The Haunting (1999)

The Haunting (1999), directed by Jan de Bont.

Another example of the perils of remakes.

On the plus side:

• An attractive cast: Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones are always worth seeing and this is a showpiece for Lili Taylor, last seen in Say Anything... (1989). I can't take Owen Wilson seriously in anything, but this is not a serious film so maybe it doesn't matter.

• The opulent set design is a marvel. "Charles Foster Kane meets the Munsters" quips one character.

• In the first part they play off The Haunting (1963) nicely, mocking the housekeeper's practiced riff: "I leave before the dark. So there won't be anyone around if you need help. We couldn't hear you. In the night. In the dark".

• Another layer of deception is added, which might have worked. In the book and original film the visitors are legitimate psychic researchers. This time "sleep research" is a cover story for the unethical prof who is actually studying "fear".

The downside dominates:

• The sets are so rich they completely distract us from the story. The house is practically a castle and has impossible rooms: a mechanized mirrored ballroom and a flooded hallway. Do the housekeeper and her husband (Bruce Dern, sadly underused) maintain all that?

• The effects take over and obliterate the plot, particularly in the second half.

• Everything has to be explained. Everything has to be shown and made explicit. Nothing can be left to mystery, a place for the imagination to work.

• When curdling the blood, less really can be more. In The Haunting (1963) Robert Wise suggested more with a piece of wallpaper than provided by the entirety of this film:

  

Finally: what is more scary in a haunted house: wood (1963) or stone (1999)? Wood creaks.

Jerry Goldsmith score.

Available on Blu-ray. Good looking image, but grainless.