There was a brief time, back at the turn of the century, when for a few short years we would get a nifty new horror movie from a production company headed by Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver called Dark Castle Productions every Halloween. They weren't earth shattering, and a couple were remakes of old William Castle movies, but they were fun. The best of the bunch was The House on Haunted Hill.
Amusement Park magnate Steven Price (played by Geoffrey Rush) has planned a very special birthday party for his wife Evelyn (played by Famke Janssen), being held at her request at the notorious house on haunted hill, a former sanitarium that was the site of countless gruesome mass murders. Rather than going with her guest list he cooks up one of his own, but to his surprise when the arrive for the party, a whole new group of strangers were invited instead (it's made clear the house itself, or the evil that resides within, edited the guest list further). The guests that arrive are Sara Wolfe (played by Ali Larter), Eddie Baker (played by Taye Diggs), Melissa Marr (played by Bridgette Wilson) and Dr. Donald Blackburn (played by Peter Gallagher). There to welcome them is the house's current owner and caretaker Watson Pritchett (played by Chris Kattan). Steven is baffled at the strangers appearance at the party, but resolves to carry on anyway. The plan is for each guest to remain in the house for twelve hours. Anyone surviving until morning gets a prize of 1 million dollars. However, Pritchett wants to immediately leave as soon as he gets paid by Steven and encourages the others to leave with him. Before he can, the house's lockdown system, from the days it was an asylum, goes into effect and effectively locks everyone in the house for the next 12 hours. While Price has set up some gags himself to keep everyone on their toes, there are also plenty of very real homicidal ghosts as well as a much darker evil in the house eager to play with their new guests.
The film was directed by William Malone from a script by Dick Beebe and is based on the 1959 original William Castle film. The film is a solid remake of the original film, keeping the basic premise, but building on it. The biggest addition is that the mansion used to be an insane asylum and all the assorted scares that come from that. The film is designed to be popular entertainment, so it's fitting that one of the main characters designs rollercoasters (which figures in directly in a memorable introductory scene for Steven Price) since the film very much is a rollercoaster ride. It's wild, it's fast and it's got plenty of twists and turns to keep the audience guessing. The production design on the film is really impressive with the look of the house very much drawing from early 20th century styles that make for some very interesting choices. Then, as the film descends into the basement levels, things get decidedly grimier and creepier, as any decent horror flick should. The film also has some really solid effects work by Gregory Nicotero and Robert Kurtzman.
The film has a great cast led by Geoffrey Rush, who is clearly having the time of his life playing Steven Price, whose name and look were clearly taken from Vincent Price, who played a similar role in the original film. Rush takes a great deal of relish trading zingers with his wife, Evelyn. He's basically doing everything but literally gnawing on the scenery. Is it a great performance? Probably not, but it's entertaining as hell and is one of my favorite roles of his. Famke Janssen meets Rush beat for beat and zinger for zinger as Evelyn Price. Their marriage is very much on the rocks as the two delight in antagonizing one another. Ali Larter does well in the much more straight role as Sara Wolfe, who turns out to be pretty resourceful as a character as the film goes on and partners up with Taye Diggs' Eddie Baker who likewise is pretty resourceful as the two characters to really take Pritchett's warnings seriously and try to find a way out of the house. Chris Kattan is amusing as Watson Pritchett, spouting off his fair share of one liners as he tries to explain all the creepy stuff happening in the house. Peter Gallagher is also a lot of fun as Dr. Donald Blackburn, who has a few secrets of his own that are revealed over the course of the film.
House on Haunted Hill was looked on particularly favorably by critics upon it's release back in 1999, but it has developed a fan base since then. It's probably not one that people would categorize as a "great" film, but it is a really fun one, especially if you're in the right frame of mind. It's a movie that knows exactly what it is and is perfectly happy being just as wild, crazy and fun as it wants to be. It's not high art, but then again it was never meant to be in the first place.
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