Best movie of this year hands down!

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

When I first viewed this film I wasn't expecting it to be anything good. In fact I thought it was going to be a poorly ripped off movie. I am surprised on how much I really enjoyed this film. The film is about an abandoned mental asylum in the 1930's. It had quite a disturbing beginning, as it showed the doctors torturing the patients. They then escaped and started to attack and kill the doctors. It set the tone for the level of horror in the whole film. It really was awesome!Many years later the house is brought and the wife of a rich theme park owner decides she wants to have a party at the house. After a change of the guest list by the house itself, 5 famous guests are selected to take part in a competition to win $1,000,000 If they survive the night.Once the games begin, the film contains many surprises for both the audience and the characters. Many go missing and then the characters start turning on each other etc. The house itself is really well made. It really was a frightening set throughout the whole of the house, from the basement to the attic. It was scary with the shots of the long, spooky corridors. The outside of the house could have been shown more throughout the film, as it did look frightening and well done.The actors are a shine of light in this film. They put a look of effort into making their characters different from the others. For example they handle situations differently to the other characters. There weren't any characters that i didn't like because of poor performances. Overall this film is a lot better than some of the other rubbish I have seen. With the creative set designs and the brilliant characters. It has been a while since i have seen a film with scenes that weren't cheesy or rushed. I recommend this movie!

This remake of the 50s classic horror movie is overall so so. I'll go over the things about it that I liked, then I'll list what I disliked about it. I liked the cast, I thought every actor did a pretty good job with their role, especially Famke. I thought she was the best and by far the most interesting person in the film. The plot has a few things in it you may not see coming, or at least I didn't. I was glad the film at least had a few surprises because I didn't want to watch a completely generic horror film. Now don't think that the entire film is original or interesting because it's not. There are many parts of the movie that are very predictable and really not all that good. One thing that I especially took notice of as being terrible was the special effects towards the end of the film. It's literally impossible for this movie to be scary when it's this predictable and the effects are so terribly done. This movie isn't one that I recommend seeing. I suggest watching a more worthy horror movie, one that's actually scary. 5/10.

The Hollywood remake machine goes into auto-production with this thinly-plotted and rather unnecessary rehash of William Castle's classy fun-filled fright fest, which utilised the talents of an exceptionally hammy Vincent Price and had plenty of macabre laughs to keep things moving. Forty years later, only the quality of the special effects have improved, but the film falls down everywhere else. It's a sad state when the art of film-making actually appears to have gone into regression instead of progressing.This admittedly glossy production starts off on the right foot with an old-fashioned "inmates taking over the asylum" scene complete with bloody torture, gruesome murder, and a cameoing Jeffrey Combs as a crazed doctor complete with goggle glasses and a demented grin. From then on the film plays out much of the plot of the original, right down to the guns encased in little coffins, but it ruins things by actually making the film too complicated. While the first film had a nice, simple to follow plot with a clear beginning, middle, and end, the remake tries to have too many plot strands and ends up coming off as a muddled mess. It's a shame, really, as there are some really nice ideas swimming around in this mess of a film (I especially liked the bit with the video camera, and some of the artier supernatural moments).By the ending, things have predictably become routine, with the survivors running away from a special effect and trying not to get killed. Things are pretty frantic, but it all rings a bit hollow to tell the truth. The whole subplot concerning Price's wife having an affair with a guest is totally spoilt by having one too many twists and turns and ends up being pointless anyway as all three are dead by the end of the film. The acting is pretty bad; the actors and actresses here really should have learned the meaning of the word "restraint" as they ham for all they're worth, especially in the cases of Geoffrey Rush (a surprise, considering his recent Oscar winning) and Famke Janssen (annoying). The only thing of note about Rush is his uncanny resemblance to Vincent Price; otherwise, his hammy routine quickly becomes a bore. Of the rest of the cast, only Taye Diggs and Ali Larter come out with any respect, as the rest of the actors are a totally charisma-free bunch.The tone of this film is a light one, but oddly enough there are a number of very dark and grisly scenes too. These lie oddly together, and the film unsuccessfully tries to blend the horror and comedy genres, but sadly fails. Gore highlights basically consist of dismembered and mutilated corpses, which run the gamut from decapitation to total dissection. The special effects are good, yes, but it all gets a little CGI-heavy towards the ending. Once again we have some great SFX trapped in a below average film, with a clichéd and unoriginal plot and poor acting too. Whichever way you look at this, you're bound to be disappointed.

Good cast in this, Geoffrey Rush is probably best utilized and Famke Janssen never looked better. I really like Chris Kattan, but I have mixed feelings on his character in this. He oddly goes from being the concerned prophet of doom to the character most blase about the situation very quickly, but he still has his moments.The movie really does embrace and modernize the William Castle "thrills and chills" style from the very beginning, starting with a horror sequence at a mental asylum that immediately moves into a fun roller-coaster sequence with a bit of light suspense. Once we get to the "house" of the title, the surprises begin. Some of these twists can be pretty contrived, but that's OK - it's all in silly fun.Comparing this to the other haunted house remake of 1999, The Haunting, this definitely has a more consistent tone and better characters, and though both movies have CGI creatures that arrive in the third act, House On Haunted Hill's monster is a little creepier and nowhere nearly as ridiculous.