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From Amazon.co.uk
House on Haunted Hill is one of the new breed of waste-no-time thrill machines, like Deep Blue Sea, and a particularly effective example at that. The plot is pure contrivance: For a party stunt, a wealthy amusement-park manufacturer (Geoffrey Rush) offers five people a million dollars if they spend the night in a former insane asylum where the patients murdered the sadistic staff. But it turns out the five people who arrive aren't the five he invited--did his wife (Famke Janssen), who hates him, make the switch? From there events unfold with a smart combination of human and supernatural machinations; spooky jolts are dispensed at regular, but not entirely predictable, intervals. The visual effects owe a considerable debt to Jacob's Ladder, a much more ambitious movie; House on Haunted Hill just wants to get under your skin, and succeeds more than you'd expect. Rush is his entertainingly hammy self; Janssen, Taye Diggs, Ali Larter and Bridgette Wilson are attractive and reasonably straight-faced about it all; and Chris Kattan is genuinely funny as the house's neurotic owner. Some elements of the plot seem to have been lost in the editing process, but it hardly matters. More bothersome is that the scares go flat when computer effects take over at the end--the digital images just aren't as creepy as the more suggestive stuff that came before. But that's just the very end; most of the movie has a lot of momentum. Watch until the end of the credits for a final bit of eeriness. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
Product Description
Decades after inmates at the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane were killed during a revolt against the cruel regime, tycoon Stephen Price (Geoffrey Rush) hires the building from its present owner, Watson Pritchett (Chris Kattan), in order to throw a ghoulish birthday party for his wife, Evelyn (Famke Janssen). Price invites a select group to the house, offering £1 million to anyone who can survive the night. However, things begin to go wrong when the man employed by Price to create a selection of creepy special effects is killed in an accident. Meanwhile, Evelyn's plan to murder her husband and inherit his fortune backfires as the tormented spirits of the murdered former patients return to exact a terrible revenge...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Inspector Gadget
VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
The hill is not haunted, the house is.
Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver's Dark Castle production company debuted with this schlocker from late 1999. Specializing in hokey b-horror material in the vein of their Tales from the Crypt TV series, Dark Castle was founded on a low-aiming but crowd-pleasing formula. But then they started making garbage like RocknRolla.
For this remake of the 1959 Vincent Price movie director William Malone re-stages the events in a notorious mental hospital closed after an patient uprising and fire in 1931. Eccentric theme park engineer Steven Price (a delightfully hammy Geoffrey Rush) has set-up fake scares for his wicked wife's birthday party guests (including Jeff Goldblum/Billy Zane cross-breed Peter Gallagher). But little does he know that a legion of spooks, specters, and spirits plan on massacring them...one by one...snooze.
HoHH clearly has many scenes cut short or exised altogether. The first thirty minutes feature far too many 'plodding around in dark corridor' scenes and some dreadful dialogue. In my expert opinion, THESE scenes should have been trimmed and the plot beefed-up.
What the movie does get right is the atmosphere of dread and evil. Malone gives us lots of scary imagery, practical make-up and special effects, but undoes it all with an ending that involves a lazy, kaleidoscopic, CGI death cloud.
With tighter writing and direction HoHH could have been a worthy remake, but as it is it's just serviceable B-horror with an interesting cast that are, unfortunately, given very little to do.
The DVD looks pretty bad. Come on, Warner! The sequel is on Blu Ray already! How about giving HoHH a high-def upgrade.
Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver's Dark Castle production company debuted with this schlocker from late 1999. Specializing in hokey b-horror material in the vein of their Tales from the Crypt TV series, Dark Castle was founded on a low-aiming but crowd-pleasing formula. But then they started making garbage like RocknRolla.
For this remake of the 1959 Vincent Price movie director William Malone re-stages the events in a notorious mental hospital closed after an patient uprising and fire in 1931. Eccentric theme park engineer Steven Price (a delightfully hammy Geoffrey Rush) has set-up fake scares for his wicked wife's birthday party guests (including Jeff Goldblum/Billy Zane cross-breed Peter Gallagher). But little does he know that a legion of spooks, specters, and spirits plan on massacring them...one by one...snooze.
HoHH clearly has many scenes cut short or exised altogether. The first thirty minutes feature far too many 'plodding around in dark corridor' scenes and some dreadful dialogue. In my expert opinion, THESE scenes should have been trimmed and the plot beefed-up.
What the movie does get right is the atmosphere of dread and evil. Malone gives us lots of scary imagery, practical make-up and special effects, but undoes it all with an ending that involves a lazy, kaleidoscopic, CGI death cloud.
With tighter writing and direction HoHH could have been a worthy remake, but as it is it's just serviceable B-horror with an interesting cast that are, unfortunately, given very little to do.
The DVD looks pretty bad. Come on, Warner! The sequel is on Blu Ray already! How about giving HoHH a high-def upgrade.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:VHS Tape
House on the Haunted Hill is about Evelyn Price, and her hubby Stephen, fabulously wealthy, but fabulously spoilt. Evelyn decides to throw a sleepover for her birthday-with a nasty catch. the sleepover will be held in the House on Haunted Hill a former mental asylum owned by the Prichard (sorry if I spelt that wrong) family.
