Liam Neeson’s Critically Panned The Haunting Is Leaving Streaming

Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones star in The Haunting, the film adaptation of a bestselling novel that drew a harsh critical response. Now the movie is set to leave streaming, giving viewers a limited window to revisit—or finally catch—a high-profile adaptation whose reputation never matched its source material’s success.

Peacock’s November purge puts The Haunting on a Halloween deadline

Peacock is removing 134 titles this November, including the 1999 supernatural horror film The Haunting. Based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, the film leaves Peacock on Nov. 1, so Halloween is the final day to stream it, according to What Is Leaving. The timing follows a familiar streaming play: Peacock stocked up on horror in October. The Haunting arrived alongside3 From Hell, the original Friday the 13th trilogy, The Grudge, and Krampus, a horror story with a Christmas setting. That short window makes the film’s departure more notable than another routine catalog change: it was part of Peacock’s seasonal lineup for barely a month.

Two versions of Hill House

Jan de Bont directed the 1999 film, whose cast includes Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, and Lili Taylor. It wasn’t the first screen adaptation of Jackson’s book: Robert Wise directed a 1963 version of The Haunting. Jackson’s story centers on Eleanor “Nell” Taylor, who has spent years caring for her ill mother. After her mother dies, Nell searches for spiritual meaning and becomes involved in Dr. Montague’s paranormal research at an old manor. The house’s dark presence awakens something in her. The 1999 movie keeps Nell’s troubled history but gives the plot a different engine. Taylor plays Nell, who struggles to sleep after her mother’s death. Dr. David Marrow, played by Neeson, invites her and two other insomniacs—Theodora (Zeta-Jones) and Luke (Wilson)—to remote Hill House, supposedly for a sleep study. His real project is a psychological experiment on fear. The group soon discovers that the house’s terror isn’t just part of the setup.

Critics weren’t persuaded

The film’s star power and elaborate effects didn’t win over reviewers. The Haunting drew mostly negative reviews on release, and Rotten Tomatoes currently lists a 17% critics’ score and a 28% audience score. The New York Post dismissed it as “Clumsy, bloated and wretchedly overdone!” Salon called it “A mess, a jumble of fancy special effects that are supposed to be scary but are really just fancy, further decorated with dribbles of dialogue, most of which are unintentionally hilarious.” Those ratings make the film an awkward fit for anyone expecting a faithful, quietly unsettling Jackson adaptation. Its reputation is largely one of excess—a useful point of context if you’re deciding whether to spend Halloween watching it before Peacock drops it.

Box-office success tells a different story from the reviews of The Haunting. The film opened at No. 1 with nearly $33.5 million, beating Inspector Gadget, American Pie and Eyes Wide Shut. It went on to earn more than $91 million in North America and $85.9 million overseas: $177.3 million worldwide against an $80 million budget. Those returns were strong, even if critics were largely unconvinced.

Roger Ebert was a notable exception. Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, he praised the horror adaptation for its craft, saying, “To my surprise, I find myself recommending The Haunting on the basis of its locations, its sets, its art direction, its sound design, and the overall splendor of its visuals.” His endorsement points to the film’s clearest strength: its atmosphere and production design.

A stronger return to Hill House

The story found a more warmly received screen adaptation in 2018, when Netflix released The Haunting of Hill House, created by Mike Flanagan as the first entry in The Haunting anthology. The Shirley Jackson novel’s later adaptation earned a place among the best horror shows of all time, with praise for its acting, direction and production values.

Its Rotten Tomatoes scores capture the difference in reception: 93% Certified Fresh from critics and 91% from audiences. Critics described it as “an effective ghost story whose steadily mounting anticipation is just as satisfying as its chilling payoff.” The series’ success suggests that Hill House’s material had more room to work as an extended story.

The Haunting is streaming on Peacock, where it’s available through Oct. 31.