The Haunting corrections

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The Haunting (1999) - 52 corrections

Directed by Jan de Bont, starring Bruce Dern, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Virginia Madsen

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "make changes" when viewing mistakes, and click "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

Dr. Marrow tells everyone that the gate is locked every night by the housekeeper and her husband, when they go home for the night, and that no one can get out. There is an accident and the next scenes show Dr. Marrow with keys opening the gate. Later, when trying to escape, the gate is rammed by the car. Where is the key? The chain on the gate appears to have changed size, the links were smaller in the beginning of the movie. [Dr Marrow gave the key to his male assistant before he leaves to go to the hospital. You see him giving it to him, while saying "Use the gate key if you have to get back in".] Corrected by Happy Manc

We see Mr Dudley take quite a while to take the chains out of the gate. Later Dr Marrow closes the gate after Mary and Todd leave and he locks the gate almost immediately. A few scenes later we see the chains totally wrapped around the gate, although he didn't have time for it. [People do tasks at different speeds. Mr. Dudley was talking to Nell and slowing pulling the chains out, yet Dr. Marrow was in a hurry to get them out to the hospital.] Corrected by Hamster

The Nursery Room has been closed for more than a century, but there is a fairly modern telephone on a table. [Nothing indicates that it has been shut for a long time, and the reason for this modern telephone to be in there, is because this room is a replica of Nell's room, and her room has this same phone in it. So Crane obviously made sure that everything was completely identical.] Corrected by Hamster

Theo's piece of curly hair appears and disappears from her forehead in the first evening at Hill House. [This is too brief - be more specific to when and where this happens.] Corrected by Hamster

After Liam Neeson gets glass in his hand, Lili Taylor goes to pull it out. Instead of calling her by her character's name, he says, "Just pull it out Lili." [Alas, he says "Just pull it out, just pull it will you." However his accent and his temper at this stage effects the clearness of this dialogue.] Corrected by Hamster

Nell really must have been a psychic or something. Throughout the entire movie she suddenly knows things that she couldn't have known. Such as that Crane was a mill worker and employed children. This was only a joke made the night before by the blonde guy. Then she guessed she was the great granddaughter of Crane and then she knew that Crane built the house for the children to play hide and seek in. Where did she learn all this stuff? [Firstly Nell discovers that Crane employed children in a mill because she finds the big ledger in the secret room behind the bookcase. Secondly, Nell discovers she is related to Crane because of (a) the portrait of Caroline, who looks just like her and has the same necklace (b) the scene where Nell is shown to bear resemblance to Crane's previous wife in the Carousel Room. As the film develops we see how Nell gathers her information. If you took the time to watch the film closely you would know this.] Corrected by Hamster

When Nell is introduced to her room she touches some towels that are lined with the bed. In the overhead shot, they aren't. [They are in the same position in both shots. Laying slightly diagonal, by the edge of the bed.] Corrected by Hamster

After Dr Marrow tells Nell that he didn't call her, she turns around and looks at the house, and almost all the lights turn on. the problem is that with the lights all turned on, you should be able to see something inside, even the curtains, at least, whereas you only see the windows light up. [Not necessarily, plus all the curtains hanging in the window were those long white lace ones, so they wouldn't silhouette against the light.] Corrected by Hamster

The long piece of wood laying on the painting which nell uses to whack the huge statue disappears randomly. [I watched this scene and the piece of wood is there throughout.] Corrected by Hamster

Eleanor tells Theo, Dr Marrow and Luke that they have to leave the house, and they start running through the hallway. At some point of the race, the hallway is no longer the nursery room's but the hallway in front of Nell and Theo's room, which was on the other side of the house. [It is very clear that the shots of them running down the halls/stairs are not meant to be consecutive.] Corrected by Hamster

When Luke rushes to Theo's room to help them as they scream, Theo turns the lights on before she opens the door. However when they move to the bathroom to open Nell's door, there's no sign of Theo's bedroom lights. [As they are running over to the bathroom doors, the shot is from behind, so no light would have been visible. In the next frontal shot, you can see in the far background that the lights are still on.] Corrected by Hamster

The curtains of Nell's room clearly aren't long enough to be over the bed as shown at the first night. [From this shot there is no way of telling if the curtains are or are not long enough; they look plenty long enough to me, and remember, this house is haunted, and the spirit of the child in the curtain could have easily changed the curtain in length in order to be able to transport itself onto Nell's bed.] Corrected by Hamster

While putting plastic on the window, we see some leaves outside that move away with the wind. That wouldn't be possible because the wind is coming from the opposite direction. [There's nothing which indicates what direction the wind is travelling, plus wind can travel in all directions, even circles.] Corrected by Hamster

A crewman dressed in black is seen outside the window when Luke and Dr Marrow try to destroy the dining room's windows. [There is definitely nobody outside dressed in black. I've checked this, and there is nobody outside.] Corrected by Hamster

When Mrs Dudley first introduces Nell to her room, they get in through a door with a statue in front of it, coming from a long hallway. Later when they come to save Nell in the room they try to open the same door, but coming from an enormous hall. [This is because they are not entering through the same door, but are using the other one which connects to the bathroom.] Corrected by Hamster

The clouds on the sky change between shots when Nell gets to the house. [In one brief low shot, you can see the clouds moving very fast (due to the wind, I suspect), therefore this clarifies why the clouds change from shot to shot.] Corrected by Hamster

When Theo, Marrow and Luke go to the Nursery room looking for Nell, the statue in the hallway follows them with its eyes. [I've looked over and over for this statue, but none move their eyes.] Corrected by Hamster

The scene where the others really do see something supernatural for the first time, they barely react: there are hands coming out of the evil former house-owner's huge head above the haunted girl's bed. But as it is computer graphics added after the scene was shot, the others, coming to help the girl, do not even seem to notice the head. [This is a very weak 'mistake' indeed. First off the others are more interested in rescuing Nell from the bed. But as they do, they scream fearfully and look pretty frightened.] Corrected by Hamster

Notice as Theo climbs the stairwell, boots can briefly be seen on her feet, although she's supposed to be barefoot. [This is actually wrong. I slowed the whole scene down, and she is definitely barefoot throughout. What makes it seem like she has boots on is the iron woven stairwell, which is painted black, which makes her feet seem darker in colour.] Corrected by Hamster

The amount of broken glass that comes out of the window is incomparably more than the actual hole. [Yes, but this is deliberately emphasised - Hugh Kane's spirit is visible in the window when Nell smashes it, and then the glass which flies out is from him, not from the actual window - remember that this is a haunted house, and Kane controls it. As this has been mentioned before, "how do we know this glass isn't a ghostly illusion? Seems all that glass was gone when everyone else gets to the room."] Corrected by Hamster