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| Film vitals |
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· Year: 1999
· Director: William Malone
· Writers: Dick Beebe, Robb White (story)
· Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Ali Larter
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| Series info |
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· Remake of the 1958's The House on Haunted Hill.
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| Information |
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· Director William Malone claims that it was just a happy coincidence that Geoffrey Rush would up looking like Vincent Price, the star of the original Haunted Hill. "You put Geoffrey Rush in John Waters's clothes, and you wind up with Vincent Price," is a paraphrase.
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| Synopsis |
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A group of strangers is invited by a twisted amusement park tycoon to a party held in an abandoned, possibly haunted insane asylum. Each guest will be given one million dollars at dawn--but only if they survive the night, of course.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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62
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| ATMOSPHERE |
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I usually don't like to compare films directly, but since the summer of '99 featured two overblown remakes of early-sixties black & white horror films, I decided to make something of an exception. Both the Haunting and House on Haunted Hill remakes are special effects and set design blowouts, horror films that try to scare their audiences not by sending a cold wind whispering up their spines but by clanging cimbals right behind their heads.
The big difference between the two films is in the execution of that approach. Despite too-obvious comic relief from an admittedly amusing Owen Wilson, The Haunting held its nose so high that it didn't notice that it was stepping through its own refuse. House on Haunted Hill, on the other hand, knows it's nothing but trashy fun, and doesn't seem to particularly care if the audience agrees. Witness Chris Kattan's great, overly neurotic performance. The sets that are a winkingly nightmarish version of an old hospital. The chutzpah of making Geoffrey Rush look like Vincent Price, who starred in the original film--and then naming the character Price! House on Haunted Hill does manage a few honest scares, but it's much more interested in flash than substance. At least it's up front about it.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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Judging from the beginning and the early middle part, this is a great and tough horror film. Judging from its irony and the look of some scenes, like the one involving the motorcade moving toward the house, the film is excellent and even inventive. The performances aren't bad, either, although Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen seem to be overdoing it a bit.
Everything changes at the climax. Decency! It is not a matter of chance that classic horror movies reveal as little as possible about the threat; they usually are psychological. But showing the monster, especially one made with such abhorrant effects work, destroys everything--destroys the atmosphere, the sick joking-around, the psychological brutality. It's ridiculous. To see a movie commence so greatly and deteriorate that fast is almost a tale of horror in itself. What remains is a serious attempt at horror gone astray.
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