I actually managed to see this movie in theaters when it first came out, back when I had money. I did a review for it on the old site, which was systematically destroyed by someone who shall remain nameless. This movie has potential to be damn good. One of the best horror movies of the new generation or crappy horror movies like Scream. But, somehow this movie falls short. I don't know exactly where, the actors and actresses are all very good, the plot is pretty good, and the movie is genuinely scary. The visuals in this movie give me the willies.
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The story goes like this: A bunch of years ago, this mental health doctor, Vannacutt or something, has this great big nut house all to his own. The Vannacutt Home for the Criminally Insane. Well, the good doctor is a bit of a psycho, and he tortures his patients and uses all sorts of horrible "treatments," like Prozac. Well, the patients, being criminally insane as they are, don't like being treated this way, so they get out of their cells and go on a mad mad killing spree.
The doctor, being the visionary that he is, sets off his security system, which locks everyone inside the institution while it burns up. Everybody, supposedly, dies. Well, fast forward a couple generations. Mr. and Mrs. Price (Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen) are a couple of kooky love birds who hate each other and do all kinds of crazy stuff. Mr. Price ( in the original played by Vincent Price) is in the business of scaring the hell out of people. He makes amusement parks and amusement park rides. One of the coolest parts in the movie is when he scares the hell out or T.V. reporter Lisa Loeb.
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Anyway, this couple has some kind of yearly party where they spook people out. So, Mrs. Price sees a story on this house and tells her husband to set it up. So, invitations are sent out to a bunch of people that read "If you survive the night, you win 1 million dollars", and you don't even have to deal with Regis Philben.
Well, when they get there, the Prices notice that this isn't the people they invited. Don't matter though, because they all get trapped in the house when the lockdown doohicky fires, leaving them stuck for the night, freaking out the owner of the house played by Chris Kattan. Another ten minutes into the movie and you get your first good death, and the beginning to one hell of a scary ride.
This is all great and all, but the movie lacked something in personality, as far as the characters go. They were all good, but maybe just a little two dimensional. They were all just a bit TOO kooky. It detracted from the genuine scary nature of the movie to have all these Ally McBeal reject characters. Eventually, once most everyone is dead, you start to get to know the remaining characters a bit, and then just as you think you can start enjoying the movie and getting really into it, it's over.
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Don't get me wrong, if you don't mind 2-D characters then this really is a great movie, but in my personal opinion, a horror movie is much better when you get into it by identifying with the characters. How many of us can identify with an ex game show hostess, or a senior vice president for some big company or a pro baseball star who had to retire because of an injury? I mean, eventually, you get to know a couple of them, but even Geoffrey Rush's character is just bad. Geoffrey Rush is an awesome actor, but his character was just bad. Real bad, same with his wife. The Prices as characters just sucked and they were kind of the main characters. Okay, now that I think about it, only the Prices were really bad characters. All they did was talk sheeot about each other, and when the movie ends, they are still the same. Alive or dead, you'll have to watch.
The bottom line is this: The movie is scary, which is always good when you are watching a horror movie. Something about it though left something to be desired. It's just tough to put my finger on it. I just felt let down in some fundamental way. I recommend it if you are a horror movie fan like me, but not if your a "thriller" fan. If you don't know what I mean, then you like "thrillers." Thrillers are horror movies that SUCK @$$ like the Scream series. Don't get me wrong, I know where Wes Craven/John Carpenter was going with it, but the message was lost and it became a stupid 90's watered down horror movie "thriller." A sad sad day indeed.
Rating: 7 freaky ass floating chicks with giant mouths for a face
Web Sites:
Official Website - http://www.hauntedhill.com
Know a good site about this movie, or one of the actors/actresses/directors/key grips/etc involved in it. Send me an e-mail at jarjarschmoke@hotmail.com
