Retour à la maison de l'horreur

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.

The editor of a fashion magazine Ariel Wolfe (Amanda Righetti) receives many calls from her sister Sara, but she does not return. When Sara is found dead, apparently after committing suicide, Ariel goes to her apartment with her friend and photographer Paul (Tom Riley). She meets Professor Richard (Steven Pacey), who is seeking Sara's journal to find a lead to the statue of the evil god Baphomet for a museum. Later, Ariel and Paul are kidnapped by the gang of the treasure hunter Desmond (Erik Palladino), who intends to find and sell the statue to a private collector for five million dollars. They go to the house, where they meet Richard, his assistant Kyle (Andrew Lee Potts) and the student Michelle (Cerina Vincent), but the criminals dominate the group. However, the house suddenly closes all the exits and they find trapped inside with vision of ghosts that are reliving their final moments in the place they died.

"Return to House on Haunted Hill" is another "trapped in a haunted house" predictable and forgettable movie. The story uses the same common clichés and it is very easy to foresee the next sequence. The unknown Amanda Righetti and the sexy Cerina Vincent are extremely gorgeous and have good performances in the role of the heroine Ariel and the treacherous Michelle. The cult Jeffrey Combs has a ham performance in the role of the sadistic and evil Dr. Richard Benjamin Vannacutt. The special effects are great but the cinematography and the sound effects are annoying. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "De Volta a Casa da Colina" ("Return to the House on the Hill")

Another Dark Castle production, this time a sequel to a remake that nobody asked for in the first place. RETURN TO HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL sees a group of disparate types holing up in a haunted mansion one night, hoping to claim a jackpot but falling foul of the usual malignant spirit forces. This one is even further away from the fun spirit of the Vincent Price original than the first film was.

The plot is entirely negligible here except to offer a group of unlikeable characters trapped and wandering around a single location. Evil doctor ghost Jeffrey Combs is the only cast member to return from the original, but he only has a scene or two. Instead, the film offers endless scenes of CGI-augmented gore to the viewer; bodies are pulverised, ripped limb from limb, and people have their faces cut off. It's all unbelievable, unremarkable, and quite uninteresting. The director goes out of his way to scare the viewer with jump scares and CGI ghosties floating about, but overkill is the order of the day here and as a result the film is a bit of a joke.

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.