Customer Reviews

Return to House on Hanted Hill (Unrated Version) [HD DVD]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I keep reading the reviews posted here and everyone keeps saying Sarah was the only survivor. Maybe all of you have a different version of the movie, mine shows her AND Eddie Baker on the ledge at the end. Did she push him off the ledge? I hope your reviews on the sequel are more accurate

OK, first off, Sarah was not the only survivor of that night, we also had Token. He and Sarah both made it through the door since they were not related to anyone from the original massacre, but sadly neither of them appear in this film.

Now, the movie plot was very amateurish, and the dialog was lame. Most of the effects were CGI including some very bad kills. Nothing new to see here and I would suggest you watch this only if there is nothing left at the rental house. The running time of the actual movie sans credits is about 1 hour 15 minutes.

I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED!

In my opinion, "Return To House On Haunted Hill" was a very good sequel to "House On Haunted Hill" (although it would have been better if one or both or the survivors from the first movie had been in this).

It is gory, suspeceful, and has mostly origional deaths - what more could you want from this type of movie? There were a lot more people in the house this time than in the first (about 10) so there is a higher body count, too.

Althought there is quite a lot of gore in this movie (a lot more than in the first movie) it wasn't as gory or over the top as most people were suggesting. But the best thing about the movie I thought was that, while most horror movies either concentrate on either being suspenceful and creepy, or on being violent and bloody, this movie had both gory deaths and suspenceful scenes, so you get the best of both worlds.

Overall a very good sequel, which I'm sure fans of the first movie will enjoy. After seeing this I'm certainly hoping that there will be a third movie in the series.

"Return to House on Haunted Hill," sequel to "House on Haunted Hill" made (or remade) in 1999, has decent production designs and photography, but ultimately doesn't have enough narrative skills to interest us throughout the entire film. Like the 1999 original, the new film has a lot of effects including gores (including the gory one of the "operation" scene which Jigsaw might love to see). I don't hate seeing them at all, but its boring story is another thing.

In "Return to House on Haunted Hill" we see yet again characters trapped in the abandoned asylum "the Vanacutt Mansion" for the most unconvincing reasons - treasure hunting. Ariel Wolfe, fashion magazine editor and sister of Sarah, one of the survivors of the incident seen in the previous film, is kidnapped and forced to enter this dilapidated building where ghosts seem still roaming. Unfortunately you don't see Ali Larter or Jeffrey Rush here (though Jeffrey Combs reprises his role as the doctor). Amanda Righetti plays Ariel and she is not bad.

Anyway, you will see Ariel and other characters including mercenaries, a professor and his assistant looking for a relic, etc, and some of them picked off one by one when they (unaccountably) refuse to stick together, according to the genre's tired cliché. This is where we need a better script because once they are locked in, we have to wait for the scary and gory moments to come, which somehow include lesbianism and nudity. It seems the characters don't know what they really want to do, getting out or staying in, but even these ghosts don't know what they are supposed to do.

And putting it to rest.
Wow!! This is one of those sequels that fully justify its existence.Kind of rare in some forms of Horror, and not what I was expecting in the HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL style. About all I missed in this film was the very stylised jerky ghost moves that characterised the first film. Whilst the Barebones structure of the plot of the search for the Statue, the Quest of Dr Richard Hammer, holds the film together, the carefully detailed death scenes spook the daylights out of anyone watching.
There is no commentary in this disc. However, the confessional elements in the features are very unique and cover some different ground in this style of supernatural splatter-fest.
And once again, this disc proves that the UNRATED format is the Gold standard.

1999's "House on Haunted Hill" was released about two months after "The Haunting" which had a far bigger budget and received much more publicity. Despite that, "House on Haunted Hill" proved to be the superior film with much more atmosphere and scares and less of a reliance on CGI effects. Only two of the guests at Hill House managed to escape with their lives, one of those being Sara Wolfe (Ali Larter). Unfortunately The gorgeous Ms. Larter is not around for the sequel, only in character name. Sarah's sister Ariel is an exec with a magazine and learns the news that Sarah has committed suicide. Ariel is visited by an archaeologist looking for the Statue of Baphomet, an evil artifact worshipped by a cult in the middle ages. He believes the statue is located inside of Hill House and is looking for the Journal of Dr. Vannacutt, the doctor who ran the asylum.

A group of thieves led by Desmond (Eric Palladino) are also looking for the rare statue and they take Ariel and her boyfriend, Paul, hostage. Now the archaeologists and his assistants (Michelle & Kyle) along with the gang of thieves, Ariel and all find themselves locked inside the monstrous house/asylum, searching for the statue while the spirits of the house begin hunting them down one-by-one. Naturally this comes about as they devise the wise strategy of splitting up to search for the statue. Even when one of his men is torn to pieces, Desmond still refuses to believe in the house's haunted reputation.

The 1999 film wasn't great, but it had a creepy atmosphere that the sequel lacks. This film is much more visceral and in your face and far more gory. Some of the gore hound scenes include on of the thieves getting torn apart limb from limb and another having her face literally removed with a scalpel. Not subtle, but fairly effective.

