History Film / TheHaunting1999

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Nell, who is often barefoot.

* InNameOnly: [[http://braineater.com/haunting99.html This site]] makes a case for this film not being a remake of ''Film/TheHaunting1963'' but of ''Film/TheLegendOfHellHouse''.

* WhatTheHellHero: Marrow, for hiding the nature of the study and how he treats his victims. While Luke begins the suspicions of the good doctor's motives, and Nell is justifiably upset, it's Theo who calls him on it, and satisfyingly so.

* AllTakeAndNoGive: Eleanor spent 11 years of her life taking care of her invalid mother, only for her sister Jane (whom never did anything for them) to inherit their mom’s apartment. Both Jane and her husband immediately decide to sell the apartment, not giving a damn that they’ll make Eleanor a homeless. When Eleanor protests, Jane says okay, she may live with them... as long as she’ll babysit her spoiled nephew.

* AdultFear: Even if the house ''weren't'' haunted, the scene in the greenhouse with the collapsing spiral staircase would still be terrifying. For the characters other than Nell, it's as if a mentally-frail friend has clambered up into a dangerous spot and doesn't realize they're at risk.
* Main/AllTakeAndNoGive: Eleanor spent 11 years of her life taking care of her invalid mother, only for her sister Jane (whom never did anything for them) to inherit their mom’s apartment. Both Jane and her husband immediately decide to sell the apartment, not giving a damn that they’ll make Eleanor a homeless. When Eleanor protests, Jane says okay, she may live with them... as long as she’ll babysit her spoiled nephew.

* DudeWhereIsMyRespect:Eleanor spent 11 years of her life taking care of her invalid mother, only for her sister Jane (whom never did anything for them) to inherit their mom’s apartment. Both Jane and her husband immediately decide to sell the apartment, not giving a damn that they’ll make Eleanor a homeless. When Eleanor protests, Jane says okay, she may live with them... as long as she’ll babysit her bratty nephew.

* BuryYourGays: Theo is set up as the slut as well as the gay person in a way that make it clear to the viewer that she'll be one of the first to die. [[spoiler:Surprise surprise, it's a trick. She turns out to be the morally upstanding EthicalSlut, and she does survive.]]

* CrucifiedHeroShot: [[spoiler:Nell]]

* DysfunctionalFamily: Nell's.
* EthicalSlut: Theo.

* DudeWhereIsMyRespect:Elinor spent 11 years of her life taking care of her invalid mother, only for her sister Jane (whom never did anything for them) to inherit their mom’s apartment. Both Jane and her husband immediately decide to sell the apartment, not giving a damn that they’ll make Elinor a homeless. When Elinor protests, Jane says okay, she may live with them... as long as she’ll babysit her bratty nephew.

* FacialHorror: Poor Mary was the first to leave the house after being injured by a harpischord. She might very possibly be left with facial disfigurement...or something worse.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: One of the guests was about to tell the others that there's more to the story of the house, but then a harpsichord wire suddenly broke and cut her eye.
* ForcedFromTheirHome: Elinor joined the sleep study because she was forced to leave the apartment where she had lived with her late mother for years, after her selfish sister and brother-in-law decided to sell it.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thehaunting1999.jpg]]

* DudeWhereIsMyRespect?:Elinor spent 11 years of her life taking care of her invalid mother, only for her sister Jane (whom never did anything for them) to inherit their mom’s apartment. Both Jane and her husband immediately decide to sell the apartment, not giving a damn that they’ll make Elinor a homeless. When Elinor protests, Jane says okay, she may live with them... as long as she’ll babysit her bratty nephew.

* {{Gaslighting}}: Variation - instead of trying to drive the participants of his study mad (though that ends up being the ultimate effect for Nell anyway), Dr. Marrow is attempting to use a fake sleep study as a smokescreen to frighten them and then examine the results. There's plenty of carefully constructed tales to help put the idea of haunting in their heads, the dispensing of some of it to the ladies and some to Luke to encourage mistrust and suspicion, denial of events as having a natural, rational explanation or simply being imagination, and so on. The attitude behind this is exemplified when Marrow tells his supervisor, [[ManipulativeBastard "You don't tell the rats they're actually in a maze!"]] and, even after Nell starts descending into madness, still continues making recordings about what's happening.

