The House on Haunted Hill

Rating:
Summary: Freaky, yes; greatest movie? no.
Review: This was probably one of the grossest movies I've seen. Every minute something was happening. It's an ok movie just to see and to talk about; nothing special. I mean there are some chessy little lines in it. Something you wouldn't want to watch alone at night.

Rating:
Summary: Yeah! The BEST haunted house flick in years.
Review: The Haunting, Rose Red, and 13 Ghosts. All three were haunted house flicks made in the past few years. They all have flashy special effects, very impressive production designs (The Haunting and Rose Red feature VERY large mansions, 13 Ghosts has the glass house), but they overall fail at creating the sheer sense of fun and creepiness you get when you go to, say, a staged haunted house. The Haunting failed to take any chances, it was entirely predictable and dull, and the CGI-effects filled finale was silly. Rose Red had some good scares, it was a little unpredictable, but runs far too long, has a lot of bad dialogue, and ends on a rather pathetic note. 13 Ghosts had creepy-looking ghosts, a lot of gore and bloody deaths, but no spooky fun and scares.

Where those three movies failed, House on Haunted Hill succeeds. It creates just enough likeable characters (Ali Larter, Taye Diggs, and yes, Chris Kattan) to keep it afloat on that level. Geoffrey Rush is an absolute blast as the slightly demented amusement park owner. Famke Janssen and Bridgette Wilson are good-looking babes (not to mention Ali Larter), what more can you ask for?

House on Haunted Hill is just plain scary fun. It never pretends to be great, artistic cinema, but wants only to work as a 93-minute excursion into thrills and chills. But if you really do want to watch those other haunted house flicks, then save this one, the best, for last.

Rating:
Summary: This it's what i call a good horror film.
Review: The original film from William Castle was so bad, that it's not even funny.
This one, has excellent speciall effects, acting, suspense and scary moments.
That's all, that's what you need to rate this film with 3, 4 or 5 stars.
Don't miss it!!!

Rating:
Summary: Sequel no dumber than the original
Review: The House on Haunted Hill, a fair remake of a bad 1958 picture, is not to be confused with another 1999 movie, The Haunting, a remarkably bad remake of an excellent 1963 flick. At least The Haunting of Hill House doesn't have to suffer by comparison.

Stephen Price [Geoffrey Rush] is a wealthy amusement park tycoon. He's quite eccentric. He hates his wife, and she loathes him. A nastier pairing is hard to imagine. She wants a birthday party, and he obliges by renting an abandoned insane asylum which, in 1931, was the scene of a bloody patient rebellion. There were just five survivors. It turns out that the doctor in charge of the joint was himself a homicidal maniac and that his staff assisted him in gruesome experiments. What a perfect setting for this party.

The guests arrive, but, not only do they not know one another, they are not the people Stephen invited. Their invitations said that anyone who stayed in the asylum all night and lived to see morning would get $1,000,000. Ever the good sport, Stephen let's them stay and honors the wager. One guy, who should know the place's history because he inherited it, decides to leave. Before he can get out, some weird old machinery causes heavy metal doors to slam down and bar all exits. Everyone is going to stay the night, like it or not. Stephen and his wife both think the other one invited these people, while the owner believes the house, which he is convinced is alive, altered the guest list. Who are these people and why are they here? Will any of them live through the horrific night to come?

There is a ton of special effects. Some are excellent, while others are a little cheesy. One that didn't work was the faulty wiring effect used throughout the building. The lights constantly flicker because of it. The problem is that, when they dim, the scenery around them doesn't get darker. The idea is to make things spooky, but it's so poorly done that it just gets irritating.

The story makes absolutely no sense. In this case, that's acceptable, because the whole idea of the movie seems to be based on an updating of the haunted house rides that used to be a staple of every carnival and midway in the country. While there is much gore, it doesn't have much emotional impact or effect because the characters are about as believeable as the dummies used in those old carny rides. The sound effects and music tracks often drown out the dialog, but I don't imagine you miss very much, based on the lines that you can hear.

Rating:
Summary: Probably the most fun haunted house movie around.
Review: Five people (including the lovely Ali Larter) are offered a million dollars each to spend the night in a run-down mental ward. The catch is, the ghosts of the patients and doctors aren't happy and they want these guests to join them! Fast-paced and gory ride is the textbook definition of a party film: Low on brains but loud, creepy and scary, and just plain fun. There's the occasional overdone scene and the movie loses some momentum in the last five minutes, but it's still a fun ride and certainly far superior to the remake of The Haunting (And the more recent Thir13een Ghosts, which similarly tried to be a loud, gory carnival ride). Geoffrey Rush and Chris Kattan are hilarious standouts.

Rating:
Summary: "THE HILLS, umm HOUSE IS ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF .
Review: Now, it could have been "No Noose is Good Noose"!

