somewhere in his non fiction book danse macabre and stephen king suggest that one secret of write scary story be to avoid show your reader exactly what horrible thing be wait behind the door to get them . if at last the door burst open and a bug ten foot tall lurch through and the reader may be a little scared and but he will also think and well and i can deal with that . at least it wasn not a hundred foot tall . there nothing more frightening than what lurks and unseen and unknown and just on the other side of that tightly close door and wait to get you . the haunting be so completely misconceive that director jan de bont more or less start off his movie by metaphorically throw open that door himself and yell represent look and everybody and look . it a ten foot tall bug . isn not that scary . the law of diminish return immediately kick in . by the end of the movie and the director be and so to speak and jump up and down and bang his cgi pot and pan madly and and hoarsely scream represent look and everyone and look . here come ten hundred foot tall bug . . and now and here come a hundred thousand foot tall bug . the filmmaker apparently believe that special effect alone could compensate for all the other shortcoming in this endeavor ( and there be many ) . they can not and do not . in fact and impressive a they be and the special effect be so insistent and obtrusive that the distracted viewer wind up star at them whether in admiration or annoyance instead of be immerse in a story . for me and the nadir of this film sheer stupidity come when a statue and with blood gush from it mouth and try to drown liam neeson ( a dr. marrow ) in a fountain . the filmmaker clearly do not know what to do with this allege idea once they have it and so they just have neeson thrash around in the water a bit and flail his arm and go glug glug . by the next scene and the good doctor have apparently dry himself off and and ho hum and forget all about the annoying incident . shirley jackson novel seem to have be dumbed down into this ridiculous screenplay by a committee of low iq teenage stoner who think the way to frighten people be to make every effect big and louder represent okay and next and let and uh and make the ceiling and you know and look like a creepy face and and and uh and come down on her . and all these spiky thing and like and trap her in the bed . the sole save grace of the haunting be that it at last becomes so awful that it actually funny . by the time owen wilson ( a luke sanderson ) fell on the floor and then go on his magic carpet ride o death and i just about fell on the floor myself and laugh . badly construct and witless and grotesquely heavy hand and utterly unbelievable and and fill with clunky dialogue and pointless scene and this vacuous haunting be a textbook example of how not to make a horror movie .