American cinema has a questionable history when it comes to bringing inanimate objects to life. (Does anyone else remember The Car?) Yet seeing a ventriloquist dummy or a tree come to life can certainly scare the pants off of anyone if it is done well.
The Haunting, which is based on Shirley Jackson's novel, The Haunting of Hill House, is the latest entry in the ordinary-object-inhabited-by-unhappy-spirits category and it certainly puts a genuine dent in the ol' creepiness factor.
Jan De Bont, the hyper-critical director whose movies have either been completely on-target (Speed, Twister) or way off the mark (Speed 2), attempts to fuel the audience's fear of things that go bump in the night with a big-budgeted, special-effects smorgasbord of a film.
The result is, well, somewhere in the middle of Speed and Speed 2.
Certainly, the house featured in The Haunting is one of the most extraordinary things ever to invade the screen. It is so effective that it upstages a talented cast (Lili Taylor, Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Owen Wilson), which, by the way, should have acted much better, even if the script was unpolished, and, for lack of a better term, schizophrenic.
The basic plot centers around three insomniacs who are invited to eerie Hill Manor and unwillingly participate in a field study on the mechanics of fear. The test is being conducted by an ethically-challenged doctor, played rather listlessly by Neeson, who basically sees his patients as rats in a maze.
The rats are not really much to watch -- but, oh what a maze!
Hill House is breathtaking -- figuratively and quite literally, for it is haunted by a variety of supernatural forces that are capable of animating all aspects of the house. De Bont masterfully applies special effects that transform the house into an ominous character that stretches, groans, creaks and does everything short of a tango to the poor unsuspecting inhabitants who are trapped inside.
The first half of the film builds the suspense slowly, generating an eerie mood that relies only on an occasional, subtle special effect. The presence of the house is always felt, but seldom seen.
However, the film turbo shifts from an old-fashioned ghost story to a modern, popcorn-munching event flick without even flinching.
The visuals in The Haunting increase in frequency and the result is astonishing, but the creepiness of the film is sacrificed. Once the film jumps into warp speed velocity, the effects keep coming -- bam, bam, bam -- and rarely let up. Every time you see a window, wall or statue -- you know it is going to move.
The movie loses its element of surprise because it overuses the same scare tactics repeatedly. A statue moves. The bed springs to life. Another statue moves. Children's laughter can be heard. A different statue moves. Etc., etc., etc. The film's suspense is completely swallowed by the barrage of effects that filter their way into almost every scene.
This is amusing to watch for a while, but the quality of the script's dialogue suffers as the quality of the film's eye candy increases. By the climax of the film -- when the script needs to be at its best -- the dialogue is unforgivably bad and the plot holes surface with a vengeance, haunting the audience with questions and unexplained actions.
The Haunting is not really a good movie, but it is certainly worth watching. Most of the film entertains, and, if you can get past the outrageous ending, you might well go home satisfied. However, if you prefer your chills to outweigh your thrills, then you might want to go see The Blair Witch Project instead.
A doctor brings together a group of insomniacs under the guise of a sleep study. The location: Hill House, widely known for its mysterious happenings ...More at HotMovieSale.com
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