8 Crazy Fan Theories That Actually Improve Horror Movies
8. The Haunting Has "Christian Symbolic Meaning"
Leave it to a Christian film critic to point out the obvious Christian symbolic meaning of The Haunting (1999), Jan De Bonts trashing of Shirley Jacksons The Haunting Of Hill House. According to the critic, Hill House represents the once beautiful but perverted and evil world, ghostly villain Hugh Crain is Satan and the Velma Dinkley-ish Eleanor, played by Lili Taylor, is none other than Jesus Christ. The remaining characters The Doctor With An Ulterior Motive, The Bisexual Character, The Beatnik are lost souls in search of redemption. When Eleanor sacrifices herself to save them and bond Crain in hell, she, like Christ, sacrifices herself for everyone, regardless of their sins. Having missed that particular reading of the material myself, I have to object to it, not on moral or religious grounds but because it obscures what De Bonts movie really is a load of tosh hiding behind some very expensive special effects.
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.'
