The Haunting

December 11, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 82 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

DVD Quick Take

Here’s a case where the DVD turns out to have the exact same problem as the movie itself just on a different level. The visual effects and sound on the DVD are excellent, but unfortunately we’re still stuck with a pretty darned mediocre movie to go along with it.

The video is good and it’s wide screen enhanced. Given the stunning visual effects in this movie, that’s important. The bigger your set the more you’ll enjoy this one as there’s alot of detail about this house to see.

The sound could be better if they used the rear speakers to put you in the action a bit more. Instead, they really seemed to concentrate on the low frequency effects. Your subwoofer is going to get a workout on this one.

Movies For Guys’ Original Review of the Theatrical Release

The previews for this movie were very effective, especially the shorter one where we just heard narration while getting different views of the house. These previews promised us a horror movie… that’s not what we ended up with.

The premise of the story is that a psychologist is doing a study on insomnia and recruits a group of 3 subjects to participate. In reality the subject of the study is fear and how it manifests itself in people, but as the good doctor says “you don’t tell the rats they are in a maze.”

To facilitate fear the study is held at Hill House, a huge and creepy house that’s chock full of gothic images, sculptures and some really strange architecture. All of this setup is great, and we get our mouths set for some really scary stuff… and that stuff never shows up. Oh sure, there are a couple of “boo!” type scares, but that’s about it.

This movie was obviously the result of a few re-edits after test audiences trashed it, and the cuts show through. For example, early in the movie a couple of characters depart and never return… we’re just supposed to forget them I suppose.

The budget for this film was about $80 million, and it shows. The special effects are nothing short of amazing, and its almost worth the price of admission just to see the massive sets that were created for the filming. If you are a special effects buff, the rating for this movie would be 4/5 as I’m certain this won’t look anywhere near as impressive on a small screen. But special effects along don’t make a movie… so 2 stars is all we can give it.

Posted by John | Filed Under 2 Stars, Catherine Zeta-Jones, DVD, Horror, Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Marian Seldes, Owen Wilson, PG-13