content: A fan of both Jackson's novel and the 1963 Robert Wise adadptation, I went to this movie expecting it to be underwhelming. It was worse. In fact, it was so bad, I laughed my way through it (along with the two friends who accompanied me). There are so many digital effects that the house seems alive, indeed, but computer geeks set free with a big budget don't creep me out. They're just annoying. So is the movie. The house shape-shifts, sighs, moans--hell, even the door-knocker gets a reaction shot. Zeta-Jones's leather hipboots manage to out-act her, and Lili Taylor is hilariously bad as Eleanor. ("I've got the save the children!" Wha?) Liam Neeson is even less interesting than he was in THE PHANTOM MENACE, if that's possible. Let's just put it this way: I just sacrificed 10 minutes of my time to write this review so that you won't waste 1 hour and 40 minutes of yours on this film.