The Haunting is a 1999 supernatural horror film directed by Jan de Bont. The film is a remake of the psychological horror film of the same name. Both of them are based on the 1959 novel, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The Haunting stars Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor. It was released in the United States on July 23, 1999.
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Plot
Eleanor "Nell" Vance (Lili Taylor) has cared for her invalid mother for 11 years. After her mother dies, her sister Jane (Virginia Madsen) and Jane's boyfriend Lou (Tom Irwin) eject her to save money. With nowhere else to go, Nell suddenly receives a phone call about an insomnia study, directed by Dr. David Marrow (Liam Neeson) at Hill House, a secluded manor in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, and applies for it. She is accepted and drives to the house, where she meets Mr. and Mrs. Dudley (Bruce Dern, Marian Seldes), a strange pair of caretakers.
Two other participants arrive, Luke Sanderson (Owen Wilson) and Theodora "Theo" (Catherine Zeta-Jones), along with Dr. Marrow and his two research assistants. Unknown to the participants, Dr. Marrow's true purpose is to study the psychological response to fear, intending to expose his subjects to increasing amounts of supposed supernatural terror. Each night, the caretakers will lock the gate outside Hill House, preventing anyone from getting in or out until morning.
During their first night, Dr. Marrow relates the story of Hill House. The house was built by Hugh Crain (Charles Gunning)--a 19th-century textile tycoon. Crain built the house for his wife, hoping to fill it with a large family; however, all of Crain's children died during birth. Crain's wife Renee killed herself before the house was finished and Crain became a recluse. But he kept building the house, and after his death locals reported the sounds of children coming from inside the abandoned mansion.
After the story, one of Marrow's assistants claims to feel a dark presence in the house. Her face is suddenly slashed by a snapped clavichord wire. The freak accident causes Marrow's research assistants to leave. Nell begins to suspect that it was no accident, as she notices the wire was unwound by something. The rest of the group eventually goes to bed to begin the "insomnia" study. Luke wanders through the halls and runs into Dr. Marrow, scaring the both of them.
Theo and Nell begin to experience unusual happenings in their bedrooms, such as a mysterious force trying to open the door in Theo's room, and Nell starts to see ghosts of children in the curtains and sheets in her room. The next morning, the group finds Hugh Crain's wood portrait morphed into a skeletal face, vandalized with the words "Welcome Home Eleanor" written in blood. Theo and Luke try to establish their innocence and accuse Nell of doing it to get attention, but Nell tells them that they don't know her.
Nell becomes determined to prove the house is haunted by the spirits of the children who worked in Crain's textile mills. She learns that Crain kidnapped the children from his cotton mills and murdered them, burning their bodies in the fireplace which trapped their ghosts and forced them to remain with him, providing him with an 'eternal family'. The ghost children are terrified of Crain, and several of them ask Nell to "free" them. Nell also learns that Crain had a second wife named Carolyn, from whom she is descended. Carolyn had a child by Crain but managed to escape.
Dr. Marrow is skeptical after the vandalism, but he realizes he made a mistake when Nell's claims are proven true. While he is alone in the greenhouse, a statue tries to drown him in a pool of water. After several more terrifying events, Nell insists she cannot leave the ghosts of the children to suffer for eternity at Crain's hands. Trying to convince Eleanor to leave the house with them, Theo offers to let Nell move in with her, but Nell reveals her relation to Carolyn and claims she must help the children "move on" to the afterlife.
Aware of Nell's plan, Hugh Crain's ghost seals up the house, trapping them all inside. As the group tries to find a way out, a frustrated Luke defaces a portrait of Crain. The enraged spirit grabs Luke and drags him to the fireplace, where he is decapitated by a swinging statue. Nell is able to taunt Crain's spirit towards an iron door, shaming him for his cruelty towards Carolyn and the children. The spirits in the door appear and pull Crain into the entryway, dragging him down to Hell. Nell is pulled with him, the force killing her, but the ghosts gently place her body on the ground. Her ghost then rises up to Heaven, accompanied by the children's ghosts. The scene transitions to the morning after, where Theo and Dr. Marrow are waiting by the gate outside for the Dudleys.
The Dudleys approach as the sun rises. Mr. Dudley asks Dr. Marrow if he found what he wanted, but the traumatized psychiatrist does not give an answer, and neither does Theo. When the gate opens, the two silently walk out and down the road, leaving Hill House behind them.
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Cast
- Lili Taylor as Eleanor "Nell" Vance
- Liam Neeson as Doctor David Marrow
- Catherine Zeta-Jones as Theodora "Theo"
- Owen Wilson as Luke Sanderson
- Marian Seldes as Mrs. Dudley
- Bruce Dern as Mr. Dudley
- Alix Koromzay as Mary Lambetta
- Todd Field as Todd Hackett
- Virginia Madsen as Jane Lance
- Tom Irwin as Lou
- Charles Gunning as Hugh Crain
- Debi Derryberry, Jessica Evans, Sherry Lynn, Miles Marsico, Courtland Mead, Kyle McDougle, Kelsey Mulrooney and Hannah Swanson as the voices of the children
Production
Wes Craven was at one point developing a remake of The Haunting, but dropped out in favor of Scream. Under DreamWorks, the film was originally to have been a collaboration between Steven Spielberg (mainly, as director) and Stephen King (as screenwriter), but the two had creative differences. King instead wrote the teleplay for Rose Red, a television miniseries that shares many elements with Jackson's source novel, The Haunting of Hill House, and the character of the real-life edifice Winchester Mystery House, in San Jose, California.
Argentine production designer Eugenio Zanetti (Restoration - 1995 and What Dreams May Come - 1998) oversaw the set designs.
The CGI was done by Tippett Studio and Industrial Light and Magic.
Filming
Harlaxton Manor, in England, was used as the exterior of Hill House. The billiard room scene was filmed in the Great Hall of the manor, while many of the interior sets were built inside the dome-shaped hangar that once housed The Spruce Goose, near the permanently docked RMS Queen Mary steamship, in Long Beach, California. The kitchen scenes were filmed at Belvoir Castle.
Critical reception
The Haunting was panned upon its release, with most critics citing its weak screenplay, its overuse of horror clichés, and its overdone CGI effects. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "Rotten" rating of 17%, with the critical consensus stating "Sophisticated visual effects fail to offset awkward performances and an uneven script". As a result of the negative reviews, it was nominated for five Razzie Awards. Roger Ebert was one of few critics to give the film a positive review, praising the production design in particular.
Razzie Awards
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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