The Haunting (1999)

Jan de Bont's The Haunting arrives with a grand staircase, a sumptuous set, and almost no interest in the cultural conversations that would later be tallied by people such as this critic. The cast is white and able-bodied by default. No inclusive casting statement is attempted. Theodora is described as bisexual, and a romantic scene with Nell was cut, but the film treats this as a decorative character note. A woman does face down a male ghost in the finale. That is a plot event, not a critique of patriarchy.

The villain Hugh Crain is a textile tycoon who exploited child labor and murdered orphans. This gives the film a faint historical distaste for industrial greed. It is backstory, not a modern sermon about wealth. The orphan ghosts are victims, which is sad, but sadness is not a social program. The insomnia study is a mechanism for assembling guests in a haunted house. Nobody frames sleeplessness as neurodivergence. Nobody discusses body image, climate, or racial history. The house has many rooms. None of them contain a lecture.

The final impression is a lavish, overbuilt ghost story with a C+ audience grade and a set design budget larger than its sense of purpose. The set is the star. The screenplay is the understudy. The film explains its supernatural rules when convenient. It does not preach. It does not revise history. It simply arranges furniture, ghosts, and one unfortunate chimney flue. As a document of progressive sensibilities, it is nearly a blank page. As a document of late-1990s studio excess, it is a hardcover edition.