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Post by janntosh on Jul 24, 2024 2:53:23 GMT
Think I watched this on TV as a kid but don't remember too much. Apparently, producer Steven Spielberg was so disgusted with the film's quality that he removed his name from the film. He was the one who hired Jan De Bont to direct, who made Twister for Amblin. While Twister is awesome, it is a totally different beast than what should be an atmospheric horror movie. Could possibly have been the studio also who felt bad CGI ghosts was the type of horror people wanted.
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Post by cat on Jul 24, 2024 4:25:20 GMT
Never saw it. Love the original though.
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Post by Nalkarj on Jul 24, 2024 4:55:54 GMT
Is it horrible to admit I kind of like it? OK, there’s no defense for the CGI ghosts and certainly not for the ending, but it’s got such a great-looking haunted house, and I honestly love the whole build-up.
I actually find it more bearable to watch than the original, which I happily admit is the far better movie but in which I just can’t take Julie Harris’s mopey, self-pitying performance. (I know it’s the character—I know. But I can take Nell in the book and as played by Lili Taylor in the remake, just not Harris’s characterization.)
In general, though, again, the build-up to the ghosts is so good that I can’t write off the whole movie. And I quite like Catherine Zeta-Jones’s Theo, even if I ultimately prefer Claire Bloom’s take in the original.
Also, when I was a kid I saw this advertised somewhere and just the poster scared me. (My eternal split as a kid: I was drawn to, yet terrified of, scary stories and scary movies.) That counts for something, doesn’t it?
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Post by politicidal1 on Jul 24, 2024 13:10:36 GMT
Nalkarj I really dig the production design as well. This house deserves a better movie though.
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Post by Nalkarj on Jul 25, 2024 17:07:23 GMT
Nalkarj I really dig the production design as well. This house deserves a better movie though. It does, and yet… I guess I’ll just say that most ghost stories and movies don’t stick the landing. Because they’re so dependent on atmosphere rather than plot (this is not a bad thing, necessarily), they so often end in ambiguity ( The Shining) or anticlimax ( The Uninvited). Which goes back to only two endings being possible for a ghost story: Either the characters escape the ghosts or not. The exceptions—in film, notably Ghostwatch, which does go in a genuinely surprising direction—prove the rule, in my opinion. So, yes, the ’99 Haunting’s CGI ghosts suck, and they bring down my rating and opinion of the movie. Agreed. But the sets and the setup are so good, and for me that’s the more important part of a ghost movie.
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