The Haunting


A psychologist invited three individuals to stay the night in Hill House for an experiment in sleeping disorders. Instead, his experiment is based on the dynamics of group fear.
After telling them snippets of the macabre history of Hill House under the guise of casual conversation, he intends to sit back and watch the seeds he's planted germinate into full-blown paranoia. But it soon becomes apparent that only the disbelievers are delusional.


112 minutes.
No persons under 16 .
Horror, Thriller

Not currently showing on the local cinema circuit.

Don
Don't worry boys, I will protect you!

Credits

Cast
Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor, Bruce Dern
Director
Jan De Bont
ScreenplayDavid Self Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House
MusicJerry Goldsmith
CinematographyKarl Walter Lindenlaub
Sound formatsDolby Digital, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, DTS, Dolby EX 6.1
Made in1999
Produced byDreamWorks SKG, Roth-Arnold Productions

Official Site




Ratings

Scale (Max)20

What the Critics say

Movies for Africa
Ian Douglas
8
Movies for Africa
Violet Jacobs
14
Cape Argus
Derek Wilson
5
Cape Argus
Adrian Monteath
5
The Star
Janine Walker
6
Die Burger
Emile Joubert
5
Sunday Times
Barry Ronge
5
SA City Life
15
eye Weekly
Jason Anderson
1
Box Office
Christine James
5
Rough Cut
Christopher Brandon
12
Total Film
Yael Shuv
5
Film Review
Grant Kemptster
5

What the People say

Internet
1910 Netizens
10

Average .. 36%

7

Visitor Ratings

Scale (Max)20
Claudia Paul 8
Wayne Woods 20
Stan Immelman 1
Debbie Grogor 16
Guinevere Vos 14
Vanessa Govender 8
Paul Botes 12
Andrew Simpson 6

Average .. 53%

11

Visitor Comments

Ian Douglas: The first thing that bothered me was Zeta-Jones in a supporting role, which was a surprise after she co-starred in Entrapment. The storyline is rather far-fetched as far as the horror genre goes, and ultimately comes down to SFX, SFX and more SFX. Logic flies out of the window early on.

Robert Haynes: What was a truly unsettling film could have been a terrifying masterpiece had Jan De Bont not flown OTT with visuals towards the end. When the film was suggestive rather than obvious was when it worked best - like the original - A potential classic fright film is marred by those annoying bytes of information they call digital effects - TOO MUCH - WAY TOO MUCH...Still forget the last 15 minutes and focus on the creepiness of the rest!

Stuart Mann: Typical Dreamworks film - great camera work, sets, special effects, etc. combined with a couple of big name actors manage to hold the audiences attention. However, once again they fail to turn a reasonable film into a good/great film. The suspense ifs built up well but is wasted by the ending (note: could not use the word 'climax') of the movie - which is really inconclusive and leaves a lot to be desired. Go and watch 'The Haunting' if you've seen everything else.

Claudia Paul: Too much of media hype...bland to say the least!

Wayne Woods: I was really turned on by this film.

Stan Immelman: Junk!

Debbie Grogor: Brilliant, I still can't sleep.

Guinevere Vos: I went into this film expecting to see A LOT of Sci-fi! The director is after all De Bont. I liked it.

Vanessa Govender: I agree with your comments. They could have had a really great movie had they made it more into a 'fright' movie. There was certainly no substance to this movie.

Paul Botes: Very long and not very interesting but special effects is good.

Andrew Simpson: The most unscary horror film ever made. Shocking acting and bad directing make this useless story even worse.






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