The existence of remakes is not something new in the Cinema, although now it seems that we are enjoying a specially fruitful period in this aspect, and from the times of the Silent Cinema the obsession to offer new perspectives to already revisited themes has allowed the existence of magnificent movies, superior in many cases to the original; for example, Captain Blood (1935), Michael Curtiz's magnificent film that incorporates a memorable score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, was a new version of a now forgotten movie of the same title directed by David Smith in 1924, or The Maltese Falcon (1941), John Huston's capital film and third version of the Dashiell Hammett's novel after the first directed by Roy del Ruth in 1931 and the fake Satan Met a Lady, directed by William Dieterle in 1936. And although most of the times this premise is not fulfilled (and the list is too long), there are always details that are more interesting in a version regarding the other one. With The Haunting, certainly director Jan DeBont has not been able to improve the stupendous version that Robert Wise filmed in 1963 from Shirley Jackson's novel, although some aspects are better achieved, among them the masculine casting and the music. Wise used Humphrey Searle as composer, a discreet English musician, and his score was in a second plane regarding the sound effects; DeBont has Jerry Goldsmith, already an entire advantage, and his music powered in many moments the spectacular set decorations (the best, by far, in the film) as well the passages of more tension. Using two basic themes, it is maybe the related with the character that Lily Taylor performs the most typical of his author (A Place for Everything), with its melody in the flute and the celesta support that seem to came out of Poltergeist (1982), while that which identifies the house, with solemn metals and crisp strings in its first appearance (The Carousel), has a harmonic air nearer to Bernard Herrmann. Again there are certain electronic excesses in some passages of Alexander Courage's orchestration (Finally Home), but on its whole is never overloaded. M.A.F.

/ VARESE SARABANDE / 35'

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