The Haunting (1999 film)

Eleanor "Nell" Vance, an insomniac, has cared for her disabled mother for 11 years, sharing a Boston apartment with her. After her mother dies, Nell's sister Jane and her husband Lou inherit the residence and eject Nell to prepare for a sale. As she faces homelessness, Nell accepts an invitation to participate in an insomnia study by Dr. David Marrow at Hill House, a secluded, sprawling manor in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. At the house, she meets Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, the eccentric caretakers. Two other participants soon arrive: the goofy Luke Sanderson, and Theodora ("Theo"), a glamorous, openly bisexual artist. Dr. Marrow and his two research assistants, Mary and Todd, follow. Unknown to the participants, Dr. Marrow's true purpose is to study the psychological response to fear, intending to expose his subjects to terror. During their first night, Dr. Marrow relates the story of Hill House: Its original owner, Hugh Crain, a 19th-century textile tycoon, constructed the rambling home for his wife Renee, hoping to populate it with a large family. Unfortunately, all of Crain's children were stillborns, and Renee, devastated by the multiple losses, killed herself, while Crain became a recluse. Mary is wounded in a freak accident involving a snapped piano wire, and leaves with Todd to go to the hospital. Supernatural events begin happening, and Nell sees apparitions of children. A large portrait of Hugh Crain is vandalized with the words "Welcome Home Eleanor" written in blood. Theo and Luke accuse Nell, claiming she is seeking attention. Nell becomes determined to prove that the house is haunted. She finds Crain's hidden study and learns that he extensively used child labor in his cotton mills. He tortured and killed orphans in his home, then burned their bodies in the fireplace. She surmises that these children's spirits are trapped in the house, providing Crain with an "eternal family". Crain had a second wife named Carolyn, from whom Nell is descended. Dr. Marrow is skeptical and reveals the truth of his fear study to the group, but after a statue comes to life and tries to drown him, he realizes Hill House is haunted. Nell reveals that she is related to Carolyn Crain and must help the children move on to the afterlife. The group tries to leave Hill House but Hugh Crain's ghost traps them inside. Luke defaces a portrait of Crain, enraging his spirit to decapitate Luke with a large chimney flue. When Crain manifests, Nell realizes that he thrived on the fear he created in children and declares that she is not afraid of him. Her declaration weakens the ghost and he is cast into a decorative bronze door depicting the distressed children in purgatory. He drags Nell with him, but the benevolent spirits release her and she dies. Nell's soul, along with those of the freed children, ascends to heaven. The following morning, Dr. Marrow and Theo meet the Dudleys at the front gate in silence and leave Hill House behind. ==Cast==

Development Filmmaker Steven Spielberg approached horror author Stephen King in 1996 about making a haunted house film, and the two agreed that Robert Wise's 1963 film The Haunting was a benchmark of cinematic haunted house horror. Spielberg pushed forward with the project, commissioning first-time screenwriter David Self to write a screenplay for the film. King went on to retool his rendition of the material into the 2002 miniseries Rose Red, which shares some elements of both Wise's 1963 film, as well as Jackson's source novel. Casting The casting of Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the lead roles was announced in September 1998, with Neeson portraying Dr. Marrow, Taylor portraying Nell Vance, and Zeta-Jones portraying Theodora. Owen Wilson was cast as Luke Sanderson, the third subject of Marrow's study. Bruce Dern and Marian Seldes were cast as Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, the eccentric and superstitious caretakers of Hill House, respectively. Filming Principal photography began on November 30, 1998. Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel was originally hired to shoot the film, but left over creative differences one week into filming. Harlaxton Manor, in England, was used as the exterior of Hill House while its Great Hall served as the games room scene where Marrow comforts Nell after seeing the bloodied "Welcome Home Eleanor" writing and where Nell reveals Hugh Crain's crimes. The kitchen and pantry scenes were filmed inside Belvoir Castle. De Bont recalled that Zanetti "was an unusual choice for a horror movie, but I thought of this more as an opera. I wanted the set to be as much a character as the lead actors, so I needed someone who had done something like that. My research led me to Eugenio, I explained to him what I was looking for and the set he came up with was absolutely spectacular." Post-production Following principal photography, the film's elaborate visual effects were completed by Phil Tippett, who had previously provided effects work on Jurassic Park (1993). According to de Bont: "We added some shots of the spirits of the children... well, I’m not going to give it all away." ==Release==