However, this SHATTERING experience is a fitting tribute to Mr. William Castle's original screamfest, peopled with the likes of "Vinnie the P" [Elvira's nomenclature ? for the Great Vincent Price], and other beings of note [hi-note as in scream].

The usual suspects arrive [NOT on the original guest-list - a strange error?], at this lavishly restored antique asylum perched on a clifside like some overgrown art-deco radiator ornament [that visual!]. Soon they encounter the 'aptly named' stained-glass ceiling in the foyer - another splintering moment. AND there are those "moments-a-plenty", including disturbing flash-backs to the "good old asylum days" complete with those wonderous "apparati for recovery" devices! The Spanish Inquisition pales by comparison - quite thrilling and disarming [literally], as one guest discovers.....to say more would be to betray!

GEOFFREY RUSH behind rapier moustache does the original Mr. Price proud! So does seductive Famke Jansen as Spouse.
Even "Reanimator's" Jeffrey Combs shows up, and Chris Kattan "out-creeps" original Elisha Cook Jr. as the previous owner - a tough act to follow!

Oh Yeah, Alarming and Charming, but what ever happened to EMERGO?

There are also a few additional bonuses on this DVD [from the "cutting-room" floor so to speak!]

Now, how about a re-invention of rarely seen "HOMICIDAL"? With Anne Heche maybe?

Perfection!

Rating:
Summary: I love horror movies!!!
Review: i have seen almost every horror movie there is..and it gets tiring when a lot of them are just all blood/gore and bad acting with similar storylines and stuff..but this movie is different! the first time i watched this movie it actually scared me.:) and i love the music to this movie..it just seems to fit (watch the movie, you'll understand)
one thing i wish there was a little more scenes of that "evil" in the haunted asylum, you only get glimpses through the movie, nothing really "pops" out to scare you..it's more pyschological, the feel of the place gets to you. and the ending could have been a bit better..but other than that, i still think this is one of the best horror movies i've seen.
i think the director of this movie directed 13 ghosts..i thought that movie would be better than this one, from all the previews i saw and since i loved this movie, but it actually wasn't that scary..just a lot of visual effects..but the house was pretty cool
anyways...i recommend seeing house on haunted hill!

Rating:
Summary: LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
Review: I got this movie for christmas,and I havent seen it in a long time, but it is pretty scary!

It is from the director of 13 ghosts (I thought 13 was better)
and just like 13 ghosts house on haunted hill is a remake.

I should rent the old one and see how good it is.

It had pretty good music to it,I'll probably get the
soundtrack.

why is it that every neat place has to be haunted?

Rating:
Summary: Delivers the goods
Review: The story is about an old house that used to be an insane asylum where the evil doctor(Combs) used to carry out ungodly experiments on the inmates. The rollercoaster-king Steven H. Price(Rush) decides to throw a birthday party for his estranged wife(Jannsen), but upon arrival they find out that the guests invited are not the ones intended, but that they are all decendants of the personel at the old Asylum...and from here things begin to take shape.
Apparantly the evil that took place in the house still lives there, and now it wants to get even.
The movie seems very inspired by movies such as Hellraiser, at least in regard to the effects, and the mood. It does not quite reach the scaryness of Hellraiser, but it is at times very disturbing. The movie is very visual, and often grotesque relying heavily on the visual parts to make us jump. But as a whole the movie delivers what was intended, and it will give you some good scares. A must for fans of the genre!

Rating:
Summary: Truly Scary
Review: There have been only a handful of horror films I have seen that have ever genuinely scared me, the first of these of course being "The Shining" (I mean, the scene where Jack Nicholson is making out with that corpse is enough to make anyone want to just hop in the shower and turn the water down to "ARCTIC" and spend the next four days trying to wash the image away) the second is actually "Event Horizon" (though I suppose sitting in the second row of the theater can make anything scary, like when I saw 'Meet the Parents', "Gah! DeNiro's Mole! It's gonna kill us!") and the third is this film. Sure, most of the scares are of the 'jump-out-and-scare-you persuasion, but that's never stopped me from liking the movie!
And this film is no exception, sure it's not like the old Castle production with ol' V.P. himself. But then again, no movie is like the old Castle production with ol' V.P. himself! No remake is ever as good as the original! Of course, it's not exactly like the old Castle production has exactly withstood the test of time. Let's face it, it's MST3K fodder! This is the one time when a remake can actually do a story some good, and what better way to do that than to head up the supporting cast with Jeffrey Combs as Dr.Vannicutt. Lovecraft fans, you all know what the good sir Combs can bring to a film, so there's no question about the quality of this picture. The other actors each bring their own bag of tricks to the piece, Geoffrey Rush making a fantabulous V.P. look-alike and Taye Diggs making for a great protaganist. Chris Kattan isn't half bad either, though as I watched, images of him speaking incoherently while talking people through how to land an aircraft kept plaguing my mind, distracting me from his otherwise flawless on-screen performance.
All in all, one to see, especially (of course) with the lights out and the sound up!