House on Haunted Hill (1999)

 

Way back in ’99 when I saw a remake of House on Haunted Hill was in the works, I was very worried.  Side note: I give the 1959 version four out of five stars.  How do you outdo William Castle and Vincent Price?  I don’t think you do.  So here we go; twenty-five years later I’m giving the remake a go.  Let’s see how it measures up.  The first thing I notice is that Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech and The Pirates of the Caribbean films) is playing a character named Stephen Price which is an obvious nod to Vinny who as I said played basically the same character and Rush even looks very much like him here.  Price is an amusement park mogul who invites contestants to spend the night in a haunted asylum where they will be given one million dollars if they make it through the night.  Starring as the guinea pigs are Ali Larter (Final Destination and Legally Blonde) as Sara who is the personal assistant to a film producer who she is in fact posing as.  Got that?

 

Next is Taye Diggs (Rent and Go) as Eddie a former baseball player.  Bridgette Wilson-Sampras (I Know What You Did Last Summer and Billy Madison) plays Melissa who is an ex-TV personality.  Peter Gallagher (While You Were Sleeping and American Beauty) is Dr. Blackburn.  Finally, we have Chris Kattan (A Night at the Roxbury and Saturday Night Live alumni) is Pritchett who is the current owner of the building.  Also starring as Price’s wife Evelyn is Famke Janssen better known as the original Phoenix/Jean Grey in the X-Men films.  The Prices do not have a great marriage which is obvious.  Stephen Price is surprised by this group of guests as they are not the people he invited.  Soon after the guests arrive the buildings security system locks them all inside and a cat and mouse game filled with paranoia ensues.  People start dying and the rumor that the asylum is haunted is quickly proven to be more than just a rumor. 

 

Playing the part of Dr. Vannacutt is Jeffrey Combs also known for his roles in Re-Animator, From Beyond, and The Frighteners.  Vannacutt is the physician who ran the place when it was an asylum.  Yeah, he’s a ghost.  Price sees Vannacutt on the surveillance cameras walking around with a bloody saw in hand.  Secrets are revealed and the true reason all the people have been invited proves to be much darker than a contest for one million dollars.  The remake stays dedicated to the past in that one of the producers is Terry Castle.  She is the daughter of William Castle.  Doing the directing duties here is William Malone who has also directed Fear Dot Com and Creature.  The film, while being very different, does keep the feel of the original in spirit.  OK, maybe I shouldn’t have said “spirit” that just feels like some low hanging fruit.  It is eventually discovered that when the asylum was in its heyday, it used some questionable techniques in dealing with it’s patients.   Techniques that are based on those used by Nazi physicians just prior to WWII. 

 

 

The special effects that were created by Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead TV shows) and Robert Kurtzman are very well done and unnervingly creepy.  Especially worth mentioning is the ghosts and how they interpret their movements as it’s something different and unique.  Legendary makeup artist Dick Smith (The Exorcist and The Godfather) also worked on the film with this being his final film.  I really enjoyed all the special effects; they are impressive for sure.  The only problem I have here is the film isn’t scary.  Now I won’t call it a complete failure which many have called it, but it isn’t as good as the original.  Nor did I think it would be, but it is better than I expected so there’s that.  I will happily give this three zoetrope’s out of five which is more than I thought it would get before I watched it.  So the 1999 version of The House on Haunted Hill is a win in my book.