The Haunting of Hell House (1999)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I've watched this movie five times since I got it on DVD, and I still don't know what it's about. Now, you'd think a horror movie called "The Haunting of Hell House" would center on a haunted house, but this movie doesn't focus on any one person or location like a good haunted house movie would. Based on a story by playwright Henry James, the movie stars actor Andrew Bowen as New England college student James Farrow whose wife, maybe girlfriend, dies due to a botched abortion, and he begins to see her in dreams and hallucinations. He is soon drawn to the empty house they once explored in their youth, but now, it turns out that it belongs to a Professor Ambrose, played by the talented Michael York from the British stage. Farrow pursues York's help to rid himself of the ghost he believes is haunting him and scratching him up, but whether it's in his mind or just his guilt is never explained. Meanwhile, Ambrose is similarly being haunted by the ghost of his dead wife who refuses to let him sell the house. Neither man believes the ghost of the other one exists. Meanwhile, Farrow is being hunted by the police for his dead girlfriend found in his apartment. He escapes to Ambrose for protection, but the old man is dying and can't help him. Farrow flees to the house to ask for forgiveness from his girlfriend's ghost, but discovers Ambrose's ghost isn't real after all. It turns out he's being systemically poisoned by his angry daughter and Farrow drinks the poisoned wine from her for her father to be with his bride. In the end, Farrow dies in jail next to the phony doctor who botched his girlfriend's abortion. Is this a good movie? Uh, no. It's long, it drags on, it's confusing and the name of the movie is misleading. This is not a haunted house movie. This isn't even a horror movie, and trying to make it look like one may be its worse trait. However, it does have some beautiful scenery for what I speculate is supposed to be Turn-of-the-Century New England. Overall, it's not exactly a movie that can live up to the hype of its name.

This dreadful movie suffered more than anything from poor production work and the slip-shod work of the extras.It's hard to imagine that a hand to act badly but at one stage a hand appeared on screen (deliberately) and managed it. It was like watching a hand shaped Madonna appear on screen and ruin the movie.I would never watch this movie again, I watched it and another couple of turkeys, The unlucky leprechaun, warlock 3 and knocking on death's door. All of which suffered a similar affliction, whether it be an implausible scream and wooden man in crowd or obvious stunt double i am sure there is a common theme.Whoever is behind this would do well to give it up, take a job in sales and hope to one day hit the heady heights of their own car parking space rather than director chair.Good riddance

This movie had a message: Do not allow the past to destroy your future. It delivers that message under no uncertain terms. But the point is, that it entertains while so doing. The story is rather graphic and the execution was, sadly, mediocre.Was I scared? Was my adrenaline piqued? No. But I was entertained. The story is dark, but fun, and moves along with a decent pace. There are some serious slow spots, and the version I viewed at least, had an editing problem. Some people should not be allowed near a roll of shot film, with sharp objects, you know? This movie felt edited. Heavily edited. And in all the wrong spots. Perhaps your copy will not have suffered the same fate as mine.I would recommend its viewing on a rainy Sunday afternoon, as it is a good story, and renders a decent telling of said story, but as it is not riveting, it does not belong on the Friday/Saturday night line-up.It is a nice suspense/psychological thriller with a good twist or two.It rates a 4.6/10 from...the Fiend :.

Upon reading other viewers' comments, I have to wonder if we saw the same film! Despite the awful, B-movie title, this was far and beyond the most visually beautiful film I've ever watched. The cinematography was stunning, and the atmosphere was appropriately dark and brooding. The entire town seemed "haunted," with fear and evil oozing from every stone, every tree, nearly every character. I could almost feel the dank air in my own living room!Having read "Turn of the Screw," and found it particularly unsatisfying (imagine the most overacted, melodramatic soap opera you've ever seen . ..then put it in novella form), and seen previous comments placing this film on a LOWER level than Screw's supposed glorious pinnacle, I admit my expectations weren't too high. Instead, I found the story much more intriguing than Screw, with a couple of little plot twists in rapid succession toward the end. (Saw the first coming, but not the second.) Some may find it depressing because it lacks the Happy Hollywood Ending so typical of American films; however, the screenwriter's refusal to pander to Disneyfication only serves to further raise the level of my esteem for this production.If you like your movies event-based (like slasher flicks, all about the scary moment, with lots of filler in between and actresses doing bizarre things to get from one event to the next) rather than story-based, you probably won't enjoy this film. If, instead, you like a good story in which nasty ghosties play a role, this is the film for you.