"Some houses are born bad."
out of 
out of
out of Jan de Bont's reworking of Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House leaves much to be desired. Sure, the sets are creepy and cast (inclding Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones and resident smart-ass Owen Wilson) game, but this film is just a concotion of ill-concieved set pieces. There is virtualy nothing happening - just a lot of noises and atmosphere. One begins to wonder when the horror will begin. Sadly, it never does.
Oh, and yes, the plot, dealing with a (friendly, helpful) bunch of undead kids) strays from that in the book. What the hell was the sriptwriter thinking?
The bottom line: The 1963 film adaption of the same name is much better. Sure, 1999's The Haunting tries hard, (casting Zeta-Jones as a lesbian is a plus) but that's about it. Love Bruce Dern's cameo, though (man, what happened to this guy? Did he age thirty years in a couple of months or what?).