House on haunted hill

House on haunted hill

First off a lot of people don't like this remake of the 1959 film... fuck them! starring Geoffrey Rush and a bunch of other people this is the story of a group of strangers who are picked at 'random' to spend the night in an abandoned insane asylum. The person who stays the whole night wins one million dollars.The original starred Vincent Price and the remake stars Geoffrey Rush who looks just like him actually and gives a fantastic performance. This would fall under the blanket of late 90's early 2000's new wave of teen horror slashers but I have a lot of personal reasons for loving this film.

Best bit

I really love this movie, I seen it when it first came out and it scared the crap out of me.The acting is pretty good, it looks really crisp, has a really cool stop motion credits into and the MUSIC is creepy as fuck, has a strong presence in the film with a great theme that runs all the way through it. Favorite scene is when the character of price is locked in this big metal chamber which was used in the 30's for supposedly curing insanity, turning a mad man sane or a sane man mad. He is bombarded with bizarre imagery and strange noises until he TRIPS THE FUCK OUT, what follows is equal to an 80's obligatory montage, a horrible series of images that don't make any sense but warped the fuck out of my mind.You know in horror movies when a character does that spiny blurry head thing and its freaky as fuck? yeah lot of that going on here. 

Worst bit

Id have to say the ending SPOILER ALERT its your average 'oh we defeated the evil just as the sun comes up' lark and its just a bit gay. Also i didn't like that the guy from Night at the roxbury got killed, the film would have been 100% cooler if he just started dancing with the homicidal ghosts to what is love?  

What it means to me

Ah yes, the main reason I wrote this review. I rented this motherfucker out with a friend and we watched it one night I had a free house. Letting nine year olds to rent eighteens films isn't a great idea when it scars them for life and gives them nightmares! in a good  way of course. I remember the shaky blurry face thing petrifying me but loving it at the same time. The next day we got up and watched it again, it wasn't as scary watching it in the light of the day and we even laughed at some of the bits, I tried to make fun of the scary parts so I wouldn't be scared!

Summing up

House on haunted hill (1999) is a great chiller/horror with a bit of who done it thrown in too. Id recommend it!