House on Haunted Hill ★★½ 1999 (R) This remake of William Castle's 1958 B-movie doesn't reach too far above its predecessor. In an homage to original star Vincent Price, Geoffrey Rush plays mincing amusement park tycoon Stephen Price, who invites a few friends over for his wife Evelyn's (Janssen) birthday. However, he invites them to a haunted former insane asylum, and offers them a million bucks if they can stick it out for the entire night. Stephen and the scheming Evelyn have a few tricks rigged for the guests, who all end up having some connection to the horrors that went on in the house in the bad old days. Soon, however, actual supernatural creepiness starts thinning the ranks of the guests. Unashamedly bloody and cheesy. 96m/C VHS, DVD. Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Max Perlich, Jeffrey Combs;
Director:
William Malone;
Writer:
Dick Beebe;
Writer:
Rick Bota;
Cameo:
Don Davis.
