House on Haunted Hill (Film Review)
1999 Warner Bros.
Directed by: William Malone; Written by: Dick Beebe (Based upon the original story by: Robb White)
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson, Peter Gallagher, and Chris Kattan
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 93 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10
Steven Price knows how to make the public happy, designing thrilling amusement park rides that shock and surprise. However, he makes his wife, Evelyn, miserable. To partially---very partially--make it up to her, Steven grants Evelyn's birthday wish, to have a party at a cliffside insane asylum that shutdown after a prison riot fire, nearly 70 years before. The granting is only partial because Steven shreds Evelyn's suggested guest list and makes up his own. However, as he steps away from the list...it supernaturally changes. On the night of the party, four guests arrive, and the Price's have no idea who they are. Suddenly, as all enter the asylum, the doors lock and shutter, trapping the Price's, the four guests, the building owner...and Steven's camera man and lever puller. Turns out Steven has turned the party into a challenge for the guests: survive the night while remaining in the house, and get a check for a million dollars. There's one thing Steven doesn't know: his lever guy didn't shut and shutter the doors. The asylum is alive. And. It. Wants. Blood.
Upon its release, House on Haunted Hill was negatively compared to the original 1959 film, and retrospectives a decade or so later negatively commented on the nu-metal aesthetics it shares with much of its late 90s/early 00s horror ilk. In 2024, House on Haunted Hill feels like a breath of fresh air.
An unpredictable plot that pays off early details, featuring loads of atmosphere and practical effects, and an overall fun tone?
I'll take it!
Sure, the characters aren't deeply written, but the entire cast makes the most of them. Geoffery Rush delightfully chews up the scenery, and everyone else, from a campy Famke Janssen, to a steely Ali Larter, to a charmingly fatalist Chris Kattan, seem to understand both that they're in a goofy horror movie, but that they have to look like they're taking everything seriously--it feels like they're having fun!
The fun-factor is highly accentuated by the neo-gothic production design, the constant canted angles, wild camera movements, and throwback filmmaking techniques of director, William Malone, and especially by the work of practical effects gurus, Gregory Nicotero and Robert Kurtzman. The film received some jaded criticism for the CGI of the final monster, but the majority of the shots of that monster are actually composed of practical camera tricks.
Now, I'm not saying House on Haunted Hill is some misunderstood masterpiece. It is not. It is, however, an incredibly fun horror film, that's delightfully of its time, and the far better of the two major 1999 horror films to feature the word "Haunt" in its title.
The fun-factor is highly accentuated by the neo-gothic production design, the constant canted angles, wild camera movements, and throwback filmmaking techniques of director, William Malone, and especially by the work of practical effects gurus, Gregory Nicotero and Robert Kurtzman. The film received some jaded criticism for the CGI of the final monster, but the majority of the shots of that monster are actually composed of practical camera tricks.
Now, I'm not saying House on Haunted Hill is some misunderstood masterpiece. It is not. It is, however, an incredibly fun horror film, that's delightfully of its time, and the far better of the two major 1999 horror films to feature the word "Haunt" in its title.
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