The cast is no comparison to the first film. That film had well known actors like Larter, Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, and Taye Diggs...The most recognized name in the sequel is low-budget horror king Jeffrey Combs who reprises his role as Dr. Vannacutt and has exactly one word of dialogue in the entire film. On the plus side, Amanda Righetti (Ariel) and Cerina Vincent (Michelle) are great eye candy.

The entire premise of the Baphomet statue is a little ridiculous. The ghosts in the first film killed the guests because they were all descendants of the staff that worked at the asylum. What their motivation here is anybody's guess although there is at least one who tries to help Ariel. The remaining survivors eventually figure they can escape through the asylum's sewer system and conveniently find the blueprints to the mammoth facility and evidently Ariel is an engineer as she is able to map out their entire route down to the basement and into the sewer grates...ok....

Return to the House on Haunted Hill isn't a bad film, it's just not great. But there's some decent scares and gore and its worth a rent.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

Eight years have elapsed since Eddie and Sara escaped from The House on Haunted Hill. Sara, as you would expect, has had a few issues dealing with what she saw on The Hill. However, I wouldn't worry too much about her. She is murdered within the first few minutes of the film. Enter her sister, Ariel, who wants to know why her sister died. Of course, discovering why Sara was murdered has to involve a trip back to Dr. Vannacutt's asylum. And then, the supernatural slaughter begins...
It has to be said that the film, Return to House on Haunted Hill, is not anywhere near the calibre of the 1999 version. However, I don't think you can fairly compare a horror movie that sported an Oscar winner to a straight-to-DVD shocker.
Obviously, the producers of this movie decided early on that they were not going to waste their budget on "big-name" stars. There are only a few recognizable faces. And the only person that reprises his role from the earlier film is Jeffrey (re-animator) Combs.
The movie itself is definitely worth a watch. It does not have any pretensions, and I doubt whether it will be on anyone's top-ten horror movie lists. But it has enough thrills and chills to keep viewers interested. The sense of eerie menace that radiated from the House on Haunted Hill in the first instalment is still there. The visual effects seem unbounded and without flaw. And, of course, the exceptional Combs is as spooky as ever. Also, there are more than a few glimpses of naked women (who, to me, seem to be only one carrot-stick away from anorexics), which is a bit annoying. But I am sure the boys, and maybe even some of the girls, in the audience will love that.
In short, Return to House on Haunted Hill is a cheap and tacky gore fest. The characters are pretty one-dimensional and the plot is quite basic; however, the special effects are terrifically terrifying. This is not a film to be watched during dinner! The "blood count" is not quite as high as the Saw movies, but it's getting there.
So if you like gratuitous female nudity, plenty of carnage, and the odd cameo from a horror legend, Return to House on Haunted Hill is for you!

I am glad that the ghost characters from the earlier film were explored further in this sequel. I never completely embraced the concept of what looked like a misty Rorschach Test enveloping and destroying characters in Dark Castle's first "Haunted Hill" venture.

The role of the doctor (expertly played by Jeffrey Combs) is sufficiently eerie and he's given more to do in this film. Throw in his supernatural victims from years past and you have a great haunted house!

Granted, the acting in this film is mostly sub-par, save for the lead actress (Righetti) and Andrew Lee Potts who provides comedic relief. Also, the kills are creative enough to keep die-hard horror fans entertained. And the DVD's extras are fun to watch, probably to make up for the film's short length.

If Warner decides to cultivate its storehouse of horror remakes and make direct-to-video sequels, so be it. I would look forward to another "Thirteen Ghosts" film or "House of Wax" chapter.

The Hi-def "choose your own outcome" feature is neat and good for a couple hours of entertainment. My criticism would be that there are not enough outcomes/different 'paths' to take...Although it is quite entertaining to encounter the 'game-over' ending roughly in the middle of the flick. If you're curious about this feature, you might enjoy this movie. The film itself, whether in edited/interactive or unedited form, is pretty weak. It doesn't scare and the dialogue, as expected, leaves much to be desired.

It's been a while since Sid dropped a horror review so why not go with a straight to video sequel? The first House on Haunted Hill starred Chris Kattan and Taye Diggs which seemed like it really scraped the bottom of the barrel. However the much more b sequel topped that cast with horror b queen Cerina Vincent. Anything she's in will ultimately lower your standards for the flick and you'll wind up enjoying it. It falls into that our favorite category of "so bad it's good."

The film revolves around the recent suicide of Sarah Wolfe who was the sole survivor from the murders that took place at the Vanacutt Mansion. For some time she tried to explain how ghosts were responsible for the murders that took place but nobody would believe her. Somehow Sarah got her hands on the secret diary of Dr. Vanacutt and winds up sending it to her sister Ariel. Once she recieves the diary a group kidnaps her and forces her alog with others into the mansion in hopes of finding a very valuable statue. Once inside the spirits begin to reek havoc on all leaving escape a very unlikely option.

Overall the film was pretty enjoyable. There were a few creepy moments courtesy of some strange looking ghosts. The film moved along pretty quick which is always good when dealing with b horror. If it lasts too long it will tend to just get boring, but this one just got by in that department. We wouldn't recommend buying it but if it's on late one night and you have and hour & a half to kill it's worth checking out.