A
wicked theme park manager named Stephen
S. Price, (Geoffrey Rush) who enjoys
creating scary rides for people, brings
some people to a house by a rocky cliff
in which he claims is haunted which was
once an insane asylum to spend the night
at and anyone who lives wins a million
dollars.
This is also a Birthday bash for his
greedy wife Evelyn (Famke Janssen) who
will stop at nothing to get that money as
well as trying to get rid of her nasty
husband for good.
Everyone thinks that they will be rich
not believing in ghosts but however some
turn up dead by mysterious forces and not
only that they are trapped inside the
house as even Stephen himself is in
danger not realising what's in that house
even when he sets some pranks up to scare
his guests.
One by one someone drops like a fly
during this terrifying 24 hour event as
some believe it's by special forces
haunting the house or by Stephen himself.
The show starts
off with some
paramedics at an
operating table as the scenery looks very
twisted along with the
the mental patients staring from the top
of a window and then crashing in to
attack which was nicely set.
There's a nice setting at
a rollercoaster theme park with Stephen H. Price suddenly having a crazy stare
and a rollercoaster comes zooming along.
There are good camera shots on the
rollercoaster and the railing of it like
you're part of the ride.
A good camera shot on Watson Pritchett coming
from some metal gates and a foggy
background introducing everyone to the
house they plan to stay in.
There is good blocking between Stephen coming up from behind Evelyn Stockard-Price talking to her and then grabbing the back
of her head in a room.
Nice moment with Evelyn walking over
saying something vulgar then glass starts
to shatter from above coming down which
is a good jumping moment.
Good camera shots looking up from a
staircase with the people walking down as
well as the nice dark cobweb halls etc.
There's a nice discussion between Sara Wolfe and Eddie Baker when they try to
find their way in the halls as well as a
good spooky moment with Sara when she
tries to look for him with her flashlight
and the dark creepy settings around her.
There's good flickering light effects in
the hallway when everyone tries to find
out where it's coming from which is the
electroshock room as they all know how to
perform with lots of energy for this.
A nice wicked conversation between Donald W. Blackburn,
M.D. and Evelyn by discussing the set
ups to fool people and about getting the
money.
We have a good brawling scene with Eddie trying to get the gun out of Stephen's hand.
There's are great psyched out shots on Stephen locked in some storage device with things
spinning around as well as other great
effects around him.
A nice limping movement with Stephen approaching towards Sara.
There's a nice shot on Evelyn approaching
towards Stephen acting lifeless and good
words talking to him about her evil
scheme. We have a great jumping moment
when he grabs her and throws her around.
Good explosive shots on a floor exploding
towards Sara and Eddie when they try to
run away.
Perfect ghostly effects towards all Sara, Eddie and Stephen when they try to escape
the house.
Bottom line is that this remake at
first starts off like the original one
but then it turns out to be a totally
different story alltogether which is what
a remake should be like. I enjoyed this
one alot better too. There's great effects and lots of twists
with haunting creepiness to this
film. If you like haunted house movies with all
kinds of twists and turns you may want to
check this one out for sure. It was a
solid performance too. There are also
elements of Hellraiser type of plotlines
too.
The acting is very
good as we have an interesting
characteristics performed by Geoffrey
Rush (Stephen H. Price) as a scumbag host of the house on
the hill but he doesn't have that same
effect that Vincent Price did in the
original yet he can come across well like
him at times as well as resembling him
quite a bit. He presents himself well coming down
some stairs in the mansion introducing
himself as it was almost the same style Vincent Price did in the original.
Famke Janssen (Evelyn Stockard-Price) is marvellous as his greedy
and evil wife who does well with her
words. He reacts well by pointing a gun and
acting threatening and shooting it.
Taye Diggs (Eddie Baker) seemed quite energetic with
his performance which is one of the films
plus. A good ghostly expression on him when
he turns to walk to a tank filled with
blood.
Chris Kattan (Watson Pritchett) shows nice anger to his role
yet he still reminds me of his comedic
acting like in Saturday Night Live. Does well screaming and ranting
for his money back as well as trying to
escape the mansion but yet he looks
almost like he's performing a comedy
which he is used to doing throughout his
career and not a serious horror like this
one although there are some humorous
bits. A good
snapping reaction with him towards his fellow actor in another scene.
Ari Larter (Sara Wolfe) is terrific with her role
showing a good tough as nails attitude to
her role and menacing expressions too
when needed. She is probably one of the
best out of the cast as I always enjoyed
her performances. She later on shows great anger about
what had happened. She also shows
great intimidated expressions and shaking
a gun towards somebody else acting anxious.
A woman is floating in
water breasts revealed.
People's bodies are cut
open during an operation table.
A paramedic is stabbed in the neck by 3
sharp pencils with blood gushing out
A tank is filled with blood
Blood is spitting out of womans mouth
A
couple of decapitated heads and remaining
bodies
Don
Davis composes some real
intense classical music wioth some
pounding sounds too along with ghostly
type chants which works extremely well
making you jump at times.
We have a bitchin
songtrack by Marilyn Manson with his
cover of "Sweet Dreams" which
was used during the first bit of the
movie as well as the closing credits. |
