Did you see the original Haunting? From your description I thought you’d be describing a remake. I think the original is all about conveying the evil atmosphere by being off-kilter. I picked it for CSK’s LTC tracker because I thought it was creepy without resorting to the cheap thrills of more recent movies. I must admit I haven’t seen it in s few years though I just read the book this summer. Well, listened to an audio book in the car! But with the exception of the bloody walls, the walk outside, and changing Mrs Markham’s character around, I thought it was as a pretty faithful adaptation of the story AND it’s dread. I’m very sympathetic to problems of poor adaptations. 99% of the time the movie can not compare to the book. For me, this is one of the times when I feel it comes close. I wonder what Jackson thought of it?