House on Haunted Hill (1999 remake) (Exclusive Series) (HBO Max)

Initial release date: October 27, 1999

Studios: Warner Brothers/Dark Castle Entertainment

Tagline: Six strangers have the chance to make $1 million EACH. All they have to do is make it through the night alive.

Plot: A millionaire with theatrical tendencies, Stephen Price invites a number of people to stay in a vast creepy building that used to be an insane asylum. Stephen, accompanied by his bitter wife, Evelyn, offers a million dollars to anyone who can stay the whole night without leaving out of fear. When Stephen and Evelyn become trapped with their guests, they quickly realize the house really is haunted - and the spirits dwelling within are very angry.

Cast

Geoffrey Rush (POTC: Dead Men Tell No Tales) - Stephen Price

Famke Janssen (Taken 3) - Evelyn

Taye Diggs (Netflix’s Set It Up) - Eddie

Peter Gallagher (Netflix’s Grace & Frankie; Hulu’s Palm Springs) - Blackburn

Chris Kattan - Pritchett

Ali Larter (ABCs The Rookie; Resident Evil: The Final CHapter) - Sara

Bridgett Wilson-Sampras (Mortal Kombat; I Know What You Did Last Summer) - Melissa Marr

Writer: Dick Beebe (Book of Shows: Blair Witch 2)

Director: William Malone (Feardotcom)

Rated R for horror violence and gore, sexual images and language (93 minutes)

The 1999 remake of ‘House on Haunted Hill’ features some decent creepy scares and a few tense moments.

The movie is primarily set in an abandoned mental hospital and that helped build the creepy atmosphere throughout the horror remake. And, throughout ‘Haunted Hill’ there are quite a few parts that could give you the chills.

On the downside of things, the CGI that involves the supernatural could have been a lot better (prob a smaller budget) and the ending seemed a bit rushed and lacking any real scares.

So, if you want to get some early scares in before the Halloween season begins, check out ‘House on Haunted Hill’ on HBO Max.

Or, if you rather watch the remake it's either available on Vudu Fandango for FREE or you can rent it on Youtube for $1.99.

FYI - The remake of ‘House on Haunted Hill’ is 22 years old!!

Here are some interesting tidbits about the 1999 remake of ‘House on Haunted Hill’:

• Famke Janssen performed her own stunt when the glass ceiling broke. It was extremely important for her to remain where she was and very still, yet even with her basically glued to the spot, the shard hit with so much impact that it bounced her head off the table as you can see on close inspection of the scene.

• William Malone got the idea to set the movie in a former insane asylum when he was filming an episode of ‘Tales from the Crypt,’ in a former asylum and noticed that crew members were running scared out of the basement, not wanting to film there.

• Geoffrey Rush’s character's last name is Price. This is a reference to the original ‘House on Haunted Hill’ (1959) in which Vincent Price played the main character.

• The Darkness is seen as a tentacular morphing mass of ghosts. This design was inspired by the visuals of H.P. Lovecraft’s novels and the Rorschach inkblots in psychiatry.

• ‘House on Haunted Hill’ was the first film produced by American production company Dark Castle Entertainment. Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis had discussed remaking William Castle’s 1959 film as early as 1997.

• Opened at No. 1 at the US box office and earned over $15 million in sales in its opening weekend.

• In 2007, the film was followed up with a DVD sequel, ‘Return to House on Haunted Hill,’ which received poor reviews and poor sales.

https://youtu.be/V-HA1Y5m2pY