The Haunting (1999 film)

The Haunting
The Haunting film poster
Directed by	Jan de Bont
Written by	Shirley Jackson (novel) David Self Michael Tolkin (screenplay)
Produced by	Donna Roth Colin Wilson
Starring	Lili Taylor Liam Neeson Catherine Zeta-Jones Owen Wilson
Cinematography	Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	DreamWorks
Release dates	July 20, 1999
Running time	113 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$80,000,000
Box office	$177,311,151

The Haunting is a 1999 remake of the 1963 horror film of the same name. Both films are based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, published in 1959. The Haunting was directed by Jan de Bont and stars Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor. It was released in the United States on July 20, 1999.

Synopsis

When her invalid mother dies and her sister (Virginia Madsen) evicts her, Eleanor "Nell" Vance (Taylor) receives a phone call, telling her about an ad for an insomnia study run by Doctor David Marrow (Neeson) at Hill House - a secluded manor in Massachusetts. Upon arrival, Nell meets Mr. Dudley (Bruce Dern) and Mrs. Dudley (Marian Seldes), a strange pair of caretakers who do not stay on the property after dark, and then two other participants in the study, wild Theo (Zeta-Jones) and "bad sleeper" Luke Sanderson (Wilson).

Unknown to the participants, Doctor Marrow's true purpose is to study the psychological response to fear. Each night, the caretakers chain the gate outside Hill House, preventing anyone from getting in or out until morning, when the caretakers open the lock. There are no working telephones inside Hill House and cell phone service is unavailable there. The house was chosen because of its isolation from the outside world.

On their first night at the mansion, Doctor Marrow relates the legend of Hugh Crain - an Industrial Revolution tycoon who built Hill House. According to Doctor Marrow's telling of the legend, Crain's wife killed herself before the house was finished, which drove Crain insane. As he tells the story, an accident causes Marrow's research assistants to leave the house, leaving the doctor alone with the study participants for the duration of the study.

The first night, Theo and Nell begin to experience strange phenomenon within the house, including odd noises and inexplicable temperature changes. Doctor Marrow placates Theo with explanations centered around the old house's plumbing, but Nell remains unconvinced. Her experiences intensify. Eventually, she sees apparitions, but everyone else in the house believes that she's making up stories for attention. Nell is confronted after the main hallway is vandalized with the words "Welcome Home, Eleanor", and becomes extremely distraught, setting out to prove that the house is haunted by the souls of those victimized by Crain's cruelty. She learns that Crain built his fortune by exploiting kidnapped children for slave labor and murdering them when they were of no more use to him. She also learns that Crain had a second wife named Carolyn, of whom Nell is descended.

When Dr. Marrow reveals the dual nature of his study, Theo and Luke believe the pressures of being confined to the house are causing Nell to suffer a nervous breakdown. Dr. Marrow finally comes to his senses and decides they must leave. Terrifying phenomena occur throughout the house--a statue in a nearby fountain comes to life and attempts to drown the doctor, and Nell is trapped in her room by the spirit of the angry Hugh Crain. After freeing Nell, the four decide to leave, but learn they are trapped on the property. During that time, Nell asks Doctor Marrow how he knew the house wanted her (referring to phone call she received earlier). He does not know about any call and says the first time he spoke to Nell was at the house. When Luke tries to crash the gate with Nell's Gremlin, he fails and is trapped in the car. The car is leaking gasoline and Doctor Marrow and Theo free Luke from the car. While they are helping Luke, Nell goes back into the house, knowing that she cannot leave the children to be hurt by Crain. Luke, Theo, and Doctor Marrow go in search of Nell. Once they find her, she reveals her relation to Carolyn and how she must stay and help the children. The other three try to run but Hugh Crain's evil spirit seals up the house, trapping them inside.

Theo, Luke and Doctor Marrow try to break windows to get out, but have no success and eventually, Doctor Marrow cuts his hand. While Nell and Theo tend to Marrow, Luke destroys a portrait of Hugh Crain, out of frustration with a candlestick. Crain's spirit drags Luke to the fireplace where he is decapitated by a lion-headed flue.

