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House On Haunted Hill
THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1999)
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Chris Kattan, Peter Gallagher, and Bridgette Wilson Director: William Malone Running Time: 96 minutes Rated R (for strong terror violence and gore, language and brief nudity)
The dripping-wet prints of "The House on Haunted Hill" are now in a "video store" near you. The special effects used in the film were finished late. Final prints were then rushed out across the country to get this campy horror flick in front of audiences in time for Halloween. So, here you go, and by the way -- boo! The film is co-produced by Terry Castle as homage to her late father William Castle. He directed 1958's "House on Haunted Hill" and this new film maintains the spirit, if not the substance, of that original. While his name isn't widely known, from the 1940s until his death in 1977, William Castle made his mark with more than 50 horror films, some of which helped define the genre.His true claim to fame may have been the outrageous promotional gimmicks he used in selling tickets to those films. They included parking an ambulance and several medical attendants in front of theaters in case an audience member was "scared literally to death!" He was also known to hot-wire theater seats to make them vibrate when the lights went out.
When Castle prepared for the release of "House on Haunted Hill," he arranged for skeletons to appear to fly off the screen and over the audience's heads. For better or worse, no such gimmicks are planned for the release of this remake. The new film stars Academy Award-winner (for "Shine" in 1996) Geoffrey Rush in the role once occupied by the legendary Vincent Price.
"The House on Haunted Hill" originated in 1958 as a story by Robb White --it's not to be confused with "The Haunting of Hill House," a book recently updated as "The Haunting" with Liam Neeson. For "The House on Haunted Hill," screenwriter Dick Beebe has gone back to the source for his inspiration -- and has added plenty of flippant and clever dialogue, including a lot of random profanity. The plot is intact.The Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane has been left abandoned since 1931, when the inmates took over the asylum and killed everyone in sight. That ugly scene opens the film. The building still holds the memories of unspeakable horrors, including human torture (there are vivid flashbacks), perpetrated under the guise of medical care by the deranged Dr. Vannacutt.
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