REEL REVIEWS COLUMN: ‘House on Haunted Hill’ a mildly enjoyable film
JAMIE ANNEL
"House on Haunted Hill"
** out of ****
In "The House on Haunted Hill," five strangers are offered the chance to win $1 million. And all they have to do is stay overnight in a haunted former mental institution!
This gullible group includes Eddie (Taye Diggs), a former baseball player, and Sara (Ali Larter), an assistant impersonating her boss. The strangers are greeted when they arrive by Watson Pritchett (Chris Kattan), the nervous owner of the house, and mysterious amusement park magnate Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush), the mastermind behind this plan.
And as if the ghosts weren’t enough, Steven and his trophy wife, Evelyn (Famke Janssen) have been trying for ages to kill each other. (Let that be a warning to anyone out there tempted to accept a creepy party invitation from a complete stranger.)
William Malone, the director of "House on Haunted Hill," seems to be aiming for a Tim Burton look; the outside of the house looks like something out of Burton’s "Batman" movies, while the interior sets and camera angles reminded me somewhat of "Beetlejuice."
The acting is at the usual mediocre level you find in these types of movies, with Geoffrey Rush (Oscar winner for 1996’s "Shine") predictably giving the best performance.
Thankfully, "The House on Haunted Hill" is better than the year’s other strangers in a haunted house film, "The Haunting," which means that it won’t ever make a list of scariest movies of all time, but it’s still a mildly enjoyable popcorn flick.