Welcome back to Movie Monday! A feature on my blog where I compare and discuss books and their movie or television adaptation!

Today I’m discussing the 1999 movie, The Haunting, based off of the book by Shirley Jackson called The Haunting of Hill House.

So, I decided to read The Haunting of Hill House for #HalloweenWR this year.  Also, another challenge for the readathon was to watch a scary movie, and since I was planning on reading the book, I decided to watch the movie adaptation!

The Haunting was a spooky movie to watch for Halloween, but aside from the characters, it really doesn’t have a whole lot in common with the book.  One of the things I really liked about the book, was the fact that everyone knew they were staying in a haunted house.  There was this air of expectancy and caution as soon as they got there.  This wasn’t exactly the case for the movie.  In A Haunting, nobody realizes that the house they’re staying in is supposed to be haunted.  So, they kind of have to grow into the idea of ghosts.

The movie has a lot more haunts and jump scares than the book, too.  I actually felt like that worked for the movie though.  I, personally, think the movie was scarier than the book, but that being said, it’s still not super scary.

A Haunting really captured the characters’ personalities, however!  I especially thought movie Theo was just like book Theo.

Hill House, itself, is much different from the book.  Its past is darker, and I preferred the book’s version of it.  That being said, I found myself appreciating the movie’s ending more than the book’s.  If you read my review, you’ll know I was disappointed in the book’s conclusion.  While there were different things about the movie’s ending that I did not like, as a whole, I felt like the ending gave something more in the movie, and I really appreciated that.

Overall, The Haunting is a fun and spooky movie to watch for Halloween, but it’s not the greatest movie ever made, nor is it a very faithful adaptation.  Also, I had to laugh over the fact that, on the DVD’s box, it boasts about its high-tech, special effects – which, at the time, they probably were, but now they’re definitely not, haha!  That being said, I still did enjoy this movie though!  I would recommend The Haunting to scary movie fans, and anybody looking for a scare this Halloween.

Have you watched The Haunting or read The Haunting of Hill House? Let me know! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

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