- Director: William Malone
- Writers: Robb White, Dick Beebe
- Stars: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3rjSYaR
Synopsis
There’s a huge insane asylum built into the side of a mountain. In 1931, everyone and everything there burned up in a fire; Dr. Vannacutt was in charge there, and he was perhaps the worst serial killer of all time. His spirit and those he killed are still said to live in the “House on Haunted Hill.”
We see a flashback of Dr. Vanacutt cutting open a patient who is still awake. He’s interrupted when the inmates take over the asylum. The place goes into lockdown, and all the doors and windows are sealed; then the fire breaks out, and they almost all die. Just five survivors from the staff.
Mr. Price is being interviewed about the opening of his new amusement park. They go up in the elevator, but the cable snaps, and they all fall to their dea— no, wait, it’s a trick; the elevator is part of the thrill ride before they even get on the roller coaster.
Price gets a call; his wife Evelyn wants her party this year at Haunted Hill. He invites his friends, but when he leaves the office, someone changes all the names on the list. He offers one million dollars to each person who can spend the night in the former “Haunted Hill” asylum.
Watson Pritchard, who owns the house, comes out to walk the guests up there. Evelyn walks in and doesn’t recognize anyone. Price invited a group of people who are desperate for money, but these aren’t the people he invited. He blames Evelyn for hacking his computer. Evelyn and Price clearly hate each other. There are five guests, Pritchard, a doctor, a celebrity, a baseball player, and a movie executive.
Just as Price pays the rent to Pritchard, the gears start turning, and the whole place goes into lockdown for the night. “The house is alive; we’re all gonna die!” Yells Pritchard. Price swears it wasn’t him who closed the doors. Price gives each of them a handgun in a little coffin-shaped box.
They go into the basement to see if they can get the mechanism to open the doors, and there’s weird mummies and preserved bodies down there. “Coolest basement ever,” as Kevin says. Meanwhile there’s a guy watching everything on the many video cameras in the house. Price checks in with him, apparently the plan was to do some special effects scares, but the guy denies locking down the place – it happened all by itself. Later Price checks in and his assistant has met a gruesome end. It’s all really been happening.
There’s all kind of asylum/torture chamber visuals and sets as they explore, including a thing called a “saturation chamber.”
Jennifer, the so-called movie executive, admits that she’s just a secretary named Sara. Meanwhile, everyone gets separated in the basement. She follows “Eddie” from room to room until she gets a scared. “Just wait until someone releases the darkness in this place,” screams Pritchard.
Melissa, the TV celebrity, roams the basement with her video camera, and inside the screen, she can see into the past of the old asylum. The others go looking for her, but they come to the conclusion that the house took her. Price and Evelyn blame each other for everything.
Naturally, they all split up to do things. Price sees the ghost of Dr. Vannacutt on the monitor. They find Evelyn cooking in the electroshock treatment machine.
The group locks Price in the saturation chamber. Dr. Blackburn stands guard outside. Inside, Price sees a psychedelic version of Vanacutt. The other figure out that everyone invited to the party is related to one of the staff of the original hospital. They notice that Blackburn’s name isn’t on the list.
Meanwhile, Blackburn goes in and feels up Evelyn’s corpse, then he gives her an injection to wake her up. She’s not really dead. The two have been working together to kill Price. She says they need one more body to turn everyone against Price, so she stabs Blackburn to death.
The others open up the saturation chamber and find Blackburn’s head inside. They all assume Price did it, and they all hunt for him, guns drawn.
Sara finds Price and kills him excessively with her pistol. Evelyn comes to his body to gloat, but he was faking it. He grabs her and pushes her through a wall, which “releases the darkness” that Pritchard had warned them about earlier. The darkness grabs Evelyn and turns her to dust, then chases Price through the house. It takes Pritchard away, and Price runs through, warning the others to run.
Sara and Eddie run through the house, trying to escape, while Price tries to open the lockdown doors. The shadow pursues relentlessly, but they find an attic window. Price sacrifices himself to save the other two. Sara and Eddie crawl out to a tiny ledge outside as the sun rises. Oh, and they have five million dollars to split… If they can figure out how to get down from there…
Commentary
There’s a lot here similar to the original; The plot between the doctor and the wife, the cash prize for staying the night, and the lockdown are all right from the original. Geoffrey Rush even tries really hard to look like Vincent Price. The asylum, the real ghosts, the gore and body horror are all new here. There’s no acid pit, but there is an actual supernatural entity.
There’s a lot more gore, and lots more violence than in the original. It’s not the exact same story, so watching the original won’t ruin the second one, or the other way around.