Return to House on Haunted Hill

Survivor Sara Wolfe from the 1st movie dies in an apparent suicide. Her sister Ariel (Amanda Righetti) wants to find the cause of her sister's obsession. Professor Richard is seeking a statue of the evil Baphomet. They get kidnapped by a group of treasure hunters looking for the same statue.

The story isn't that great. It's messy and filled with unlikeable characters. The gore and the grotesque do make it a different movie than the original. The first one was more of a cartoon. This one is much more uglier and grittier. The FX works quite well. The one thing that's obviously inferior is the caliber of actors. This is strictly straight to video. I cared nothing about the characters, but I liked the FX.

Blood and guts everywhere... "What is this stuff?" "It appears to be organic."

It's direct to video and all the common flaws are present... silly dialog, layers upon layers of clichés, dramatic lines delivered flatly, characters acting like stupid characters in a horror movie rather than like real people and logical inconsistencies in the plot (why would the ghosts direct you to do something and then attack you once you've done it?).

Amanda Righetti delivers her lines flatly and was apparently hired as a Jennifer Garner lookalike rather than for her acting ability. Cerina Vincent manages to shine so dreary is the remainder of the cast. Jefferey Combs is given so little to do that anyone capable of fogging a mirror could have performed as admirably.

The special effects are good for a direct to video production. Nothing you're going to remember but nothing you'll criticize too harshly. The plot, oh who cares, you aren't really watching this for the plot are you? Garcia is a special effects director and it shows as the film basically moves from one special effects scene to the next at the expense of a coherent storyline. The movie does have some good gore and manages to be mildly entertaining.

Apparently the HD-DVD version has an interactive menu system that allows you to choose some actions of the characters. I can't imagine it being anything but a gimmick with little effect on the storyline but here's hoping.

Stay through the end credits.

The origin of the House of the Haunted Hill is the following : a confrontation of biblical proportions incinerates everything and everyone inside what was one the City of Angels most celebrated medical facility, the Vannacutt Institute for the Criminally Insane. But the secret this inferno burned free was for more frightening that any picture Hollywood could produce. A sanatorium massacre supervised by a surgeon gone mad, Richard Benjamin Vannacutt(Jeffrey Combs). Little known but likely the most prolific mass-murdered of this century. He out-butchered Bundy, he made Manson looks meek. And the site of this carnage exist today, restored almost to its original state. But it has yet to be inhabited, because some say the spirits of Vannacutt and his victims still live within the walls of the mansion of the haunted hill. 8 years have passed since Sara(Ali Larter) escaped from haunted house, her sister Sara(Amanda Righetti) goes into the house along with professor Richard and a students(Cerina Vincent, Andrew Lee Potts,Tom Riley). But a band(leader is Erick Palladino) of treasure hunters looking for the statue of Baphomet kidnap them and go violently inside the mansion. The house suddenly closes itself and they encounter trapped inside and soon supernatural creepiness begin frightening the hosts. Then they'll spend a ghastly night in the spooky house with killings-laden history.

This eerie following contains bit good fun with grisly killing, relentless horror and lots of blood and gore. The chiller follow-up packs genuine chills and terrifying deaths such as a horrible quartering. Unknown casting while the previous part was full of famous actors(Geofrey Rush,Famke Janssen,Peter Gallaher,Ali Larter, Taye Diggs). It's professionally directed without originally by Victor Garcia ,in his first movie. Of course the biggest film about this astonishing story is the vintage classic version(1958) by William Castle with Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart.

Geez, some people are rough on movies!! Awful? Think again. Great? No. Was it really meant to be? I don't think so. Its a Direct to DVD release. A Damn good one at that! If you hold it up to some horror classics, it will lose. Now put it next to some other Direct to DVD movies and it will win. It has everything you would want in a "fun" horror movie. Gore, Action, Hot naked ladies, and even some dumb jokes! What else do ya want? Sure the acting and Special FX could have been better but we can't win Every time. Does that really make it "awful"? Hell no. Give this film a little bigger budget and we have a winner. Maybe even better than the remake a couple of years ago. Fans of that one should definitely check this out. It has some back story that wasn't really touched on. So, think about it, its actually a sequel with a reason. More than you can say for a lot of Hollywood Blockbuster sequels... Am I right? Huh? Am I right? For all you haters, why would you watch it in the first place? Did you REALLY think it was going to be the next big thing? Chill out! Every movie doesn't have to be an Academy Award winner. Relax, Enjoy, and have fun...

While special effects were pretty outstanding the over use of them, in my opinion made the sequel much weaker than the original. I also felt the character development was a bit shy of interesting. I can't help but compare it to the original which also had spectacular effects however hit a higher level of suspense in between the more gruesome scenes, also the sex, in particular that which went on in one pretty gross lesbian scene with mutilated ghosts, really served no purpose in my mind to the general plot which is of course about helping out the poor trapped souls, who still long for release from the insane asylum doctor's fortress on the hill. There was a lot less use of the simple terrifying look of vintage medical equipment and an old asylum in this film as well although there were glimpses of the old asylum which had a lot of lighting designed much later than the art-deco period the hospital was supposedly from. All in all I think there were some good actors practicing their craft and a weak location with a lot of skilled prop people trying to take the viewer to a scary old hospital. It must have been tough following the previous cast which had a real Oscar winner on board. This film is way to gruesome for the kids, and if you were impressed with the first one you may be a little disappointed with this obviously lower budget sequel. Still it was something to watch.