House on Haunted Hill (IMDb:5.1|Rot:22% - CotC:10%)
Went for a walk in the park and had a delicious dinner Friday night at It Rains Fishes. Their fresh summer rolls were yummy, as were the crazy noodles with shrimp. I love going there— nice decor, funky asymmetrical bowls, groovy mood lighting, and cool sparkling limeade.
We retired to CVB's place to watch House on Haunted Hill. It was scary, but not scary enough to keep me from dozing off during a few scenes. (Hey, I was tired.) It stars Geoffrey Rush as a smarmy John Waters lookalike who happens to be in the business of scaring people. (He made his fortune with heart-stopping amusement park rides and takes great enjoyment in messing with your head.) James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has a cameo as the TV cameraman who is filming Rush as he demonstrates his latest thrill ride: Terror Incognita (actually The Incredible Hulk rollercoaster from Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida). Famke Janssen stars as his ill-tempered, gold-digging wife. I've never seen the original Vincent Price version, so I had no preconceived notions going in.
I think the problem that I have with the movie is not so much the typical "Why the hell are you doing that?" (characters going off into spooky situation alone, or in pairs, while murderous psychos roam the hallways) but more of a "Who the hell cares?" Few of the characters are likeable; some are downright annoying (midway through, I was actually rooting for one of them to die horribly). Some scenes are suitably creepy, others have more snooze value than shock value. Chris Kattan (Mango on SNL) plays the we're-all-gonna-die this-house-is-possessed I'm-a-gonna-drink-myself into oblivion caretaker/ lackey.
In fine Night of the Living Dead tradition, the black guy (Eddie Baker, played by Taye Diggs) is one of the only members of the party who is sane and competent, and he gets the best lines.
What's this got to do with me? I'm adopted!
Worth a cheap rental, if you like blood and gore horror flicks. Me? I'll take a good zombie pic any day, and I'm very glad that I didn't pay to see this in the theatres when it first came out.
Posted by rv at August 6, 2006 04:49 PM to movieAny slasher pic worth its salt will have at least one victim who you want to die. It's a typical trope in horror movies. I think it works as a bit of wish fulfillment (especially in teen slasher movies) and as a way to create tension (you know the bad people are gonna get it at some point).
For example, I just recently saw Final Destination N which had a pair of evil, catty, stupid, popular high school girls who die gruesomely in tanning booths. And oh how you wanted them to, and you knew they would get their comeuppance. It was used as a tension creator for soem time: Is that backhoe gonna ram them? Or maybe fall into the pirana tank? Or choke on something? Each was telegraphed as possibilities, creating and then diffusing the tension when it didn't happen.
(They eventually burned to death in a most graphic fashion on tanning beds which had been locked down so they couldn't get out.)
Posted by: poz at August 7, 2006 02:07 PMCrispy fries.
Initially, I was having a hard time determining which movie we were about to watch. I was confusing The Haunting of Hell House (1999, Michael York, Claudia Christian), The Haunting (1999, Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones), and House on Haunted Hill (1999, Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen). Apparently 1999 was a "good" year for crappy haunted house movies. Have you seen any of these?
Posted by: rv at August 7, 2006 04:28 PMI'm fairly sure I saw The Haunting as a rental. I've never even head of the first one; the second I remember that they were remaking it but didn't see it hit the theaters.
[Some research later...]
The 1999 trifecta you mention was followed up in 2001 with Thir13en Ghosts, a (boring and stupid but with great set design) "remake" of a (boring) 1960 movie. House on Haunted Hill was a 1959 original, The Haunting originally in 1963, and Hell House is from... a Henry James novel?! And was direct to video apparently.
Two other "House" related horror movies I've seen in the last couple years: House of 1000 Corpses (by Rob Zombie) was a bit incoherent, unsettling, violent, and kept you guessing; and House of Wax (remake of a 1953 movie) which gruesomely kills Paris Hilton but is a bit slow overall and left you wishing that more wax-related deaths could have been invented.
Just saw The Descent over the weekend. Recommended, though I am baffled by how this movie gets an 83% on RT. It's not that much better than a reasonably put together horror movie. (And the director's first movie, Dog Soldiers (I saw it on SciFi), is good too.)
And I should just post all this on Foam Totem. :-)
Posted by: poz at August 7, 2006 11:20 PM