Quote:
Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs  I'm interested in what other members think of the 1999 Haunting?
'Crap' is just not an answer.  |
Belated response.
Frankly, I thought it was terrible, but I'm probably biased as I love Jackson's book and hold the 60s version in high esteem.
It's really a complete misfire tonally. How is just throwing loud cgi shit at the screen supposed to scare anyone?
Very much a missed opportunity. And there is opportunity there, as although the 60s version is a very good movie and sticks close to the novel plotwise, it doesn't quite capture it's dreamy ambience that is portrayed between the scary parts. There is, perhaps, a definitive 'The Haunting of Hill House' still to be made?
Anyway the real reason I wanted to respond was for excuse to post the opening paragraph from the book which is always worth a reread imho:
No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality;even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against the hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.