RETURN TO HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
© Warher Home Video
Mania Grade: C+
Rated: Unrated
Cast: Amanda Righetti, Eric Palladino, Cerina Vincent
Writer: William Massa
Director: Victor Garcia
Distributor: Warner Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2007
Extras: Cast Comments, Deleted Scenes
Buy it now!
Rated: Unrated
Cast: Amanda Righetti, Eric Palladino, Cerina Vincent
Writer: William Massa
Director: Victor Garcia
Distributor: Warner Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2007
Extras: Cast Comments, Deleted Scenes
Buy it now!
RETURN TO HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
By: Tim JansonDate: Friday, October 26, 2007
1999’s “House on Haunted Hill” was released about two months after “The Haunting” which had a far bigger budget and received much more publicity. Despite that, “House on Haunted Hill” proved to be the superior film with much more atmosphere and scares and less of a reliance on CGI effects. Only two of the guests at Hill House managed to escape with their lives, one of those being Sara Wolfe (Ali Larter). Unfortunately The gorgeous Ms. Larter is not around for the sequel, only in character name. Sarah’s sister Ariel is an exec with a magazine and learns the news that Sarah has committed suicide. Ariel is visited by an archaeologist looking for the Statue of Baphomet, an evil artifact worshipped by a cult in the middle ages. He believes the statue is located inside of Hill House and is looking for the Journal of Dr. Vannacutt, the doctor who ran the asylum.
A group of thieves led by Desmond (Eric Palladino) are also looking for the rare statue and they take Ariel and her boyfriend, Paul, hostage. Now the archaeologists and his assistants (Michelle & Kyle) along with the gang of thieves, Ariel and all find themselves locked inside the monstrous house/asylum, searching for the statue while the spirits of the house begin hunting them down one-by-one. Naturally this comes about as they devise the wise strategy of splitting up to search for the statue. Even when one of his men is torn to pieces, Desmond still refuses to believe in the house’s haunted reputation.
The 1999 film wasn’t great, but it had a creepy atmosphere that the sequel lacks. This film is much more visceral and in your face and far more gory. Some of the gore hound scenes include on of the thieves getting torn apart limb from limb and another having her face literally removed with a scalpel. Not subtle, but fairly effective.
The cast is no comparison to the first film. That film had well known actors like Larter, Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, and Taye Diggs…The most recognized name in the sequel is low-budget horror king Jeffrey Combs who reprises his role as Dr. Vannacutt and has exactly one word of dialogue in the entire film. On the plus side, Amanda Righetti (Ariel) and Cerina Vincent (Michelle) are great eye candy.
The entire premise of the Baphomet statue is a little ridiculous. The ghosts in the first film killed the guests because they were all descendants of the staff that worked at the asylum. What their motivation here is anybody’s guess although there is at least one who tries to help Ariel. The remaining survivors eventually figure they can escape through the asylum’s sewer system and conveniently find the blueprints to the mammoth facility and evidently Ariel is an engineer as she is able to map out their entire route down to the basement and into the sewer grates…ok….
Return to the House on Haunted Hill isn’t a bad film, it’s just not great. But there’s some decent scares and gore and it’s worth a rent.
(not sure why there was no mention of this in the review)