Sometimes, the scariest Hollywood horror stories happen off screen. Consider this: Warner Bros. is currently shooting a film starring Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen, produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis, called The House on Haunted Hill — a movie that has nothing to do with a DreamWorks project called The Haunting of Hill House, with Jan De Bont directing Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, and Liam Neeson. Even spookier, an independent film called Spooky House recently wrapped production in Canada. That House stars Mercedes Ruehl and Ben Kingsley.
Confused? Just wait. Last week, DreamWorks quietly changed the title of their House to The Haunting. Fine — until you realize that there already was a film called The Haunting, a 1963 chiller starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom.
Now here's where it starts getting really nutty. Both Hauntings are based on a creepy 1959 Shirley Jackson novel about parapsychology called The Haunting of Hill House — but the new Haunting's producer, Susan Arnold, insists, ''This Haunting is not a remake of that Haunting.'' Warner's House, meanwhile, actually is a remake of 1958's House on Haunted Hill, which starred Vincent Price in a tale about a group of people offered $10,000 to spend a frightful night in a haunted house.
All of this made us think there must be a link somewhere, and here it is: Price appeared in 1963's The Raven with Jack Nicholson, who was in A Few Good Men with Kevin Bacon, who was in Animal House with Verna Bloom, who appeared in Deja Vu (1985) with Claire Bloom, who starred in Richard III (1955) with John Gielgud, who — get ready — was in Shine with Rush (star of Warner's House), Shining Through with Neeson (star of DreamWorks' The Haunting), and Gandhi with Kingsley (star of the independent House). Any questions? Just one. Asks Silver, ''Is this really a story?''
