House on Haunted Hill

Dark Castle pictures in general are quite the mixed bag, you never really know what you're gonna get. Luckily, House on Haunted Hill (which happens to be the first Dark Castle movie that I watched), happens to be one of the best in the series.

The gist of it is that a married couple who would slit each others' throats over the last piece of pizza (played by Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen) want to have a party at a house that is rumored to be haunted. The wife; Evelyn, creates a guest list that gets destroyed and re-written to invite five others to the house instead. At first, everyone thinks that the house's infamous nature is bullshit until like expected...things begin to take a turn for the worst.

One of the things that I like about House on Haunted Hill is the performances. Famke Janssen and Geoffrey Rush steal the show as the Prices, but overall I would say everyone holds their own pretty well. There's not a weak link amongst the cast.

I also have to give the movie credit for not relying too much on special effects, except for the ending...which will get dissected more in a later paragraph. Even though some of scenes with special effects are quite disturbing (turns out the ghosts in the house were involved with some fucked up shit in a mental hospital), the movie doesn't really need these graphic scenes in order to keep the audience entertained and thrilled. The atmosphere and tension move the movie along pretty well.

The biggest down is the lame, over CGI'd ending. Nothing scary or remotely interesting/authentic looking happens. It's not even scary...it's just a lame way to wrap up the movie and an unsatisfying attempt at providing a legit climax. And then after the CGI effects are over...the movie just...ends. Two of the main characters are just chillin outside the house. You never know if they made it out safely or not. What a dumbfuck.

Despite the lame ending, House on Haunted Hill is a pretty awesome ride for about 90% of the time. It's funny, it's entertaining, it's well acted and the CGI is pretty badass. When it comes time to start looking for good Halloween-oriented movies, you could do a lot worse then House on Haunted Hill.


3/4