The modern soundtrack and hip young cast don’t propel “House on Haunted Hill” into the echelon of good horror movies.
The 1999 flick is itself a remake of a Vincent Price classic of the same name (we’ll cover that one next October.) While you can’t expect much in the line of scares from a 1959 movie, the trailer for the remake looked promising. Sadly, the trailer is where all the excitement ended.
The story opens with exposition and character introductions that are supped to be spooky but come off as cheesy. In the first handful of minutes, you’ll get the idea that the overall mood of the piece isn’t exactly “The Shining.”
The titular house is a former asylum where some sinister things happened, and a group of people are invited by an eccentric billionaire named Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush) to participate in a contest. Stay the night in the haunted asylum and receive one million dollars the next morning. “You die, you lose.” Price informs the guests as they arrive.
The cast of characters is ensemble in nature, with very recognizable faces like Ali Larter, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Famke Janssen, and Bridget Wilson making up the contestants. All are okay with what they have to work with, with Larter taking the lead as she did in another horror film of the era, “Final Destination.”
The movie misses in a simple fashion. It’s not at all scary. One can forgive the scattered brained plot and implausible maze of characters, but a horror movie needs to have horror In order to work. I was really impressed with two scenes in particular, both of which were chilling and included great visuals. But that was all there was. We see plenty of homages paid to classic horror films of the past, and some scenes were clearly influenced by other films.
Like its late 90s predecessor, “Scream” “House on Haunted Hill” tries to work with excitement and pizzazz, but falls short in both areas. Hamstrung by an obnoxious and overused score and characters we care very little about, the story is bogged down with tropes and predictable scenes.
It barely passes, with bonus pints offered for my enjoyment of the aforementioned scenes.
