Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD EAN: 4030521312999 Format: PAL Region Code: 2 Theatrical Release Date: October 29, 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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - House on Haunted Hill
The Gore was good, the story line was so so. The 2nd one was better.
Rating: - Just So-So
I watched this movie after a night out, I admit that it was better then expected, but its not a must see or even good Horror movie. It will keep you mildly entertained and you are not required to do a ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
![: House on Haunted Hill [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21H8XA6P10L._SL160_.jpg)
- House on Haunted Hill
- Just So-So
- A little remake that goes a long way.