Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Peter Gallagher, Famke Janssen, Max Perlich, Bridgette Wilson Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Region Code: 1 Release Date: April 18, 2000 Running Time: 93 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Amazon.com: 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
Description: When an eccentric millionaire offer a group of opposites $1,000,000 to spend the night in a so called "Haunted House" with a murderous past, they figure it is a quick way to get quick money and leave. All of them are sure it is some made up story just to mess with their heads a little and test their courage. But, once they stay in the house they start to think about the mistake they made in coming there when mysterious things start to happen.
So close to being perfect! Great, enjoyable movie full of scares and thrills, and was so close to being a really perfect thriller/horror film if it weren't for the really bad digital effects used in the last half hour leaving me with a less than satisfactory climax.
I give it three for its storyline but it has some good scares I didn't really see anything impressive with this storyline- I give it a three.
But if you like being scared/startled and if you like suspence in that sense this film delivers-I rate it between a four and a five. This film is definitely scarier than a great deal of other "horror" movies.
A little remake that goes a long way. To say that ouse on Haunted Hill is merely a remake is, perhaps naive. As an avid horror movie watcher, I have found this version of House of Haunted Hill to be my favortite. Although it does vary considerably from the original, the movie give the watcher the ability to consider it a new film. For a film made in 1999, the effects are of an ok level, although my only complaint is the poor use of CGI. On other occasions, such as the jumpy movment of the ghosts, it is extremely well done. The story is very well told, and one is able to follow the characters and their motives well. Even when the storyline twists and turns, it doesn't confuse to the point where one would lose it, which is a good attribute. One part of the film, which always stands out in my mind, is Mr. Price's hallucination. This disturbing, and very artful, combination of images fit perfectly with the film, and gives me the chills time after time. To me, that is the mark of a good horror movie. Overall, House on Haunted Hill is a perfect movie for any horror movie buff, and it comes highly recommended from this party. A perfect 10.
House on Hauted Hill dvd The weekend just before Halloween I decided I wanted a copy of House on Haunted Hill because I was unable to find it anywhere on my cable system. I ordered the movie on Sunday afternoon and I received it on Tuesday(the day before Halloween).The dvd arrived in excellent condition and so quickly that I was able to watch it w/friends on Halloween nite. Because of this experience, I have chosen to do quite a bit of my Christmas shopping w/ Amazon,confident in the knowledge that Amazon fulfills it's orders quickly and the their products arrive in perfect condition. Thank you Amazon.com!
Ok, but not great... House on Haunted Hill is great movie for those that don't want to really think about what they are watching.
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