# House on Haunted Hill (1999)

### reviewed by
Justin Felix

    HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1999)
    A film review by Justin Felix.
    Copyright 1999 Justin Felix.

All of my film reviews are archived at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Justin+Felix

This review has been submitted to The Shrubbery http://www.theshrubbery.com

Any comments about this review? E-mail me at justinfelix@yahoo.com

    Rating:  ** (out of five)

    Story by Robb White.

    Screenplay by Dick Beebe.

Inspired by the 1958 film HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL starring Vincent Price.

    Directed by William Malone.

Starring Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, and Chris Kattan.

Rated R (contains violence, profanity, and brief nudity).

Synopsis: Eccentric millionaire Price offers $1,000,000 to each of his guests who appear at a gathering at a former sanitarium. The only catch is that they have to survive the night at the establishment, an establishment haunted by its former staff and patients.

Comments: HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is based upon the original 1958 film of the same title directed by William Castle and starring Vincent Price. In an obvious homage, the millionaire's name is Price and he sports a thin mustache like Price used to have. This is a pretty bad horror film, yet bad horror films sometimes are very entertaining, and HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is just such a film. It is, surprisingly, better than another recent haunted house remake, THE HAUNTING, a film which owes its basis to the classic horror novel by Shirley Jackson. THE HAUNTING had literary pretensions and fell flat on it face. HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL owes its lineage to a B-movie 40 years old and makes no illusion that it's a crappy horror movie. Thus, somehow, it proves slightly more successful.

I can't think of another recent film which has had such an eclectic cast. It is this cast which lifts this ho-hum thriller into a borderline entertaining exercise in camp horror. Price, the main character, is played by Geoffrey Rush, the Academy-Award winning actor of SHINE. Rush seems to be making a downward spiral in the movie industry, a spiral reminiscent of Ben (GHANDI, SCHINDLER'S LIST) Kingsley's ridiculous appearance in the camp sci-fi classic SPECIES. I don't know why, but sometimes it's entertaining to see "quality" actors in bad movies. More surprises? Rising star Taye Diggs plays a stereotypical African American sports figure (rather lamely too), and singer Lisa Loeb (!) appears as a TV news reporter. The highlight of the cast, however, has to be SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE member Chris Kattan. Kattan's comic sense provides several good humorous moments as he plays the hysterical proprietor of the former sanitarium.

While the first half of the film leaves the audience guessing as to what's exactly going on, the second half dissolves into standard ghost story stuff and loses some of its suspense. A disappointingly cheesy ending really mars this movie too. HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, I suspect, has just about left the second-run theaters. It's worth catching on cable next year, if you get a chance. If you have a choice, pick this movie over THE HAUNTING, it's the better of two evils, you could say. Though, more appropriately perhaps, it'd be better to say that it's the better of two turkeys.

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