Il ritorno della casa sulla collina

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.

Watch this if you were alive in the 90s and enjoy the nostalgia of re-seeing movies like Thirteen Ghosts, and the like.

This is as stupid as it is gory. Though it was nice to see the intersection between hostage genre and haunted house genre.

Overall incredibly silly, and shot with shaky cam and superimposed ghosts. Not fun to look at and dumb overall, so very much an average 90s horror.

Shoutout to Grace Van Pelt. Loved her in this.

A very poor update of the classic i have a few problems with this film -The doctor was seen too much, i feel in the original his presence was more weird, unknown and frightening, in this one he even talks..lame! -Effects were overused and looked unrealistic, along with an annoying squelching sound that wasn't really scary, more like squeezing silly putty. CAuses of death were unimaginative and to quick.

-NO suspense -Cliches made me cringe , use of firearms was as messed up as ever. the use of an special team was also kinda gay.

I would usually really like a movie like this but i was not scared and could not get involved with the movie on any level. what the director was thinking i will never know. the original had suspense, slow, scary atmosphere and scary medical equipment. this movie = cow pat

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.

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...