An abominable star-studded horror saved from further embarrassment by one of the biggest duds in history escapes streaming seclusion

Being able to turn around without bumping into the remake of a well-known horror has been virtually impossible since the turn of the millennium, but The Haunting managed to get out of the gate before the craze took over, and somehow still conspired to suck immeasurably hard.

On paper, there was no reason why it wouldn’t be a monster-sized success, given that director Jan de Bont had gained worldwide fame and success for helming Speed and Twister back-to-back in the mid-1990s. Sadly, his foray into the supernatural was a lot closer in quality to the derided Cruise Control.

An $80 million budget and a top-notch ensemble boasting Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor, Bruce Dern to name but a small few was admittedly enough to propel The Haunting to a robust haul of $180 million at the box office, but it was absolutely torn to shreds by critics.

Crucified with a 17 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, the film would go on to land Razzie nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actress, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Screen Couple, but fortunately Will Smith was there to save the day after The Haunting lost out in all five categories to Wild Wild West.

And yet, because streaming users can seemingly never turn their noses up at horror regardless of how terrible it turns out to be, the dismal dud is back in a big way after FlixPatrol revealed it to be one of the most-watched features on Paramount Plus this week.