Search - House on Haunted Hill on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Graphic Violence, Adult Language, Profanity, Sexual Situations Movie Release: 1999 DVD Release: 04/18/2000 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 33 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Total Copies: 54 Genres: Horror, Haunted House Film, Gothic Film See Also: House On Haunted Hill

In this remake of William Castle's campy 1958 classic, an eccentric millionaire named Steven Price invites a diverse group of people to a reputedly haunted mansion that was formerly the site of an insane asylum. Steven offers his guests $1,000,000 each if they can spend the entire night at the old house without fleeing in terror. It sounds simple enough, but when those stories about ghosts haunting the mansion turn out to be true, the guests may no longer opt to stick around. In this version, Steven is played by Geoffrey Rush, and his guests include Jeffrey Combs, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, and Bridgette Wilson; Famke Janssen plays Evelyn Price. Sadly, this remake does not feature the original's memorable special-effects gimmick, "Emergo," an inflatable plastic skeleton that rolled on wires through the theater during showings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Geoffrey Rush - Steven Price
Famke Janssen - Evelyn Price
Taye Diggs - Eddie
Peter Gallagher - Dr. Blackburn
Chris Kattan - Watson Prichett

William Malone's remake of William Castle's classic spook story House on Haunted Hill scored high marks for special effects and humor but is basically inferior to the original. Malone's version does, however, get the benefit of this superb DVD repackaging, which does much to compensate for the movie's frailties. An excellent anamorphic widescreen transfer of the film gives it a crisp, balanced look, with no visible flaws or defects. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track has clearly been mixed to prioritize the sound effects rather than the dialogue, ensuring that all the eerie creaks and clanks are rendered with maximum impact. The disc comes with an excellent array of additional features, including the original theatrical trailers for both Malone's and Castle's films. The 20-minute "Tale of Two Houses" featurette analyzes the two versions in some depth and is thoroughly absorbing, even if it leaves the viewer surer than ever that Castle's original is the better of the two. Six behind-the-scenes mini-documentaries explain many of the undeniably impressive special effects used in the film, and among the DVD-ROM features is a silly but mildly entertaining game called "Escape from the House." Director Malone introduces the deleted footage from the movie, including a strangely low-key but amusing epilogue, and explains the reasons for the deletions. He also provides a commentary track, and his observations are generally very interesting and incisive. House on Haunted Hill may be only a moderately successful horror film, but judged on its own terms this is an outstanding disc. ~ Patrick Lee, All Movie Guide