Enjoyable, freaky, undemanding fun.

BA_Harrison

In an early scene in this remake (of sorts) of the classic Vincent Price horror, Geoffrey Rush's character, a multimillionaire theme park owner, proudly show off his latest attraction: a roller-coaster that fools those brave enough to try it into thinking that the ride is faulty, by sending the speeding car immediately in front of them (which is full of dummies) hurtling off the track.

This is dumb in a number of ways: anyone queueing for the ride would see this happen, and the shock element would be lost; no-one would bother riding the coaster more than once (if at all!); and the time needed to put a new fully-loaded 'fake' car into position before each ride would cause massive queueing problems.

Yes, the idea sure is dumb—but very effective. And that pretty much sums up the whole film: House on Haunted Hill is very silly, but a whole heap of scary fun.

Rush plays Stephen H. Price, a man who has dedicated his life to delivering unbeatable thrills. When Evelyn, his money-grabbing wife (Famke Janssen), asks him to organise her birthday bash at an old abandoned sanitarium with a horrifying past (don't they all?), he has a few surprises up his sleeve for the party-goers.

The guests have all been lured to the spooky nut-house with the promise of $1,000,000 if they can survive the night. But with Evelyn planning her own surprises, and an asylum bursting at the seams with pure evil, how many will remain in the morning to collect their prize? With a solid cast, decent direction from William Malone, some weird visual effects guaranteed to freak you out, and plenty of unsettling gore (from makeup FX masters KNB), House on Haunted Hill does what a good horror film should do: scare!

Once the initial premise is set up, much of the time is spent following the characters as they wander about the haunted loony-bin, but with such a wonderfully realised and very creepy setting, that's really all that is needed. Grimy corridors lit by flickering lights, blood splashed operating rooms, weird scientific equipment of dubious purpose: this film is packed with so much twisted stuff that one can't help but admire the attention to detail.

Only in the final act, when a glut of CGI effects are allowed to flood the screen, does Malone lose control of proceedings somewhat. A shame, because up until then, he was going great guns.

score 7/10

BA_Harrison 7 September 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1726140/