Retour à la maison de l'horreur

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.

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

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.

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.