Starring Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, Bruce Dern and Owen C. Wilson. Rated M.

THE trailer looked good and it has a big-name Irishman on the bill, so how could I pass it up.

The Haunting is a well-made, Hollywood-formula, genre, scare movie. As such, it is probably one of the better in the genre, and you'll like it if you're into that sort of thing.

I'm not. I found the dialogue flat and corny, especially towards the end. The problem being that Taylor, as the central character, tried to guide us through what was happening around her and why, in uninspired monologues and double conversations. What I mean is she said her piece to the ghost and then interpreted the ghost's answer or actions, out loud, for our benefit, as though we weren't clever enough to work it out for ourselves. But that's typical of movies like this (horror specifically and Hollywood generally).

That aside, the trailer did not misguide or disappoint. With Dreamworks, Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light and Magic on the job, you know your senses will be catered for adequately.

How much of the actual haunted house was real and how much was built on a sound stage I don't know, but the sets were nothing short of magnificent. I can't stress enough how impressed I was. The movie was worth watching just for the guided tour of the house, which was actually in old England and not in New England as it is in the movie. Nothing that opulent, expansive or authentic could come from anywhere else.

Liam Neeson on the other hand was disappointing as the university professor conducting a study into fear. But, as he explains to his boss, you can't tell the rats that they are in a maze, so he is officially studying his subjects for insomnia.

When things start to get seriously creepy around the house, but at this stage only for Eleanor (Taylor), he has to divulge his secret. Not long after that, he and his other subjects get entangled in the haunting melee.

The house was built by an 18th Century captain of industry whose money was made off the sweat, blood and tears of (almost) slave labour. He married the most beautiful woman around intent on populating the house he built for her with the fruit of their love. Unfortunately for the couple, all the kids produced from the marriage died at birth and eventually the wife died too. He became a recluse in his mansion and continued to build, obsessively adding room after room.

It turns out that he did manage to populate the house with children, not from his marriage, but rather from his sweat-houses - kids kidnapped and killed in the house by the hundred.

By some twist, Eleanor turns out to be family and must save the kids, setting them free from the bonds and tortures of purgatory and sending the old coot to hell at the same time.