Haunted House
Geoffrey Rush was never meant to look like Vincent Price (star of the original film House on Haunted Hill (1959)). The original screenplay described Stephen Price as a regular looking businessman. Rush didn't care for this, so he suggested that his character look like the film director John Waters. The director agreed to test this look out. After his transformation, he ended up looking so much like Vincent Price the director decided to keep the look.,Some of the warnings in the basement are in very bad German - it seems somebody just used a dictionary and translated the English lines word-for-word. For example, one sign has the phrase "Steh zurück!" which means something like "Stay back!". A correct translation would be "Zurückbleiben" or in this context "Eintritt verboten" ("No admittance").,Pritchett: [walking slowly to Sara] You don't... get it... do you? This house is pissed. It has no morals, 'cause it's a fucking *house*!,After the final credits, there is an additional scene that features Steven and Evelyn strapped down on Vannacut's vivisection table. The scene ends with Vannacut watching as one hears Steven and Evelyn's screams.,Due to numerous circumstances (i.e. running time constraints and what not) a great deal of footage was excised from this motion picture. Three of the most important scenes were returned for the DVD release. They are:
two different versions of the same scene involving the real Jennifer Jenzen (Debi Mazar), a haughty, foul mouthed, arrogant movie producer and her assistant Sara (Ali Larter), who are on the set of a cheap drama Jennifer is producing. In one version, the set is in the courtyard of a regular house where a woman is telling a man, who is suffering from a seemingly terminal illness, to embrace life in spite of his condition. In the other version, a young couple, who seem to be medieval peasants, are frolicking on a meadow, falling to the ground and making out. In both versions, unhappy with the lack of sex and nudity in the film that could bring in the teen male audience, Jennifer curses the director out. Sara then arrives with a strange Art Deco music puzzle box that came in the mail for Jennifer. Despite Sara's advice and a warning label on the box, Jennifer arrogantly opens it the wrong way just because she was told not to, and cuts her finger on it. Sara laughs at this so vengeful Jennifer fires her on the spot and gives her the box to get rid of it. Sara however, finds the invite for the party on Haunted Hill in the box, and, although shocked by Jennifer's impromptu decision to fire her, she still tries to tell Jennifer about it, but when Jennifer refuses to hear her out, Sara just takes the invitation for herself and leaves, smiling.
a scene towards the climax when Eddie Baker (Taye Diggs) and Sara are running from the shadow demon exploding the floorboards, they are led into a dead end. Eddie jumps onto a hanging light fixture, holding onto Sara as the floor beneath them explodes. He loses his grip on Sara and she falls through the hole into a subterranean cavern beneath the house where the remains of Doctor Vannicut's victims lie. The shadow creeps into the cavern and reanimates the dead bodies causing this huge zombie attack. Eddie drops down and saves Sara and the chase continues from where it left off in the finished cut of the film (however, if you notice, in the finished cut of the film during the chase scene there is a continuity error when Sara's running. In one shot she's wearing her jacket and in the other it's mysteriously vanished, it's vanished because during the cut portion of this climactic chase, Sara loses her jacket when she falls into the cavern. Her jacket is then used by Eddie to pull her up and out to safety).,Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Music of the Heart/House on Haunted Hill/Being John Malkovich/Princess Mononoke (1999),Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Written by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart
Performed by Marilyn Manson
Courtesy of Nothing/Interscope Records
Under License from Universal Music Special Markets,Rich but eccentric millionaire Steven Price is looking for the ultimate scares. He invites a group of people to spend the night in the former Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane  where the inmates revolved in a orgy of violence against the cruel regime of Dr Vannacutt. The one who does spend the night will get $1million dollars. However it soon becomes evident that not all the scares are set up by Price himself.

This remake of the old 1958 movie sees the plot expanded and made a lot more creepy and enjoyable. In fact the end point of the original is only the halfway mark of this one. The plot may not be imaginative but the delivery is very good for this type of film. I'm not a big fan of horror or this type of Hollywood slasher movie as I find them too obvious and not scary. However here the gore is well used and the general creepy mood wins the film. The movement of the deceased Dr Vannacutt is very creepy and is much better than some of the gore.

Sadly the final 20 minutes feels it needs to reveal a bigger evil and the secrets of the house are brought to life in boom of CGI beasties. At this point it reverts to form and because just another Hollywood creature feature and it is a bit of a let down. However up to this point it works very well and it's real creepy.

The cast are all pretty good and do `camp' when necessary but don't take away from the terror that's coming later. Rush plays nicely to the camp in his homage to Price's role in the original. Jensen, Diggs, Gallagher and Kattan all do well and the cast do better than the scream queens that usual inhabit these films.

Overall the film starts like any other Hollywood horror but the clever direction, creepy music and imaginative visuals of Dr Vannacutt all create a creepy feel to the film that is better than the gore that also comes. The final section slides back into standard fare with the old CGI evil coming to get us  but up till then it's surprisingly good stuff.,