> > Yesterday I saw a pre-screening of this flick with my spouse...
>
> How do you see a pre-screening on opening night?

Mm, well, my ticket is dated Thursday 7 pm (day before the day before yesterday). It was a free screening for local journalists and film critics and the like.


> Leen and I just got back from it. We thought it was pretty scary.

Trouble is, there was nothing in the storyline nor were there any scenes that were genuinely "scary". There was no truly effective buildup of creeping tension and suspense. The Haunting suffered from the flaw of visually revealing too much. The lushness of the CGI revealed every nook and detail to the boring light of day, dampening and taming it. Most scenes were very predictable. By revealing too much of each potential threat, it robbed from the viewer the ability to engage the demons of unfettered imagination.

If you're anything like me, the dark things you could imagine, but are unable to put into words, are far more scary than anything you could ever see on the big screen. That's why the shower scene in "Psycho" was so traumatic -- you never actually see anything, you have to imagine the horror. That's why I could barely sit through parts of "Mimic", because when the security guard sticks his hand down the dark drain, you just know some unseen terror down there *might* want to chew his arm off...

However. I think I can see why The Haunting could have come across as scary -- it would be due to the awesome audio design at the appropriate moments. The sound direction was filled with slow, basso profundo growls to greatly heighten tension. I felt the sub-sonic rumblings deep in my chest (like distant thunder) and it produced slight palpitations and a feeling of anxiety. Cool! Too bad the film was producing anxiety out of proportion to what was occuring on the screen. My brain kept kicking in and saying Duh, where's the sense of relentless evil, of one that absolutely could not be escaped by just going outside or finding a silly "hiding place"?

Wolfspirit