Anyone who spends the whole night in the house wins a million dollar prize. However, the people the spoilt billionaire invites don't show up, but a former professional base-ball player, a doctor, a business woman and an ex-chat show host do. The film lasts for about two hours, but there isn't really that much there. There are some 'freaky' parts (What the 'celebrity' sees through her camera) and lots of blood and gore, especially the start, but most of the characters(Melissa and Stephen for example) don't seem real enough to me.
If you watch this film once, you don't get it. Watch it twice and you understand it. But watch it any more and it loses its novelty. Buy this film if you buy a lot of films; You'll probably only watch it once, put it away, three months later take it out to watch again, having forgotten what happens, and enjoy parts of it.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By marky77
VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
I've looked at other reviews for this movie and most of them seem to have been rated unhelpfull by readers so this is my review of House On Haunted Hill - I hope it helps.
An eccenric millionnaire and his wife invite six people (one of them is Ali Larter who was in The Hills Have Eyes (2005) and played Clear Rivers in Final Destinations' 1 and 2) to stay in their "haunted" mansion for one night. He tells them that if they manage to stay and survive the whole night he will share one million dollars between whoever remains. He gives them each a gun "to protect themselves".
They all agree to stay and shortly the charactors start to get killed off one-by-one. Some people become suspicious and try to leave but there is a malfunction from within the house and they are sealed inside.
Lots of suspence and stalk-and-slash horror from the director of Th13teen Ghosts and Ghost Ship. If you liked either of those movies then you are guaranteed to like this as it is very similar in theme and has the same type of suspence and death scenes.
I really enjoyed this movie and only deducted a star from the full 5 because I was surprised because it is an 18 but isn't really that gorey. Don't let this put you off, it is gorey in some places and there is something happening all of the time so you never really get bored while watching it.
Good, slasher, ghost flick which is a lot better than most remakes and modern horror movies. This movie is definately worth a watch and I would recomed it to all fans of the horror/thriller genre.
An eccenric millionnaire and his wife invite six people (one of them is Ali Larter who was in The Hills Have Eyes (2005) and played Clear Rivers in Final Destinations' 1 and 2) to stay in their "haunted" mansion for one night. He tells them that if they manage to stay and survive the whole night he will share one million dollars between whoever remains. He gives them each a gun "to protect themselves".
They all agree to stay and shortly the charactors start to get killed off one-by-one. Some people become suspicious and try to leave but there is a malfunction from within the house and they are sealed inside.
Lots of suspence and stalk-and-slash horror from the director of Th13teen Ghosts and Ghost Ship. If you liked either of those movies then you are guaranteed to like this as it is very similar in theme and has the same type of suspence and death scenes.
I really enjoyed this movie and only deducted a star from the full 5 because I was surprised because it is an 18 but isn't really that gorey. Don't let this put you off, it is gorey in some places and there is something happening all of the time so you never really get bored while watching it.
Good, slasher, ghost flick which is a lot better than most remakes and modern horror movies. This movie is definately worth a watch and I would recomed it to all fans of the horror/thriller genre.
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3.5 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not good enough
I have chosen this rating because I sent for this Dvd over a month ago and heard nothing
so I cancelled it, and low and behold, it was suddenly on its way, so I cannot cancel... Read more
so I cancelled it, and low and behold, it was suddenly on its way, so I cannot cancel... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dr Paul Rhoads' Littell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love ali larter
Brilliant horror and kept us on the edge of our seats worth its money and I would recommend it to any one
Published 3 months ago by sharon
5.0 out of 5 stars
House on Haunted Hill
This is a great movie; it starts off fairly slowly and then you get taken into a totally mind bending haunted house. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dream Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunted Pleasure !
Remake of a old Horror-Classic ! If you like Horror, this should be in your collection. Dark and Bloody as a Horror-film shoud be. And 3 gorgeous BABES too, heee...
Published 8 months ago by BEAR!
5.0 out of 5 stars
house on haunted hill
This dvd came on time and in very good condition, it came before estimated time, dvd plays perfect, no stracthes and the case is also in imaculate condition
Published 13 months ago by kristal
4.0 out of 5 stars
a good horror
if you are expecting shakespere you will be disappointed but if you want an honest to goodness horror youll love it. Read more
Published 14 months ago by jed
1.0 out of 5 stars
What a disappointment
I was ready to scared out of my wits with this film as I had heard so much about it. What a let down! It never lived up to my expectations and definitely did not end well! Read more
Published on 16 April 2011 by Elizabeth Cooper
3.0 out of 5 stars
Like "The Mirror" said, Dark,Delicious Fun!
You can't REALLY class this House on Haunted Hill as a Horror flic in the true genre because there is too much Black Comedy in it, mainly seen when Famke Janssen and Geoffrey Rush... Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2010
1.0 out of 5 stars
A VERY VERY AVERAGE SO CALLED REMAKE!!
Bought this when I saw it cheap after about the first 10 minutes you know you have cocked up and should have kept your money in your pocket. Read more
Published on 7 Jun 2008 by Jason Thorne
1.0 out of 5 stars
"B CLASS" TRASH - IGNORE THE FAVE REVIEWS IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT...
After the first 5 minutes you know you've rented a dud, it's nonsense, it's crass it's well....boring. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2008 by R. G. Williams
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