Haunted Movie Review:
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
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Director
William Malone
Writer(s)
Robb White (story)
Dick Beebe (screenplay)
Cast
Geoffrey Rush … Stephen Price
Famke Janssen … Evelyn
Taye Diggs … Eddie
Peter Gallagher … Blackburn
Chris Kattan … Pritchett
Ali Larter … Sara
Jeffrey Combs … Dr. Vannacutt
Plot Summary
In this remake of William Castle’s campy 1958 classic, an eccentric millionaire, Steven Price, invites a diverse group of people to a reputedly haunted mansion which was once the site of an insane asylum. Steven offers his guests $1,000,000 each if they can spend the entire night at the old house without fleeing in terror. It sounds simple enough, but when those stories about ghosts haunting the mansion turn out to be true, the guests may no longer opt to stick around. The eccentric millionaire is played by Geoffrey Rush, and his guests include Jeffrey Combs, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, and Bridgette Wilson; Famke Janssen plays Evelyn Price. Sadly, the remake doesn’t feature the original’s most memorable special-effects gimmick, “Emergo,” an inflatable plastic skeleton that rolled on wires through the theater during showings.
Main Characters
Ali Larter is Sara Wolfe… the self-sufficient stand-in for the formally requested Miss Jensen, whose independent know-how helps keep her and Eddie’s heads above water throughout much of the night’s deadly haunts.
Taye Diggs is Eddie Baker… the former pro baseball player who, after answering his fated invitation to the Price Party bonanza, pairs up with the sturdy Sara Wolfe in hopes the two can outlive the horrors of the night.
Geoffrey Rush is Stephen H. Price… thrill park extraordinaire owner, husband to gold-digging Evelyn, and host of the nights daredevil extravaganza at the Vannacutt Mansion.
Famke Janssen is Evelyn Stockard Price, the gold-digging, ungrateful trophy wife to Stephen Price, who is having an unknown lascivious affair with Dr. Blackburn, and whose uncanny penchant for twisted horror becomes the key to her own undoing.
Chris Kattan is Watson Pritchett, recent inheritor of the Vannacutt mansion after his father (the second of the Pritchett male heirs to die) falls to his untimely death while working on the scaffolding outside the Vannacutt mansion, and whose paranoia and abundant knowledge of the mansions evil ways serves as the comic relief of the film.
Peter Gallagher is Donald W. Blackburn, M.D., the doctor whose needless participation in the party stems from lustful relations with Evelyn that endanger his life as much as the ghostly haunts of the mansion.
Bridgette Wilson is Melissa Margaret Marr, the former celebrity TV host whose fascination with the creepy Vannacutt mansion quickly leads to her undoing.
