20 Films That Prove The 1990s Was The Worst Decade For Horror
3. The Haunting
If there's one thing to be said in favour of 90s horror, it's the fact that original properties still prevailed; it wasn't until the 2000s that the remake boom really took off, in the wake of the new takes on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead. However, the 90s were not entirely free from remakes, and they don't come much worse than Jan De Bont's 1999 take on Robert Wise's 1963 classic The Haunting.
It has a strong enough ensemble, with Liam Neeson, Lilli Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Owen Wilson as the core quartet who descend upon the infamous Hill House in search of proof of the paranormal.
However, where the original movie (based on Shirley Jackson's equally esteemed novel The Haunting of Hill House) cannily implied a supernatural presence via suggestive camerawork and sound effects, De Bont's movie opts to show everything in detail, via the wonders of CGI.
Yes, The Haunting is yet another example of a movie which has aged horribly thanks to digital FX which didn't even look good to begin with. This alone is enough to condemn it to the trash heap of horror history; the fact that it tarnishes the good name of a bona fide genre classic is just the tip of the iceberg.