The Haunting

The Great Vhs Collection

Review #1: The Haunting (1999)

(Some spoilers)

For this series appearing on Sunny All Day News I (Hannah) will review every movie in my bollovid vhs collection. I say this because right now I feel like I need to remind myself about how much I love my collection despite hating some of the movies in it, such as the horrendous reemake of the 1960s classic The Haunting.
Let me start with a little bit of context. The original Haunting (which was based on the classic novel The Haunting of Hill House) was released in 1963 and since then has been regarded as one of the greatest horror movies of all time influencing horror cinema for years to come, not to mention the fact that it is one my favorite movies in general. To put it in a metaphor, if horror movies are a religion than remaking The Haunting would be heresy. This is only more true when one watches the movie.
This film is more than just an insult to the original, it stomps all over the original, shoots it, and then spits on it’s corpse. The only thing it has in common with the original is the name and the fact that the house is called Hill House. It takes any subtlety and nuance that the original had and thoughts it out the window in favour of outdated cgi ghosts. However even without the legacy of the original the film still doesn't hold up. The acting is wooden (which is odd considering that most of these people are good actors), the cgi is laughable, and I have honestly seen Scooby doo cartoons scarier (seriously Zombie Island is fantastic). I am not exaggerating with the Scooby doo reference as this film at times feels like a R-rated saturday morning cartoon, after all they try to make pillows scary, have the most obviously evil villain in history who is evil just because, and a big shadowy cgi ghost at the end, one that is literally defeated by the power of love.
If you for some reason want to watch this it is available on dvd, usually in the 5 dollar discount bin at Walmart, but I personally recommend to just stay away from this one, it’s not even worth the 5 dollars.

Ratting: Just watch the original, or the series on Netflix.

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