The Haunting

This second adaptation – after Robert Wise’s seminal “The Haunting” (1963) – of Shirley Jackson’s novel “The Haunting of Hill House” (1957) turns out to be an unbelievably boring ghost story, listlessly thrown together using the most trite and hackneyed elements of an already-overdone haunted-house genre. Another strike against this particular film is its tendency to favor “showing” over “suggesting,” which chips away at the creepy ambiguity which was the major strength of the earlier adaptation.

The cast of well-known actors offers basically drab performances, although the main problem lies in David Self’s entirely uninspired screenplay, in addition to clearly sub-par direction. Clearly, Jan de Bont has always been more at home in chaotic environments – high-adrenaline action movies such as “Speed” (1994) and “Twister” (1996) – where psychological subtleties aren’t a high priority.

So are there any saving graces in a production as ambitious (the budget was in the neighborhood of $80 million) as it is disappointing? A few fairly good special effects and some inspired scenography.

Definitely not enough.