* InfantImmortality: Averted by way of Hugh Crain killing his children. [[spoiler: This is what sets the events of the film into motion.]]

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Eleanor shouts, "Who was holding my hand?" in homage to one of the original's creepiest moments. Problem is, the context is completely different and there's absolutely no reason for her to be saying it, although the circumstances could imply [[NightmareFuel it was Hugh Crain doing so]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The assault upon Nell in her bedroom by Hugh Crain--his ghost plunges down from the ceiling toward her with a wide, leering mouth ([[{{Squick}} filled with many grasping arms]], no less), while the bed is pulled toward him and Nell is held pinned in place by [[RefugeInAudacity numerous long, thin wooden spikes decorated with barbs]]. WordOfGod described the ceiling moving downward and [[DoubleEntendre the spikes growing longer]] as a manifestation of Nell's claustrophobia, but hmmm... See also HeirClubForMen.

* FacialHorror: Poor Mary was the first to leave the house after being injured by a harpischord. She might very possiby face disfigurement...or something worse.

* PsychicPowers: Aside from Nell, both Marrow's snide commentary and her own reactions to the house imply his assistant Mary has these too. [[FridgeBrilliance Which may be why she was injured and made to flee the house]].

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Luke's]] death really comes across as this. Even if we [[OneDimensionalThinking generously ignore that he could have just rolled to the side to get off the haunted carpet]] (perhaps he was too scared to think of that), he's still in the fireplace for around 15 seconds just standing there (even though you'd think he'd realize that if the carpet tossed him in there, it's not a safe place to stand around in), and then a rather slow moving lion's head statue thing swings down to decapitate him. Even though it only moves about 5 miles per hour, and he's facing towards it and has time to react, he stupidly just stands there and lets it lop his head off. Even worse, Nell starts yelling for him to get out, only for him to keep standing there and die like an idiot.
* TheVoiceless: Only one of the two assistants spoke more than a line or two, not that they're relevant to the story anyway. Lampshaded, perhaps, by the character having [[TheDanza the same first name as his actor]].

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Luke's]] death really comes across as this. Even if we [[OneDimensionalThinking generously ignore that he could have just rolled to the side to get off the haunted carpet]] (perhaps he was too scared to think of that), he's still in the fireplace for around 15 seconds just standing there (even though you'd think he'd realize that if the carpet tossed him in there, it's not a safe place to stand around in), and then a rather slow moving lion's head statue thing swings down to decapitate him. Even though it only moves about 5 miles per hour, and he's facing towards it and has time to react, he stupidly just stands there and lets it lop his head off.

* BiTheWay: In the original, there's a ''vague'' sense of LesYay between the two female leads. The original had [[ValuesDissonance good reason]] to keep it purely subtext, but times change. In the remake, Theo is openly bisexual and [[{{Polyamory}} polyamorous]], casually mentioning as one of her first lines that she has both a boyfriend and a girlfriend. During the rest of the story, she keeps making overt but benevolent and rather chivalrous attempts to seduce Nell. This may have been helped along by the fact that right after first resisting her advances, the first thing Nell does is show her her bedroom...

* BuryYourGays: Theo is set up as the slut as well as the gay person in a way that make it clear to the GenreSavvy viewer that she'll be one of the first to die. [[spoiler:Surprise surprise, it's a trick. She turns out to be the morally upstanding EthicalSlut, and she does survive.]]

* ClosedCircle: The gates are locked every night when the Dudleys leave and, as in both the book and the original movie, they stay in town since "no one will come any closer than that" and "they couldn't even hear" if they needed help. In a concession to the modern setting, [[GenreSavvy Dr. Marrow has a cell phone for emergencies]] (and he uses it to call the hospital before Todd leaves with Mary), but this is, [[DiabolusExMachina conveniently enough]], broken during Marrow's rescue of fugue-state Nell from the rickety wrought-iron staircase.

* GenreSavvy: Early on, Theo and Nell comment on the beauty of the house. Luke cynically remarks that he thinks it was all PR and that Hugh Crain was really some mean old tycoon who worked kids like slaves in his textile mills. Ironically, he's probably the closest to the truth at that point.

* ShackleSeatTrap: When Crane animates the woodwork in Nell's room, ornamental spikes above the bed stretch out to pierce the bed all around Nell's body, boxing her in.