10 Movie Remakes That Ripped Off Audiences

3. The Haunting (1999)

the haunting
DreamWorks

This is the tawdry, illogical, monotonous, never-ending, pointless, lame, ridiculous, underwhelming, needless, stupid, patience-testing, senseless, unnecessary, time-stealing, joyless, obnoxious, oh-God-oh-God-I€™m-going-to-die-in-here Jan de Bont movie that isn'€™t Speed 2: Cruise Control, but if you enjoy watching good actors run away from special effects for 2 hours, knock yourself out. Note to gullible idiots: you should never trust a doctor who conducts an €œinsomnia study€ in a haunted house, even if he is played by Liam Neeson.

After statues come to life and staircases collapse, he'€™ll reveal he really lured you there for a study of group fear and hysteria. Most critics wondered what Shirley Jackson€™s novel (or Robert Wise€™s 1963 adaptation) had done to deserve such treatment. The Austin Chronicle called it €œabout as tantalizing as a desicated Gummi Bear€, while James Berardinelli, writing for Reel Views, noted that €œthe only thing disturbing about The Haunting is how discouraging the end product is.€

On the plus side, however, Steven Spielberg€™'s disappointment with the film reportedly caused him to fire de Bont from Minority Report.

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'