BEST AND WORST REMAKES: WORST #8 – THE HAUNTING
I can’t think of any other film that is so consciously opposed in tone and style to its predecessor than the Haunting 1999 is to the Haunting 1963. Robert Wise’s original is a high point in the cinema of dread. It’s the patron saint of supernatural thrillers — not only because of its unsettling story of old spirits calling to a kindred spirit but because its artistic techniques are brilliantly used to emphasize a literal and metaphorical descent into madness.
Jan de Bont’s The Haunting is all sound and fury, signifying worse than nothing: annoyance. It’s over-animated computer graphics come off as cut scenes from Disney’s Haunted Mansion, undercutting any hope of mystery or terror it should have been seeking. The story turns into an exhaustingly bland “free the ghost kids from a dark spirit” trope and the finale is stuffed with the best stunts and fire effects ‘90s Hollywood could muster. What’s worse is watching really talented actors scream cringe-inducing lines like “Purgatory is over! You go to Hell!” It’s all extremely depressing stuff.
A part of me understands completely when one director wants to make his own mark on a well-known property. You’re setting yourself up for failure when you just copy and paste another artist’s work (see Gus Van Sant’s PSYCHO). The problem lies when leaving your mark can’t be differentiated from just pissing on another man’s wall.
