House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Director: William Malone

Writer: Robb White, Dick Beebe

Tagline: Evil Loves To Party.

Actors: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson, Jeffrey Combs

Runtime: 1h 43m

Category: Ghost, Killer, Psychological, Sanitarium, Slasher, Supernatural

Synopsis: Steven Price is a billionaire amusement park mogul who makes his living by scaring his guests. So when his wife, Evelyn, asks him to throw her a birthday party at the abandoned Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, he graciously agrees. The institute was the home of the evil Dr. Vannacutt, who performed horrible and inhumane operations on his patients, eventually leading to a mutiny, where the patients captured the hospital staff and tortured them even more cruelly. Unfortunately for them, the guest list that was made was replaced with a bunch of people they didn’t even know. So now Mr. and Mrs. Price, the owner of the old hospital, Watson Pritchett, and the five strangers begin to get better acquainted until all of the sudden the hospital’s “lockdown” mechanism is triggered, trapping everyone inside. Originally, Mr. Price’s plan was this: to rig the house with harmless gimmicks to scare the hell out of the guests. Each would have to stay through the night and whoever did, received a million dollars! Only, the lockdown was not his idea. One by one the guests go missing and a mysterious figure is seen about the house who looks remarkably like Dr. Vannacutt! Now the evil is loose and the five strangers are realizing just how much they all have in common. But who will survive?

Review: I went and saw this with my brother when it came out at the theatre. This is the only movie that scared me right from the credits! The beginning credits were creepy as hell. The beginning of the story was creepy as hell. The movie was scary as hell! This is one of the few movies that still scare the shut out of me. It was the first theatrical release to show the jittery movements of the ghosts that we have all come to know and love. This movie grabs you and never lets go…it took so many twists and turns that it kept me at the edge of my seat. The cinematography was absolutely spectacular and the story was wonderfully revamped. Based off the original 1959 version starring Vincent Price, I was pleasantly surprised to see yet another great remake. I also loved how they honored Vincent Price by keeping his name in there with the character of Steven Price…nice homage (it helps that they made Mr. Rush look very much like him). Overall this movie was niftier than nifty and absolutely terrific. I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves to be scared.

Rating: 25. I must rate it high for a few reasons: 1) for starting a cinema revolution by giving us the jittery movements that most ghost movies use today, 2) for making a remake that was better than the original while still paying homage to a legend, and 3) for making one of the scariest movies that I have ever seen! I have seen a few websites give this movie no more than a 5 out of 10, but I’ve also found out that those sites base their reviews on personal preference, and not overall cinematography and storyline. When you start putting your personal preferences ahead of your objectivity…you lose credibility. This is a wonderful movie with great story and cinema…a must see! (25of25).