Customer Reviews
A VERY VERY AVERAGE SO CALLED REMAKE!! - By: Jason Thorne, 07 Jun 2008 
Bought this when I saw it cheap after about the first 10 minutes you know you have cocked up & should have kept your moneyin your pocket. This is total crap the acting & so called story is below average I really thought this would be good but it was a big let down. The blood & gore is quite tame so if you like your horrors with a bit more of a bite I would advise you to stay clear of this. If you enjoy your films which is mostlyin the dark & limited scares & gore this is for you. I recently watched the second film Return To House On Haunted Hill & that was a slightly better but don't expect to much because you won't find it with either film.
One of my fav films - By: Steven, 14 Jan 2008 
This is one of my favourite films ever. I decided to watch it because I saw it on the TV schedule but accidently missed it so I rented it which was a rip off costing me £4 when I could buy the DVD for £5. I thought it was amazing especially the bit at the beginning at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. I have been on that Hulk ride which was called Terror Incognitain the film which was really good to relate to. I love all the actors & actressesin the film & think that the storyline is really good. Allin all I think that this is a great film which stands out from other Horror movies & is #1.
An excellent remake.... - By: Mr. K. Richardson, 30 Dec 2007 
I usually steer clear of remakes, especiallyin this case as I love the orginal, but this film really is a great film. Its more of a re-telling than a straight remake, not sure about the dodgy Vincent Price impersonator though.
A CREEPY FILM - By: stuart, 03 Nov 2007 In 1931, the Vanacutt Psychiatric Institute was the scene of a violent takeover by the criminals inside. Today, it serves as the House on Haunted Hill, & after seeing a television special on it, Evelyn, (Famke Janssen) the wife of illustrious Amusement Park designer Steven Price, (Geoffrey Rush) decides to hold her birthday party there. When the guests arrive, Jennifer Jensen, (Ali Larter) Donald Blackburn, (Peter Gallagher) Eddie Baker, (Taye Diggs) Melissa Marr, (Brigitte Wilson) are taken up to the house by Pritchett, (Chris Kattan) the owner. Steven tells the guests that the house is rigged for them to spend the night trapped inside, & the only way out is to survive until morning. With the only way outin the cellar, the group splits up, with Jennifer & Eddie going into the basement with Steven & Pritchett & the others staying put. After several incidents make the guests suspicious of one another, more clues are revealed about the true intentions of the party list & why the house seems alive.
The Good News: As is usual with these types of movies, the house is the best part. It's back-story, about the house being an insane asylum, allows it to have a simple explanation to blame for the events that transpire. Even though it has an unlikely scenario, the fact that it doesn't try to use a cliché as a way of letting the ghosts reek havocin the house is a nice touch. The havoc that they reap is more psychological as well, as there are so few deathsin the film that it makes them be more interestedin scaring them. Characters would enter a room talking to someone, then there would be some strange noise offin the distance, they would turn around & no one was around. One of the classics is Jennifer wandering into a room looking for Eddie, & she sees him jump into a giant vat of blood, & she goes over & tries to pull him out. He reappearsin the room asking her what's wrong, then something inside the vat nearly pulls Jennifer into the vat. A classic example of the ghosts merely reeking havoc. The ghosts themselves are so rarely seen that we never get much of a good look at them, & it follows the great tradition of films like "The Haunting" where the ghosts are off-screen & we see only their attempts to drive the guests mad. We get lights coming on with no one around to flick them on, noises that come from machines offin the distance, & the eeriness of the walls within the house are combined to make the atmosphere really unnerving. It doesn't have to have the ghostsin there a lot to be creepy. One of the only times we see the ghosts is also a classic scare: one of the characters is wandering around videotaping the house when they stumble upon a strange room. Wielding the camera up, on the video display is a group of ghosts performing surgery on another ghost, which is the opening scene of the movie. Moving the camera away reveals nothingin the room, & they do it again, & we see the ghosts appear on the display once again, then they look at the camera, & their faces are so distorted & the look they have sends chills down your spine. They do have some killing instincts, & the killings are pretty graphic. We get two decapitations, a very violent electrocution, & one person turned into stone & blown into pieces by a gust of wind. Hardly any of it is seen, but the giant pools of blood seen at the scene of the crime are pretty gory.
The Bad News: A lot of people criticize this one for it's gaping plot holes, & granted some of them are pretty easy to spot. One of the most obvious, that the ghosts can actually hack onto a computer system miles away from the house & changing the list, is very ridiculous & was the only scene where I felt insulted at the lack of respect for the audience. There are others, but that was the only one I couldn't live with. I also hoped that Chris Kattan would be killed off soon into the movie, as he is even more annoying than anything post-SNL. It was a sad shame that he wasn't.
The Final Verdict: Aside from Chris Kattan's OTT performance & some gaping plot holes, this isn't that bad of a movie. It faithfully adapts some of the more memorable parts from original (sadly, the scene where the woman pops up isn't here) but it doesn't need knowledge of the original to be entertaining. If you can live with the plot holes, this isn't a bad one to pick up.
House on Haunted Hill (1999) - By: Dave Kraven, 17 Oct 2007 Like "The Haunting" releasedin the same year but a lot better produced, this effectively creepy horror-house remake deals mostly with up-dated effects & red-herrings than efficient story-tellingin one of the best remakes to grace the silver screen.
The simplistic storyline sets around theme park developer Geoffrey Rush (playing a Vincent Price-like role) offering a group of strangers $1 million to spend the nightin a 1930s mansion that holds a shocking secret...
The stars all play along with great efficiency (especially Famke Janssen as his estranged wife who's only after his fortune) alongside the terrific CGI effects & scenes of gore & violence (onein particular deals with someone finding another dismembered & on display!). As well as those trinkets, the score plays very wellin tackling your nerves & fears while the ending result's surprisingly unexpected...
To finish off, if you like most well-done & thought-out remakes (like I do), then add this delicious slice of scares & gore to your collection because it'll feel empty without it!
