan of ghost stories this will probably get your attention, and personally I find it entertaining -but plot is weak. Story uninspired. I'd rent it before buying.
Possible spoiler;
As mentioned the lowpoint of the movie is one of the final scenes when the walls and roof in one of the bedrooms somehow transforms itself -and attacks the girl in the lead role. That was not scary, but stupid. And also the "wooden babyfaces" decorating her bedroom walls that suddenly starts to make expressions. How? And why? Some effects also were not that visually fit.
Other than that, no disaster -and worth seeing. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 11, 2005 | | Summary | A movie worth watching! | Content
| The Haunting brings to the screen the story of a scientist who decides to carry out an experiment on Fear in an old and rather scary 19th Century mansion. The participants, however, believe that they are taking part in a study on Insomnia. Things become a bit more complicated when the residence turns out to be crawling with restless ghosts, who seem to recognize one of the visitors...
The film does a GREAT job of conveying the eerie feeling one looks for in a thriller.
Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor, and the rest of the cast have truly outdone themselves with their performances, which are exceptional to say the least. All the actors, without exceptions, give it their 100% and it really shows (the chemistry is AMAZING)!
The plot, the setting, the dialogues, the special effects, and the music are all EXCELLENT!
In conclusion, The Haunting is a movie guaranteed to provide an evening's entertainment and one to seriously consider adding to your movie collection!
It is one of those films that gets you and keeps you thinking long after it's over.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 21, 2005 | | Summary | Worth Watching Once, Nothing Worth Buying | Content
| It does succeed as a ghost story somewhat. Definitely goes nowhere as for a thriller with nearly no horror. Any other ghost movie out right now is probably better than this.
The only reason I think it's worth watching, and worth 2 stars... is to respect the actors. Liam Neeson always puts you into the movie with his great representation. Owen Wilson, who isn't necessarily considered an actor... is worth a laugh for this movie. And the actresses do what they do... they run, they scream, and they slowly solve this ghostly murder.
It's true, this isn't worth typing a lot for. If you love movies and are rarely disapointed, you can try renting this out. If you are bored, and like the actors who are in it... it's worth reading about and that's about it. I don't recommend this, but only for if you love movies... like I do! |
| Rating | | | Date | March 20, 2005 | | Summary | 0 STARS: This movie stinks, stank and stunk! | Content
| The 1999 remake of "The Haunting" is a terrible movie in all respects to put it mildly. In particular, the movie fails miserably in every way in its ability to provoke fear in any audience on any level and douses itself in the absurd. The special effects in this movie are particularly annoying and ridiculous. When I saw this movie at the theatre, I laughed out loud when I saw these stupid little manifestations of paranormal phenomenon and ghosts. This movie is not a horror movie...it is a comedy, but the problem is that this movie is only a comedy in how terribly pathetic it is.
Armed with a horrendous cast and uninteresting characters, the special effects only make the movie that much worse than it could have been. The acting in "The Haunting" remake is horrible and that includes Catherine Zeta Jones, not to even go into the fact that the directing of this movie was also very poor. The 1963 original version of "The Haunting" was not a good horror movie by any means, but at least it was successful with its ghost story and paranormal theme. Any success from the original version that this remake could have relied was killed by the special effects, poor acting and poor direction. In fact, the strongsuit of the original was that it did leave something for the imagination.
In short, the remake is just plain stupid and comes off as a total joke with respect to being a horror movie. Well, this is not a scary movie!!! But, if you are interested in a comical attempt at a horror movie and ghost story then you might like this farce. Sorry if this review is harsh, but the truth is the truth and this movie stinks.
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