The Haunting had its world premiere at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles on July 20, 1999. It was subsequently given a wide theatrical release in North America on July 23, 1999, screening in 2,808 theaters. Home media The Haunting was released on VHS and DVD by DreamWorks Home Entertainment on November 23, 1999. Following Paramount Pictures' acquisition of DreamWorks, Paramount reissued the film on DVD in October 2017. In October 2020, Paramount released the film on Blu-ray featuring a new 4K restoration under their "Paramount Presents" Blu-ray line. On February 27, 2023, Scream Factory announced a forthcoming 4K UHD Blu-ray release that was released on May 30, 2023. ==Reception==

Box office The film earned $33,435,140 during its opening weekend, ranking in first place ahead of Inspector Gadget, American Pie and Eyes Wide Shut. It was overtaken by Runaway Bride during its second weekend, falling into fourth place behind the latter film, The Blair Witch Project and Deep Blue Sea with a 54.4% decline and a gross of $15.2 million. The film remained in theatrical release until November 1999. Roger Ebert gave the film a favorable review, awarding it three stars out of four, and praising the production design in particular: "To my surprise, I find myself recommending The Haunting based on its locations, its sets, its art direction, its sound design, and the overall splendor of its visuals. The story is a mess, but for long periods that hardly matters. It's beside the point, as we enter one of the most striking spaces I've ever seen in a film." Similar sentiments were echoed by The New York Times's Janet Maslin, who deemed the film "a lavish illustration of how to take a fairly modest black-and-white horror film from 1963 and amplify it so relentlessly that the sight of the flying cow in Twister would not be all that amiss...  the film's spooky tricks are orchestrated by top-notch behind-the-scenes talent, who augment Mr. De Bont's tireless efforts to keep things moving." David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor similarly noted that, though the film "falls short of Jackson's teeming imagination, paying more attention to a ponderous historical subplot... the best reason to see The Haunting is the sheer sumptuousness of its creepy-crawly set designs. The second-best reason is Lili Taylor, whose sincerity and conviction could make any script come at least partly alive." Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune praised Taylor's lead performance, and noted of the cast: "As an ensemble, they’re all fun to watch. Very few actors, though, could upstage this house—especially when [set designer] Zanetti and visual effects supervisors Phil Tippett and Craig Hayes haul out the computer magic to wage all-out war on the human foursome." Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the film's set design, but found its screenplay lackluster, noting that the film "dooms itself from the outset with a setup that is too artificial for the subsequent drama to be compelling, and with characters whose lack of a strong purpose severely limits their interest. The only thing that keeps you going for a time is the sense that it’s going to get better, that something wild and scary is bound to happen eventually." Desson Howe of The Washington Post expressed ambivalence about the film's special effects, writing: "You can almost sense the special effects poised in the wings, waiting for that Act III cue. We know the scary stuff is coming. That's what keeps us waiting. Without giving too much away, those effects are fairly impressive. Not amazing." Philip French of The Guardian was unimpressed by the film, calling it "a silly and defiantly unfrightening affair." Almar Haflidason of the BBC awarded the film two out of five stars, writing: "The vice-like grip of this cinematic demon is sadly not loosened by a satisfying denouement. Instead, De Bont hits frantic mode, resulting in a closing half-hour that's nothing less than bonkers. Everything is thrown at the screen, and pretty soon you're as exhausted as the hapless suckers you're watching." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly panned the film, deeming it "worse than awful: desperate. It's a horror flick afraid of its own audience... No wonder the audience laughs derisively through scenes not meant for laughter. That isn't the acrid odor of fear we smell in this house of horrors. It's flop sweat." Accolades ==See also==