Another summer movie season, and yet another lousy remake. This time, the guilty party is director Jan De Bont (Speed, Twister, and Speed 2), an ex-cinematographer turned action director who seems hell bent on substituting high-tech special effects for suspense.

In this updated version of the creepy classic, Liam Neeson rounds up three insomniacs, takes them to an ominous looking mansion, and proceeds to run tests on them. Little does he or his patients know that the dreaded Hill House is (surprise!) haunted.

The Haunting is a horribly written, badly directed mess that offers virtually zero scares. De Bont should have taken a clue from the films he borrows from--the original Haunting, The Shining, and Poltergeist are far more scarier than this nonsense. The old version relied on insinuation, The Shining on atmosphere, and Poltergeist on characterization. This film has none of these qualities.

Lili Taylor is the only one involved that shows any depth. Liam Neeson appears for about twenty minutes, Owen Wilson (Bottle Rocket) walks around being an unfunny smart aleck, and Catherine Zeta-Jones shows us nothing other than her pretty face. There's also a lame underlying lesbian tension affair between Jones and Taylor that is just completely unnecessary.

Attempting to hold it all together are the state-of-the-art special effects, all of which add up to nothing when you're dealing with a ridiculous, disjointed story. The only thing that is effective in this remake is the fabulous art direction. ItÕs too bad this mansion wasn't featured in a better movie.

I'm starting to wonder if De Bont's Speed was a fluke. It's certainly starting to look that way. The Haunting is the worst kind of horror film--the kind that isn't in the least bit scary. If you're looking for a good haunting, go see The Blair Witch Project.