|
Review added January 13, 2005.
The Haunting
:: DVD Review |
|
.
. |
|
|
|
| |
 |
|
|
Studio:
DreamWorks |
|
>> Review
Equipment |
|
Video:
2.35:1 (Enhanced for 16:9) |
|
Length:
108
Minutes |
|
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps) En/De |
|
Subtitles: En/De/Sv/No/Da/Fin |
|
Video Format:
PAL |
|
Disc Format:
RSDL
DVD-9 |
|
Layer Change:
69:03 |
|
Disc Capacity Utilised:
X.XXGB |
|
Average Bit-Rate (A+V):
X.XXMbps |
|
Region Coding:
2/4 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
.
. |
|
:: The Film
:: |
|
>> Skip to
Audio/Video Details
What happens when you put together
a great premise, a skilled director, a good cast,
state-of-the-art CGI effects, brilliant set design and a
massive budget? Surprisingly, you get The Haunting, a horror
film so bland you have to marvel at the sheer skill it took
to create such a bad film from such great ingredients. Liam
Neeson plays Dr. David Marrow, a psychology professor
specialising in fear. In order to facilitate his studies,
the good professor has rounded up three volunteers to
participate in a little experiment.
The three subjects: Theo
(Catherine Zeta-Jones), Luke (Owen Wilson) and Nell (Lili
Taylor) are under the impression that they're participating
in an insomnia study, but Marrow has different plans. Marrow
places the three in an impressively spooky house, plants a
story that the house is haunted, and sits back to observe
the three as their fear slowly increases through the night.
|
 |
|
As it turns out, the house really is haunted,
and its ethereal occupant has taken a distinct dislike to
the group's presence. Our chain-rattling friend is also no
wallflower and makes his feelings clear in no uncertain
terms, with dire consequences for the group. Jan De Bont
clearly loves CGI effects, and this film certainly doesn't
lack dazzling visuals, but they come at the expense of a
respectable plot or any form of character development.
That's not necessarily a bad thing if a film manages to
replace these elements with some sort of visceral content to
distract viewers. De Bont managed to pull off this trick
with Speed and Twister, but The Haunting is so lacking in
chills and thrills that the film's flaws become impossible
to ignore.
If there's one redeeming aspect of The
Haunting's production, it would have to be the stunning work
of veteran production designer Eugenio Zanetti. Interiors
are so lush and emotive I spent much of the film marveling
at the set, which has considerably more character than any
of the film's sleepwalking cast (with the exception of a
respectable, if all too brief, turn from Owen Wilson). If
you're looking for genuine chills, you're barking up the
wrong tree with The Haunting, but for pure eye-candy this
film delivers the goods.
|
|
| ::
Video
:: |
.
. |
|
DreamWorks have created a fantastic transfer for The
Haunting. The anamorphically-enhanced 2.35:1 image is
sharp and clear throughout with little in the way of grain
and no compression or film artefacts to speak of. Fine
detail is amazing. Every out of place hair on the actors'
heads is clearly visible. I was even able to make out the
finely woven structure of the cast's clothing; this is
certainly one the most detailed pictures I have yet seen
on DVD.
Shadow detail is very good, as is black level
(a good thing considering how dark much the film is):
blacks are solid and inky with no noise or blocking.
Colour saturation is very good, with accurate skin tones
and excellent reproduction of Hill House's vibrant gold,
orange and blue interiors. Aliasing is almost totally
absent, and barely noticeable when present (as at 17:35).
There is no edge-enhancement to be seen. This is a
reference quality transfer, earning five stars, and
marking an auspicious entry to the Region Four DVD market
for DreamWorks.
|
|
|
.
. |
| :: Audio
:: |
.
. |
|
|
As impressive as the DVD's picture is, the soundtrack is the
real winner here. Released theatrically in Dolby Digital
Surround EX and mixed by none other than the master himself,
Gary Rydstrom, The Haunting's soundtrack is truly amazing.
What shocks there are in the film are enhanced enormously by
the soundtrack, which seems to have a life of its own. The
soundstage truly envelops the listener, with absolutely no
gaps in the soundfield and a constantly present and superbly
designed acoustic environment. Close your eyes and you're in
Hill House.
Directional cues are accurate and
frequent in both the front and rear hemispheres. The surround
channels are used throughout the film and rarely silent,
easily keeping pace with the front channels, and responsible
for much of the soundtrack's immersive quality. Dialogue is
clean and easy to understand, with no lip-synch problems,
obvious ADR work, or distracting clipping. The film's score is
well recorded, spreading across the front and rear soundstage.
The LFE channel is used throughout the film, and contains
truly mammoth slabs of deep, rolling bass.
I have come across few
soundtracks with the amount of sustained, high output bass
energy regularly present here. Bass below 20Hz is also present
in all five main channels. Disappointingly, a nasty pop in the
right rear channel at 78:35 seriously detracts from the
soundtrack. This pop is not present in the DVD's alternative
German Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, or in either the Dolby
Digital or DTS ES Discrete 6.1 Signature Selection editions
available in Region One.
Pleasingly, I note that DreamWorks
have adopted the 448kbps implementation of Dolby Digital,
providing an additional 2kHz of bandwidth above the more
common 384kbps variant (as used by Fox and Warner Brothers),
and significantly less reliance on joint-frequency coding.
This is an amazing soundtrack, robbed of reference status by a
production flaw, earning four and a half stars. Hopefully
DreamWorks will remedy this problem in future pressings.
|
|
|
.
. |
|
|
