House On Haunted Hill (1999)
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher
Director: William Malone
Synopsis: Splashy uninspired remake no better than the original
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

Modernised, CGI-laden, louder, brasher, slicker, bigger and considerably more expensive.

Unfortunately, despite all the tinkering, House on Haunted Hill never once manages to capture—let alone improve upon—the wonderfully camp spirit of William Castle's deliciously eccentric original.

By the close of the 1990s Hollywood had become obsessed with recycling old favourites in the belief that bigger budgets and modern technology would somehow guarantee better films. Psycho, The Haunting, Anna and the King, 101 Dalmatians and now House on Haunted Hill all seemed to share the same misguided philosophy.

Simply repackaging old material does not automatically improve it.

In almost every case the originals remain comfortably superior.

House on Haunted Hill begins encouragingly enough. The wonderfully sinister Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute immediately establishes an atmosphere of unease, helped considerably by some strikingly off-kilter camera angles and an impressive production design. The opening title sequence and fairground prologue are particularly effective, creating the impression that perhaps this remake may have something genuinely worthwhile to offer.

For a while, it almost does.

Geoffrey Rush wisely avoids merely impersonating Vincent Price, yet still captures something of Price's wonderfully theatrical presence. It is an affectionate performance rather than a straight imitation. Opposite him, Famke Janssen once again demonstrates just how effective she can be in deliciously wicked roles. By this stage she had virtually cornered the market in glamorous, thoroughly unpleasant women, and she clearly relishes every minute of it.

The remainder of the cast, including the then-rising Taye Diggs, perform competently enough without leaving much of a lasting impression.

The storyline remains broadly faithful to William Castle's original. A group of strangers accept an invitation to spend the night inside the notorious asylum, where surviving until dawn carries a handsome financial reward. Inflation has naturally taken its toll since 1959. The original's ten-thousand-dollar prize has now become a rather more tempting one million dollars.

It soon becomes apparent that the mysterious Mr and Mrs Price have problems extending rather beyond the ordinary domestic variety, and before long their unfortunate guests find themselves paying the price for the couple's marital disagreements in increasingly unpleasant ways.

For roughly the first hour the mystery unfolds rather effectively.

Then the film commits exactly the same mistake as The Haunting earlier that year.

Just when atmosphere should give way to genuine terror, the filmmakers abandon suspense altogether and place their faith in an avalanche of computer-generated effects. Wispy digital ghosts and shapeless CGI monstrosities replace carefully sustained tension, and the film rapidly unravels into an overblown special-effects exercise.

The result is deeply disappointing.

What had threatened to become an entertaining old-fashioned haunted-house thriller instead dissolves into noisy, forgettable spectacle.

Ironically, the impressive setting itself remains far more frightening than any of the computer-generated apparitions ever unleashed within it.

House on Haunted Hill is by no means a terrible film.

It simply settles for being disappointingly average.

Apart from its magnificent location, an enjoyable opening act and two excellent performances from Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen, there is remarkably little that lingers in the memory once the closing credits begin to roll.

William Castle's original, despite all its obvious camp excesses, still proves the far more entertaining night out.