# Some questions regarding "The Haunting of Hill House"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-regarding-the-haunting-of-hill-house/418082>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 5, 2007, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-regarding-the-haunting-of-hill-house/418082 "2007-09-05T03:24:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-regarding-the-haunting-of-hill-house/418082/21 "2007-09-07T01:56:11Z")

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Oh, I remember that remake now! What shite! Although seeing Owen Wilson beheaded was shocking…

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**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-regarding-the-haunting-of-hill-house/418082/22 "2007-09-07T02:50:40Z")

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[QUOTE=SpazCat]  
It may not have been as scary, but the production company was nice enough to pay for the renovation of the house’s original gates. That was the deal they made for filming the exteriors at Harlaxton. (The ones in the movie were props, obviously. There’s no way in this world they’d have let anyone crash into the original 150+ year old gates.)  
[/quote]  
Well, it’s good to learn that something positive emerged from that train wreck at least. Honestly though, the degree to which that movie lacked scariness was flatly inexcusable. How is it even possible to screw up a horror movie featuring that house? Even the name is scary! “Welcome to… _Harlaxton Manor_.” No doubt old man Harlaxton was a grim, cadaverous figure who probably looked just like the guy from **Phantasm**. And yet somehow Jan de Bont managed to digitally remove every lumen of fright from that footage. I just hope that someone takes the opportunity film a genuinely spooky movie there someday-- as you point out, it’s the perfect setting. What an awesome haunted house that place would make at Halloween.

> [@](#):
>
> If you want to make the remake scary, just go to Harlaxton, watch any of the scenes where the cherubs come to life, walk around the house by yourself, make a **wrong turn** and [wander](http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i194/spazryl/Harlaxton%20Interiors/18108af1.jpg)[into](http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i194/spazryl/Harlaxton%20Interiors/5a8c8f54.jpg)[this](http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i194/spazryl/Harlaxton%20Interiors/d2c00fb3.jpg) [room](http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i194/spazryl/Harlaxton%20Interiors/e731fff1.jpg)[at](http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i194/spazryl/Harlaxton%20Interiors/0f6c4772.jpg) [night](http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i194/spazryl/Harlaxton%20Interiors/236fb5f6.jpg) . Welcome to the Room of the 92 Cherubs. Don’t slip on the floor as you run screaming down the hall.

See, I don’t think you even need to see the remake for that room to be scary. I can just imagine reading in that room, losing track of time, and suddenly realizing that it’s night, there’s no one else around, and there’s only one lamp lit in the room. There’s a faint creak as the house settles, just a bit, and then I imagine that I see something move out of the corner of my eye. Are the [cherubs](http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i194/spazryl/Harlaxton%20Interiors/18108af1.jpg) on the wall smiling just a tiny bit more widely than before? _“Don’t be absurd,”_ they seem to whisper, their blind stares silently mocking. _“Nothing has moved… nothing walks these rooms at night… alone… in Harlaxton Manor…”_

Then I glance up and find [this guy](http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i194/spazryl/Harlaxton%20Interiors/0f6c4772.jpg) looking straight at me.

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