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The Haunting
(1999)
Jan
de Bont put his name all over this crap like he was
proud of it. In this remake of a 70's film ("The Haunting
of Hill House") based on a Shirley Jackson novel, 3
insomniacs spend the night in a huge mansion haunted
by Industrial Light and Magic. George Lucas has been
involved in far scarier films, "Star Wars: The Phantom
Menace" for example.
At
least de Bont tries to cast some interesting young talent;
Lili Taylor, a delight in any film, almost makes this
ridiculous, dated plot work. Unfortunately, she has
some impossible lines of dialogue and a devastatingly
preposterous plot twist to overcome in the film's finale
and the script fails her miserably. Taylor has no chance
to swim and sinks like a stone in the muck that is this
film. Owen Wilson, aka Oh He of the Broken Nose, is
fun and cute too. It's a shame they have him pine over
Catherine Zeta-Jones rather than Taylor because they
could be a sweet, quirky couple. Liam Neesom, meanwhile,
is as bland as can be. He apparently got the job based
on his ability of being able to not express a single
emotion on camera.
As
for the special effects, it takes much too long for
most of them to appear. We're well into the final half-hour
of the film before the house really gets rocking. It's
also interesting to note that ILM can make giant iron
statues come to life but they can seem to fake the misty
white breath of a person supposedly in a freezing cold
room. It looks incredibly fake.
Hey,
at least the film is beautiful to look at. Taylor and
Wilson's simple beauty juxtaposed against the grandeur
of the supposedly Gothic mansion and the overblown special
effects never fails to be eye candy. We expect nothing
less than a cinematically attractive film from de Bont,
a former Cinematographer. To bad he knows nothing about
direction, exposition, character development, plot or
the language of cinema.
Note:
Also with Bruce Dern.
De
Bont also acts as producer here.
Report
Card
Script:
F
Acting: C-
Cinematography\Lighting: A-
Special Effects\Make Up:
Music:
C
Final
Grade: F
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