House on Haunted Hill | 1999 | R | - 5.9.7 Show  SEX/NUDITY 5 - Some sexual innuendo and a few kisses (in one scene, a man kisses a woman passionately while briefly caressing her clothed breasts and thigh). All nudity is shown as fairly brief glimpses: we see a naked woman hanging from leather (her buttocks and the sides and tops of her breasts are visible), a nude woman in water (her breasts and buttocks are visible), bare breasts and two bare female buttocks. We see cleavage-revealing outfits in a few scenes. VIOLENCE/GORE 9 - Patients attack their attendants, throwing people against walls, drowning someone in a bathtub full of water and poking a bundle of pencils through a man's neck (we see lots of blood on his neck and mouth). A woman stabs a man in the abdomen repeatedly (we see lots of blood on his torso, her hands and the knife) and a woman shoots a man many times (he has blood on his hands and shirt and she gets blood on her dress). Huge, dark ghosts attack people and "suck" them in and ghosts grab a woman and turn her into skeleton. A man becomes charred and explodes. A surgeon makes an incision on a conscious man's chest; he screams and we see lots of blood well up on his chest. A man's head is used as a basketball and we see a man with a huge, bloody cavity where his face used to be. A man cuts his hand while breaking a glass window; he screams when another man pours alcohol on the wound. A man jumps into vat of blood and a woman is nearly sucked into it as she struggles to rescue him. A man is gagged and put into water with a woman who drools blood before turning into a monster. A woman's body jerks violently during electroshock therapy. A man pulls a woman's hair and she bites his hand, a man chokes a woman and throws her around and we see a fistfight with punches and rolling on the floor (we also hear a gunshot during this scene). A glass ceiling collapses on people and metal bars slam down trapping people inside a house. We see lots of blood: puddles of blood on the floor, blood on walls and ceilings, blood dripping or gushing from people's mouths, bloody facial cuts, bloody hands and arms and blood on sheets and clothing. We see a bloody head, bloody eviscerated body parts and a bloody, decapitated corpse; we also see a room of decayed corpses and skeletons several times, a group of charred corpses, a head in a glass with stitches on its eyes and mouth, many faces of dead people appearing in the dark, quick flashes of monsters and blood, a man with glowing eyes, a ghost holding a bloody knife and walking jerkily, and disembodied images of eyes, faces and monsters. In a couple of scenes a house falls apart and explodes. We see an elevator that appears to be crashing and a scary roller coaster ride. A man is caught on a dizzying carousel and a couple are stuck on a high ledge. We hear disembodied screams and voices throughout movie. LANGUAGE 7 - About 21 F-words, many mild obscenities and scatological references and a few anatomical references. DISCUSSION TOPICS - Haunted houses, mental institutions, murder, betrayal, revenge. MESSAGE - Some houses are alive; revenge is sweet. Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements. We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits. Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review. House on Haunted Hill is a 1999 American supernatural horror film directed by William Malone and starring Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson, Peter Gallagher, and Chris Kattan. The plot follows a group of strangers who are invited to a party at an abandoned insane asylum, where they are offered $1 million each by an amusement park mogul if they are able to survive the night. Produced by Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver, it is a remake of the 1959 film of the same title directed by William Castle, and features special effects by famed make-up artists Gregory Nicotero and Dick Smith. House on Haunted Hill marked the producing debut of Dark Castle Entertainment, a production company that went on to produce numerous other horror films, including additional remakes. House on Haunted Hill premiered on Halloween weekend in 1999. In the tradition of William Castle's theater gimmicks, Warner Bros. Pictures supplied promotional scratchcards to cinemas showing the film, offering ticket buyers a chance to win a money prize, similar to the movie's characters. The film received negative reviews from critics, but was a commercial success, opening number one at the box office, and grossed $43 million worldwide. In 2007, the film was followed up with a direct-to-DVD sequel, Return to House on Haunted Hill, with Jeffrey Combs reprising his role as Vannacut and was released in both rated and unrated editions. The film had no involvement from William Malone and received poor reviews, mainly due to plot holes, continuity in the building design and various other features of the film, but it was praised for its state-of-the-art Blu-Ray feature in which the viewer can change the path of the story. How scary is House on Haunted Hill 1999?Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "House on Haunted Hill is the kind of horror movie that's not a bit scary and quite a bit gross. Which version of House on Haunted Hill is the best?THE WINNER IS: House On Haunted Hill 1959 If the remake had gone hard on the horror and the mansion itself, it probably would have won. In this case, the original takes the cake! Also, is there something about Vincent Price or is it just me? Is House on Haunted Hill a good movie?If you're not too harsh, this actually is a pretty enjoyable movie and – at times – a successful mixture between an old-fashioned 'haunted house' chiller and a modern special effects playground. Thanks to some sort of miracle, Malone managed to cast class actor Geoffrey Rush and a more than decent supportive cast. What happens at the end of the House on Haunted Hill 1999?When The Darkness confronts Eddie about his ancestor's actions, Eddie screams that he was actually adopted. Pritchett's ghost then appears and opens the iron gate, and Eddie escapes. Pritchett's ghost and the Darkness then both fade away. |
