“Are we lambs heading to the slaughter, yeah, I thought as much.” The five guests arrive for the party in a funeral procession – a nod to the original film – and the partiers consist of Sara Wolfe ( Ali Larter), a film production assistant impersonating her boss so as to attend this party, then we have baseball player Eddie Baker ( Taye Diggs), former television personality Melissa Marr ( Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) and Donald Blackburn ( Peter Gallagher), a physician who will later be revealed as to be having an affair with Evelyn. We then jump to the present day where we are introduced to the character analogs from the original we have Stephen Price ( Geoffrey Rush), a rich amusement park mogul whose rides are designed to terrify the occupant pay – such as pretending to break mid-run – and next, we have his cold-hearted wife Evelyn Stockard-Price ( Famke Janssen) who after seeing a program on the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute decides that would be the perfect venue for her birthday party because, why not? We then get a bit of silliness where some mysterious force hacks Price’s computer and changes the guest list because everyone knows that ancient evil is very computer savvy. I’ll grant that the hill is probably haunted but in no way is that a house. Now, this change has always kind of bothered me as I can’t really see calling a massive psychiatric institute a house, it’s an impressive monolith of a building that juts out of the cliff like the prow of a great ship surging through the waves, but it’s not what one would really consider a house. Vannacutt ( Jeffrey Combs) used inmates at his asylum for sadistic experiments and when these poor souls eventually rebelled, killing the staff and setting fire to the place, which gives us a dark history to the house. This remake of House on Haunted Hill launches out of the gate with an elaborate backstory that will set up the horror that is to follow, no longer is the “House on Haunted Hill” simply a “Murder House” but now in the opening sequence, we learn that back in the early 30s a mad doctor by the name of Dr. However in the end, this is a forgettable horror film, and is a remake that like so many others doesn't live up to the original.In 1999 Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis teamed up to form Dark Castle Entertainment a production company designed to pay homage to the works of legendary filmmaker William Castle and their first project was a remake of the 1960 classic House on Haunted Hill, yet after just two remakes they stopped and went on to make original material, but the two adaptations we did get offered bigger budgets and greater visual effects than Castle could ever have dreamed of, but does that make them better? This is a mildly entertaining film that offers a decent viewing experience for horror fans. There are some tense moments here and there, but never anything really scary. However, in terms of good scares, like the original offered, this remake is fairly weak in offering good, effective scares. The film like I said offers plenty of gore and will appeal to gore fans. I very much enjoyed the original However this is pretty decent, considering the amount of bad horror remakes that came in the years following this films release. This isn't an awful remake, but it's nowhere near the original. The cast are decent at best, with some questionable castings decisions such as Chris Kattan. S, if you love gory horror films, then this film is for you.
The film really doesn't offer anything that great, but is pretty gory. The film relies on the gore factor, and that's really the standout of the film. The film isn't as bad as other remakes, but it lacks the power of the original of course. For a horror remake, it's quite decent and entertaining.
The remake is not bad for what it is, and I've seen worse. The film has a decent enough cast and director William Malone crafts a chilling, gory ride with this remake. The House on Haunted Hill remake is a decent remake of a classic film.