A study in fear escalates into a heart-stopping nightmare for a professor and three subjects trapped in a mysterious mansion.
This film starts off being totally full of insane logic and scary humor and ends with exactly the same amount of justifiable nonsense, yet the irony is that is what makes it worth watching. In the beginning, Eleanor “Nell” Vance (Lili Taylor) is basically being given the boot from the comfort of the home in which she has been the caretaker of her mother for years until Eleanor’s death. Having relatives that basically tell her to suck it up and move after the reading of the will goes awry, seems to be the driving force that sends her out of her comfort zone to get a better understanding of how she ever came to accept such a life of unfulfilled wishes.
In trying to discover what else lies in store for her, Eleanor signs up for an experiment conducted by Dr. Marrow (Liam Neeson). As part of the experiment, Dr. Marrow’s three subjects, Theo (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Luke (Owen Wilson), and Nell must inhabit Hill House, a famous mansion known for its scary past. Each character has his own set of issues and while they attempt to make the best of each other’s quirks, neither is too sure why they were grouped together or how the whole thing is going to work out. As the experiment progresses, it appears that there is a ghost inside the house that has unresolved childbearing issues. Unhappy with the way things are being handled, he starts doing things to scare the inhabitants into leaving the mansion as it was. Nell, who has been studying the history of the house begins to piece together a story of how a man and his wife weren’t able to bear children and now the stone figures of the children throughout the mansion’s walls are begging to be set free from their bondage. The entire film takes a turn when Dr. Marrow is no longer in control of the experiment and the ghosts are sabotaging each of the inhabitants in order to keep the children in bondage. When they try to leave on their own terms, the ghosts are determined to take all human sacrifices in order to save their power over the children’s destiny. In the end, Nell is the only one who can set the children free by refusing to relinquish her power to the patriarch of the family.
Director Jan de Bont, known for action films “Speed” and “Twister,” did an excellent job of pivoting to a horror film and creating a cast of characters with their own idiosyncrasies, which were odd, but entertaining enough that each could lend his own set of strengths in order to overcome their obstacles. While at times they seemed like a set of total misfits, in the end, their redeeming qualities helped to unify them to set up a plan in which the majority of them could be saved. Liam Neeson, as always, played a tough, yet gentle character, who at his worst, was still admirable. This digitalized version gave Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting Of Hill House” a tremendous makeover while still allowing for the classic plot to be loved and appreciated, for those always willing to take on a few screams and overcome their fears in exchange for an extremely good ghost story.
Available on Blu-ray as part of the Paramount Presents line October 20th from Paramount Home Entertainment
