House on Haunted Hill (1999)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

William Malone

Writers (WGA):

Robb White (story)
Dick Beebe (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 October 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Six strangers have the chance to make $1,000,000 EACH. All they have to do is make it through the night alive.

Plot:

A millionaire offers a group of diverse people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.

Plot Keywords:

Haunted House | Millionaire | Mental Institution | Money | Ghost

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Geoffrey Rush	...	Stephen H. Price
Famke Janssen	...	Evelyn Stockard-Price
Taye Diggs	...	Eddie Baker
Peter Gallagher	...	Donald W. Blackburn, M.D.
Chris Kattan	...	Watson Pritchett
Ali Larter	...	Sara Wolfe
Bridgette Wilson	...	Melissa Margaret Marr
Max Perlich	...	Carl Schecter
Jeffrey Combs	...	Dr. Richard Benjamin Vannacutt
Dick Beebe	...	Male Nurse
Slavitza Jovan	...	Twisted Nurse
Lisa Loeb	...	Channel 3 Reporter
James Marsters	...	Channel 3 Cameraman
Jeannette Lewis	...	Price's Secretary
Janet Tracy Keijser	...	Girl on Wires

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence and gore, sexual images and language.

Runtime:

93 min | Spain:99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18SG | USA:R (certificate #37055) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:18A (Video rating) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | New Zealand:R16 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Ireland:18 | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Dark Castle Entertainment

Trivia:

Marc Blucas and Ivana Milicevic filmed a short "movie in a movie" sequence which was cut from the theatrical release, but appears in the deleted scenes section of the DVD release.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Some of the warnings in the basement are in very bad German - it seems somebody just used a dictionary and translated the English lines word-for-word. For example, one sign has the phrase "Steh zurück!" which means something like "Stay back!". A correct translation would be "Zurückbleiben" or in this context "Eintritt verboten" ("No admittance").

Quotes:

Watson Pritchett: I lied. The house is alive. We're all gonna die.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Heist (2001/I)

Soundtrack:

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Despite a weak ending this is a surprisingly creepy Hollywood horror

Rich but eccentric millionaire Steven Price is looking for the ultimate scares. He invites a group of people to spend the night in the former Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane – where the inmates revolved in a orgy of violence against the cruel regime of Dr Vannacutt. The one who does spend the night will get $1million dollars. However it soon becomes evident that not all the scares are set up by Price himself.

This remake of the old 1958 movie sees the plot expanded and made a lot more creepy and enjoyable. In fact the end point of the original is only the halfway mark of this one. The plot may not be imaginative but the delivery is very good for this type of film. I'm not a big fan of horror or this type of Hollywood slasher movie as I find them too obvious and not scary. However here the gore is well used and the general creepy mood wins the film. The movement of the deceased Dr Vannacutt is very creepy and is much better than some of the gore.

Sadly the final 20 minutes feels it needs to reveal a bigger evil and the secrets of the house are brought to life in boom of CGI beasties. At this point it reverts to form and because just another Hollywood creature feature and it is a bit of a let down. However up to this point it works very well and it's real creepy.

The cast are all pretty good and do `camp' when necessary but don't take away from the terror that's coming later. Rush plays nicely to the camp in his homage to Price's role in the original. Jensen, Diggs, Gallagher and Kattan all do well and the cast do better than the scream queens that usual inhabit these films.

Overall the film starts like any other Hollywood horror but the clever direction, creepy music and imaginative visuals of Dr Vannacutt all create a creepy feel to the film that is better than the gore that also comes. The final section slides back into standard fare with the old CGI evil coming to get us – but up till then it's surprisingly good stuff.