Movie Guys: ‘The Haunting’ is gaunt in the scare department

Friday, July 23, 1999 | 9:25 a.m.

Grades: Jeff, D; Dave, D.

Starring: Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor, Bruce Dern and Marian Seldes.

Directed by: Jan De Bont.

Screenplay by: David Self.

Rated: PG-13 for graphic violence and mature themes.

Running time: 110 minutes.

Playing at: Regal Cinemas Texas Station 18, Regal Cinemas Sunset Station 13, Regal Cinemas Village Square 18, Regal Cinemas Colonnade 14, Las Vegas Drive-In, Century Orleans 12, Cinedome 12 Henderson, Century Desert, UA Showcase mall, UA Rainbow Promenade.

Synopsis: "The Haunting" centers on four people who are drawn to the foreboding mansion known as Hill House for reasons they think they know -- although what they believe and what is real may not be the same.

Jeff: Call me spoiled, but after seeing the terrifying "The Blair Witch Project" three times already this year (and it hasn't even opened in Las Vegas yet!), a movie is going to have to try really hard to scare me out of my seat. "The Haunting" doesn't scare, it bores. A very long, two-hour bore.

A remake of the 1963 Robert Wise film, "The Haunting," and based on the Shirley Jackson classic novel, "The Haunting of Hill House," this new special effects-laden snoozer has virtually no elements that create any kind of suspense or terror. The visual effects that draw your attention -- concrete statues that move, bedposts that impale the bed or wooden carvings of children that come alive -- aren't complemented by a solid story to make the effects believable. An old-fashioned ghost story this isn't, but more a fun house ride like you find at the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, but not worth the ticket to get in.

What is scary is the casting. None of the actors, from the ever-so-talented Liam Neeson to versatile Lili Taylor, match their characters in the film. As a group, they deliver the most confusing and stale performances in recent memory.

Dave: That may be due to the fact that the ominous house itself upstages the film's cast. After all, Hill House is the lead star, playing host to an experiment conducted by Dr. David Marrow (Neeson, fresh on the heels of "Star Wars: Episode I"). Working on his book about fear, he recruits three subjects with sleeping disorders who have no knowledge of Marrow's intent to stay in the old mansion where he believes the dark and sinister dwellings will aid him in his research. The house, however, has something different in store, as Nell (Taylor) has a mysterious connection to its history. Theo and Luke (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Owen Wilson) round out the optimism as the four end up learning more than they imagined on the subject of fear. It's unfortunate that the audience doesn't!

What made the original so scary was that it was psychological, you never knew whom to trust, what was real, or what was going on. In director Jan De Bont's version, he loses the whole element of fear by spelling everything out for us and attempts to scare us with special visual and sound effects.

Jeff: The house is magnificent, as is the production design by Eugino Zanetti. The rooms and hallways are a remarkable achievement, but the Gothic-Baroque setting of the mansion is all wrong. It's too medieval in nature and provides a better setting for a production of "Macbeth" than a modern-day ghost story. De Bont ("Twister," "Speed") wouldn't be my first choice to helm this tepid remake because he hasn't any prior experience in creating supernatural terror or building the kind of suspense worthy of getting you to leap from your theater seat. His background is action/suspense, with explosions, car wrecks, shoot-outs and city busses cruising out of control.

"The Haunting" is more the forte of such horror directors as John Carpenter, Sam Raimi or Wes Craven, and the result of De Bont's is a film that ignores the direct approach to involve the audience, a crucial element to the success of a horror film. If the audience doesn't think that they are actually inside the house and in danger with the characters, it will fail. It does fail. I wasn't in the house, I was going over in my mind a shopping list for the next morning.

The film also imitates previous horror films such as "Legend of Hell House" and "Poltergeist" by having composer Jerry Goldsmith, who scored both films, using what sounds like the same musical cues. As a friend of mine said coming out of the theater at the end of the film, "Where was Scooby-Doo?" Indeed, this movie seemed more suited for Scooby and the gang cruising around in the Mystery Machine than for our current cast.

Dave: The film's back story involves the ghost of the original owner of Hill House who seems to be making all the racket. His past resembles purgatory, where the souls of children he had murdered are held, unless Nell releases them from their grave fate.

Credit goes to the sound team lead by seven-time Oscar-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom ("Saving Private Ryan") behind the effectively creepy noises we refer to as those things that go bump in the night. The narrow halls lined with freakish decor, huge bedrooms filled with disturbing images and the remaining dwellings littered with the elaborate furnishings that stereotypically fit the 19th century home -- all come to life by the "haunting" sounds that the mansion makes.

However, that is due to "The Haunting" being the second movie ever to use the new Dolby Digital-Surround EX theatrical sound system, an impressive addition to an otherwise limp movie. Again, the element of mystery is replaced with eye candy that looks good but tastes like stale popcorn. As the film's slogan goes, "Some Houses Are Born Bad."

Well, some movies are, too.

Movie Buzz

December: 'Impossible': Sorry, Tom Cruise fans. You'll have to wait another year to get your next fix. Paramount is postponing the release of "Mission: Impossible 2" from its original Dec. 17 release date to May 24, 2000. But take heart -- you may get a double dose of Tom next year. Twentieth Century Fox has scheduled its sci-fi epic, "Minority Report," directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Cruise, for release on June 30, 2000. "Mission" has reportedly been plagued by production and script delays, resulting in the date change. The John Woo-directed "Mission: Impossible 2" also stars Anthony Hopkins and Ving Rhames.

Warner takes 'Ten': Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, screenwriters of John Woo's "Face/Off," have signed on to write "Top Ten" for Warner Bros. "Top Ten" is the story of a serial killer who learns he is No. 10 on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and sets off to systematically kill the criminals ranking ahead of him. The killer doesn't realize that one of the Most Wanted is actually an FBI agent working deep under cover on another case. The script will be based on the upcoming Ryne Douglas Pearson novel.

Leo joins 'Gangs': According to the Hollywood Reporter, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio could begin filming "Gangs of New York" in November. The Disney film deals with an Irish gang in New York during the 1930s. Scorsese is expected to follow it by directing Tom Hanks in "Dino," a Dean Martin/Rat Pack biopic. Scorsese's recently-completed "Bringing Out the Dead," starring Nicolas Cage, arrives in theaters in October.

Name that Flick

"Because yesterday she didn't, but today she does." Our winner is Eddie Clancy, who was the first to call and indentify the quote spoken by Steve Martin in "Roxanne." Way to go, Eddie! For this week, tell us: How many films Stanley Kubrick has directed? If you think you know, call the Movie Guys Hotline at 225-9026 or log onto our website at themovieguys.com. Be sure to spell your name, and if you're the first to answer correctly, we will print your name right here in our column for the entire Las Vegas Valley to read.

Be sure to pick up this week's issue of the Las Vegas Weekly to read our exclusive interview with the directors of the upcoming "The Blair Witch Project." See you next week! The Movie Guys

, starring Jeff Howard and Dave Neil, appears Fridays in the Sun (additional material provided by Thomas Feeney). You can also read their capsule reviews of movies in Las Vegas Weekly magazine. Plus, check them out online at lasvegassun.com/sun/sunlife/movies and themovieguys.com.

archive