Plot: What’s it about?
Remakes are rarely what their predecessors are. Take the new version of “Psycho”. I think when people refer to the movie “Psycho” they will be referring to Hitchcock’s masterpiece and not Gus Van Sant’s remake. Remakes, are in much of the same sense a “sequal”. Whereas the characters are the same (mostly) and the story is the same, it’s usually just an updated version of an old movie (unless you have Hamlet which was remade twice in the 90’s alone…but that’s an exception). So here we have the “old” Vincent Price thriller, House on Haunted Hill. A sequal-no. A remake-yes. Did it need to be remade after such a similar movie by the name of The Haunting came out only months before? Read on and find out…
Right off the bat I liked this movie, it wasted no time getting to the action and introducing us to the main characters. And while I’m a fan of longer movies, sometimes it’s nice just to get right down to it. And they do. We meet Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush) almost immediately. Now, maybe it’s just me, but it took me a few minutes to convince myself that he was not James Woods. Maybe it was the accent, I dunno…he just had that look that James Woods has. Anyhow, we find out that he is very dialobical and owns a string of amusement parks that make ordinary roller coasters and such look like child’s play. The man is a genius at making peole scared as hell. For his birthday, he invites a selected group of people to a “Haunted House”. The rules are simple, spend the night in the house and walk away with a million dollars. If anyone doesn’t make it, the share is divided among those who do. Interesting…
It’s then that we meet the rest of the cast, led by Taye Diggs who plays Eddie, an ex-baseball player. Sara Wolfe (Ali Larter of Varsity Blues) plays an Executive VP, Brigette Wilson plays a “celebrity” who just has to record everything and Peter Gallagher plays Dr. Blackburn. Rounding out the cast are Famke Jessen as Prices’ wife, Evelyn and SNL star, Chris Kattan who is the owner of the house and wants to get out with his money as fast as he can (he doesn’t, of course). Things immediately start to happen, strange things. The stained glass window shatters for no reason and metal plates have come down over the windows and doors, thereby making escape impossible. For some reason in movies like this, the stars always seem to split up and go check things out (part of what made “Scream” so funny is that it made fun of just this).
We start to see things happen, we learn that the house is indeed alive and we’re just wondering who makes it out alive and how. Until the end, they are all convinced that it’s one of Price’s elaborate pranks (and it might be). Still, the movie is loaded with action, and for the first time in a long, long while…a movie actually scared me. No foolin’ folks, I was on the edge of my seat! With that being said, I dare you to see this flick.
Video: How does it look?
A very, very dark movie. Of course it has to be, taking place in a haunted house and they just aren’t the same in borad daylight are they? Warner, as usual, has presented us with a beautiful picture which is anamorphically enhanced. I saw no signs of artifacting at all. No shimmering…nothing. Everything looked perfect. The image was shot at 1.85:1 as I was expecting a 2.35:1 image for this sort of movie, but it doesn’t deter the movie one bit. Colors are dead on (pardon the pun) and this is another shining example of transfers from Warner.
Audio: How does it sound?
Without a doubt, this is the most active soundtrack that I’ve ever heard. In most every scene, there is a 360 degree effect with all sounds blaring out this eerie music. I love it! This is one reason that a home theater setup is needed to experience the “full effect” of the movie. I think I would have been about half as scared if I was watching this movie with regular sound. This is my new demo disc for sound, and how good it can sound, until something better comes along…
Supplements: What are the extras?
Ok, well what didn’t Warner include…A feature-length commentary is just as entertaining as the movie, and offers some insight to the scenes that didn’t make the cut. There is a documentary comparing the two versions of “House on Haunted Hill” which is interesting. You get to see who played who in which role and how they updated the roles. There’s three deleted scenes and explanations on why they were deleted. Several featurettes show how some of the special effects were made, from the glass ceiling breaking to how they presented the ghostly image of the house, I’d watch these after the movie, though as it gives away a lot of info. Trailers for both versions of the film, cast and crew bios (though you can only “click” on the director’s bio). There’s also production notes and some nifty DVD-ROM material. Another Warner loaded disc. And you know what? I didn’t even see the word(s) “Special Edition” anywhere on the package and it’s not $35! Kudos!
