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Should You Enter the 'House on Haunted Hill' (1999)?

The Ups and Downs of an Attempted Cinematic Rollercoaster

By Wade WainioPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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To those who were there: The year 1999 seemed fantastical, didn't it? Life sucked in some key ways, but one could just feel the potential of the new millennium. We could almost reach out and touch it; we'd have flying cars everywhere, social strife would surely be ameliorated, and boredom nearly obliterated.

Sure enough, video games were getting better graphics, and everything promoted itself as ultra-modern, extreme, and edgy. While not everything went wrong after 1999, we still got things like the Kardashians, people spent way too much time staring at their stupid phones, and the self-aware "modern" thing got stale pretty fast.

Still, this is where 1999's House on Haunted Hill came from. The fancy term would be a "cultural milieu," but I'll just call it a cultural stew, which produces plenty of cultural sludge. Much like the year of its release, House on Haunted Hill was arguably too modern for its own good. It was needlessly crass to demonstrate realism and edginess, but that distracted from the characters and ultimately weighed the experience down.

Also, while the practical effects were great overall (thanks to Gregory Nicotero and Dick Smith), the computer generated stuff was often just bad—or I should just say, "is often just bad," as the movie still exists, and you can still watch it post-1999.

Good Stuff

This isn't to say everything about the remake is bad. A fair amount of it's actually okay. For example, the story of an insane asylum run by a maniac—Dr. Richard Vannacutt (Jeffrey Combs)—is demented fun, and is pretty well-told in the beginning. Honestly, I like the idea of "lunatics" setting fire to the asylum, killing nearly everyone but a few on the staff. This is classic campfire story stuff, and always potentially interesting. The movie also has a sense of humor, but doesn't lose all of its horror edge—which is not the easiest feat.

Arguably the film's main character is Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush), who is constantly threatening (and being threatened by) his wife Evelyn Stockard-Price (Famke Janssen). Like the original, this version is based around a "haunted house" party, which is ostensibly Evelyn's birthday party. Guests are invited and challenged to stay the night for a large cash prize. I also like this idea. It's a relatable, cute premise with some sinister overtones. If they're willing to pay you huge cash just to stay there, the place must be pretty crazy, right? So, ultimately, each guest crafts their own doom by their own greed—even if they are killed by someone (or something) else. There's a bit of poetry there.

A potentially memorable character in this movie is Watson Pritchett. Surprisingly, Chris Kattan arguably plays this character more subtly than Elisha Cook played "Watson Pritchard" in the original. In many ways, Kattan's character mimics the standard viewer at home, who is constantly yelling at the screen, "Don't go in that room, you dumbass!" Though Pritchett is a jittery character overall, it's not without merit.

Like the original, you might watch and wonder if they'll make it to the morning, and who the survivors will be... or you might watch it and just say, "Meh." In any case, once everyone's locked inside and the outer gates are locked, the main character's conflicts fall into place like neatly placed dominoes—and, like dominoes, become pretty easily forgotten once put away.

It brought out my inner prude.

I try not to be offended, especially in an ultra-PC age. Nevertheless, I often found myself wincing at the regular use of "coarse language" in this movie—which is weird because I can sometimes swear like a sailor myself. Still, there was something about its application here that I didn't like. Maybe because the original House was so PG?

As an example, Price's wife, Evelyn, is even less likable than "Annabelle Loren" from the original—and plenty of crass, late-1990s edginess is injected into her exchanges with her husband. In fact, I'd almost say too much vulgar language is thrown around in this movie—which is weird because I can curse like a sailor myself, and I could certainly write similar characters. Still, in this case, I think it distracts from and cheapens the horror significantly, and heightens the black comedic aspects perhaps too much.

The Question of Tone

Yes, you do have freaky happenings and blood and gore effects, but this movie fails to capture the tone of the original. While that movie had its own flaws, it still carried the feel of a classic movie which could go anywhere, while simultaneously showing restraint. This movie tries too hard to be a summer blockbuster rollercoaster ride, and has mixed success at accompishing that.

There are also some subplots that, frankly, weren't very memorable. For example, after some time, one house guest named Jennifer Jenzen (Ali Larter) confesses that her real name is Sara Wolfe. Sara is actually Jennifer's out-of-work assistant, fraudulently attending in Jennifer's place to earn the cash. Either way, it's something to yawn at. In fact, the prize money itself could have been a more interesting aspect of both movies, as it could have poked fun at greed as a motivator. Unfortunately, it didn't really add anything much to either Haunted Hill story.

Ghost Moments

Meanwhile, some of the ghost moments are rather inexplicable, and have nothing to do with the maniacal Dr. Richard Vannacutt or his patients. As an obvious example, Sara is nearly drowned in a giant vat of blood by a ghost who is impersonating Eddie (Taye Diggs), another partygoer. Eddie saves her, but the viewers are likely scratching their heads, asking, "Okay, what was that all about?" We can assume it was some ghost taking Eddie's form as a trick, but why would it do that? The answer, of course, is to give us an odd moment while dipping a character in blood. That's it. In other words, this is a hard movie to enjoy if you're in analytical mode—as I often am, unless I'm watching something like The Leprechaun (although even then I'm trying to understand character motivations, like a damned fool).

On that note, then, the horrible mutilations and violent aspects aren't the worst features of the movie. In fact, I like the idea of a crazed Doctor's spirit running around, exacting some misguided revenge on some hapless, greedy partygoers. However, when someone apparently dies on an electroshock therapy table, it shouldn't feel like a dud moment. In this movie, it did (for me, at least).

You see, by this point in House on Haunted Hill, attempts to shock have totally subverted the story line. Some deaths may be creative, and the occasional visual effect might work, but the story just fails to grasp. Even the main character, Mr. Price, seems just lumped into the movie as a generic plot device—the necessary nod to the original. None of the characters proved interesting, and the story is almost instantly forgettable.

Finally, I should re-emphasize just how bad the ending is, along with the special effects littering each and every scene in it. It's king of painful to watch the remarkably bad CG ghosts, actually. They might work in a low budget movie, where such flaws are forgivable, but the rest of House on Haunted Hill had the sleek look and feel of a big, modern Hollywood production. The practical effects are top notch and, for whatever reason, some of the earlier CG stuff was pretty decent. In other words, the movie is disjointed in quality, and only worth watching for a few laughs and cringes. Unless you're prepared, you may not wish to enter 1999's The House on Haunted Hill.

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About the Creator

Wade Wainio

Wade Wainio writes stuff for Show Snob, Undead Walking, Pophorror.com, Vents Magazine and Haunted MTL. He is also an artist, musician and college radio DJ for WMTU 91.9 FM Houghton.

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