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 "The Haunting" is an understated horror film, despite the impressive special effects and atmosphere. While the house is awesome with its multitude of enormous and ornately decorated rooms, the acting from most of the cast is distinctly corpse-like. Owen Wilson never changes facial expressions, and Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones are remarkably stoic despite all the violent supernatural activity surrounding them. The direction even keeps the shock down to a minimum. The instant when one of the characters gets decapitated, the camera stops shooting the death scene. Hence, it seems as if the director is making a preemptive strike against gore. Even the simplistic story takes a back seat to the visuals, and developments in the plot only serve as a faint reminder that there really is some sort of story to this version of "The Haunting". Probably the real underlying problem is the commercialization. This movie has been made on a big budget of $80 million, and, as many horror fans already know, Hollywood executives are reluctant to furnish generous funds toward horror movies unless they are adjusted to the tastes of the mainstream audience, which translates to minimal gore and the lack of controversial, dark-humored surprises found primarily in low-budget films (i.e. "Evil Dead", "Night of the Demons"). Overall, "The Haunting" ranks as a fair horror movie, though it would have been a great film if the acting and storyline are as impressive as the special effects and the majestic mansion. |
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QUARTER BY QUARTER ANALYSIS OF MOVIE
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OVERALL RATING
** NOTE: The more dots, the higher the rating. A dozen dots mean that the movie is a masterpiece while one or no dots mean you'll have more fun picking your nose with a scalpel. ** |
    
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The Worm-Hole Reviews are written by Matt Barnes.