Welcome to Bob's Movie Reviews for
Horror Movies,
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House on Haunted Hill (1999)
House on Haunted Hill is a special effects laden remake of a 1958
film of the same name. Five people are invited to a birthday
party for the wife of an amusement park mogul. They have no idea
why they of all people were invited since they neither know the host
or his wife. A sixth man takes them to the house where the party
will be, an old unused mental institution with a darker past than
most asylums could ever claim to have. The guests are told that
if they can spend the entire night in the building then they will
receive one million dollars each. However to get the money they
cannot leave, and they must survive the night in the very haunted
place. In the event of a person's death that person's one
million will be divided between the rest.
This film is a really nice piece of eye candy. The special
effects are spectacular and mixed with the plot, the pacing, and the
musical score makes for a good horror movie. The acting isn't
bad and there are not too many gaps in the logic of the film.
Even the build up to the actually haunted house part (if one can
call such a tall building a house) is really fun to watch as the
party's host shows a couple of TV News people around his newest roller
coaster. The film is maybe a little too heavy in spots with the
supernatural stuff going on. The place is kind of over haunted
to an extent and cuts away some from the real scares by desensitising
the audience. There was one special effect that was not as good
as it could have been; the shadow/smoke creature. It was too symmetrical
despite its otherwise organic look, which made it sort of distracting.
Still it is a good movie and I would certainly see it again.
(The extras on the DVD sound really good, although I watched it
on VHS.)
(
Thank you for reading my review.
Bob Male)
All ideas, opinions, and information are from the reviewer
and are not representative of any company or group involved with the creators
and/or staff of the materials being reviewed.