Owen Wilson: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Luke Sanderson - The Haunting (1999)

Every actor has their limitations, even the most versatile performers. Owen Wilson himself can shift through a lot of different emotional gears, but if The Haunting is anything to go by, then being a convincing terror-stricken horror movie pawn is certainly not one of them. The original The Haunting is considered to be a seminal supernatural horror, holding a special place within the genre of the haunted house movie. But this 1999 remake is a pitiful attempt to replicate the chills of Robert Wise's classic - and casts Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Lili Taylor alongside Wilson in a film that's destined to remain hidden at the bottom of their acting CV's. Wilson puts in a contrived performance that's right at home in a poor screenplay, with his final scene being so bad that it's more funny than scary. After going feral and slashing at a painting on the wall of the mansion, Wilson declares that the group should "burn the house down", only for a carpet to whisk him off his feet and send him tumbling into the fireplace. After briefly dusting himself down, Wilson is decapitated by a giant flying lion head made of stone, and the camera cuts to Liam Neeson - whose reaction is more like a man who's just seen "Two Girls, One Cup" for the first time as opposed to a man having his head chopped off.