Nell tells Dr. Marrow and Theo they have to hide. When Nell runs to try and hide, she realizes that she must avenge the souls of Crain's victims and invokes Crain's spirit to manifest and is able to lead him towards a huge iron door with the inscription "All Ye Who Stand Before These Doors Shall Be Judged" engraved on it. An avenging wind howls throughout the room and demons from the gates of hell pull Crain's spirit into it. Nell is thrown into the door and dies with her arms outstretched as a Christ figure, while her spirit floats from her body and rises up to heaven with the spirits of Crain's victims. After witnessing Nell's death, Theo and Dr. Marrow wait by the gate outside till the Dudleys come in the morning.

Mr. Dudley asks Dr. Marrow if he found what he wanted to know, but the traumatized psychiatrist does not give an answer. When the gate opens, he and Theo silently walk out and down the road, leaving Hill House behind them.

Cast

• Eleanor "Nell" Vance
  Lili Taylor
• Doctor David Marrow
  Liam Neeson
• Theo
  Catherine Zeta-Jones
• Luke Sanderson
  Owen Wilson
• Mrs. Dudley
  Marian Seldes
• Mr. Dudley
  Bruce Dern
• Mary Lambetta
  Alix Koromzay
• Todd Hackett
  Todd Field
• Jane Vance
  Virginia Madsen
• Hugh Crain
  Charles Gunning

Differences with the novel

• In Jackson's source novel, Luke Sanderson (played here by Owen Wilson) survives his stay at Hill House.
• Eleanor dies in suicide when her car crashes headlong into a tree just outside the House. In the film, she dies when she is dragged into the iron doors along with Hugh Crain's malevolent spirit.
• Dr. Markway is re-named Dr. Marrow.

Differences with the 1963 film version

• Eleanor never develops romantic feelings for neither Luke nor Dr. Markway (here known as Dr. Marrow).
• There are also additional guests such as Mary Lambetta, who was the first to leave.

Production

This film was originally to have been a collaboration between Steven Spielberg (mainly, as director) and Stephen King (as screenwriter), but the two had creative differences and went their own way. King instead wrote the teleplay for Rose Red, a television miniseries that shares many elements with Jackson's source novel, The Haunting of Hill House, and the character of the real-life edifice Winchester Mystery House, in San Jose, California.

Harlaxton Manor, in England, was used as the exterior of the house, while many of the interior sets were built inside the dome-shaped hangar that once housed The Spruce Goose, near the permanently docked RMS Queen Mary steamship, in Long Beach, California.

Argentine production designer Eugenio Zanetti (Restoration - 1995 and What Dreams May Come - 1998) oversaw the set designs.

Trivia

• The film was spoofed in Scary Movie 2.
• The creaks and moans heard throughout the house were pre-recorded and played during filming in order to get a more natural expression of fear out of the actors.
• The house used in the film is located in Grantham, England and is owned by the University of Evansville (Indiana). It is used by students that study abroad. It is now called Harlaxton College.
• The title of the movie was changed from "The Haunting of Hill House" (another film, House on Haunted Hill (1999) was to be released later that year).
• Liam Neeson is afraid of heights so his fear when he was dangling off the flight of steps whilst trying to save Nell, required no acting.
• Writer Michael Tolkin, as script doctor, did a uncredited re-write on the script.
• The outside of Hill House, as well as some interiors were filmed in Harlaxton Manor, in England.
• The part of the big lion head in the fireplace was originally played by a large green ball.
• Liam Neeson nicknamed Catherine Zeta-Jones "The Welsh Gazelle", because they repeated a running take time after time, and he couldn't keep up with her.
• Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel was originally attached to photograph the movie and even completed some of the filming, but dropped out due to creative differences.
• The project was originally with Dimension films, with Wes Craven attached to direct.
• The enormous fireplace in Hill House was designed after the one in Citizen Kane (1941). Catherine Zeta-Jones's character comments early in the film that the house's design is like "Charles Foster Kane".
• The official Spanish title for the film is "La Maldición, which translates as "The Curse".
• This was the first film for uncredited executive producer Samuel Z. Arkoff in almost 15 years. It also gave him a chance to work with his daughter, Donna Roth, who was one of the producers.
• Several of the sets depicting Hill House were built in the hangar that housed The Spruce Goose, the mammoth airplane built by Howard Hughes.
• At the time of its release, it was widely rumored that Steven Spielberg either directed some scenes or participated in post production because he did not liked the results he saw. This was however never confirmed.

External links

• The Haunting at IMDb
• The Haunting at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Haunting at Box Office Mojo