Horror Sub-Genre: Haunted House/Hospital, Ghosts
Year: 1999
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 93 minutes
Tagline(s): There are several, but my two favorites are "Evil Loves To Party" and "Are You Dying To Be Rich?"
Watched: DVD From My Collection
Bonuses: Griffith Park fire access road, flying roller coaster complete with Spike from "Buffy" [with Lisa Loeb thrown in for good measure], and silent movie style ghost appearance [by the recently birthdayed Jeffery Combs.]
Recommendation: High Recommendation
[All weekly reviews contain spoilers! Of course, aside from the trailer, that includes any embeded clips.]
Anyone who looks frequently at this blog will notice that I often play this on repeat in another room on Friday's, such as I did this past Friday for example. I figured why not just make this my selection of review for the week. It's the first title I have reviewed from my own collection. Also, as I have stated in the past my favorite genre of horror are ghost stories, and I have a particular fondness for haunted hospital affairs--problem with that is for every 1 decent haunted hospital film out there, there are like 9 more that are just lame!! Obviously, I do not think this one is lame given my recommendation above, though I am aware that a lot of people just hate it. I'm definitely on the other side of that spectrum; I love the film. Famously, it is a remake of William Castle's film of the same name made exactly 40 years earlier which starred the late GREAT Vincent Price (I am also a huge fan of the original; and of William Castle's work in general.). A lot of people question why a hospital, especially a psychiatric one at that, would be called a "house," but it is made very clear in the film that a few floors were fitted out to be a home of the dreaded Dr. Vannacutt (Combs). It's a bit creepy to think of the uber bitchy Evelyn (Famke Janssen) [in the Annabelle Lorin oringinal part], wife to party thrower billionaire Stephen Price (Geofrrey Rush) sleeping in Vannacutt's old bedroom, while his ghost is on the prowl silent movie style! And, yes, the last name Price is an homage to Vincent Price, who played the millionaire Frederick Lorin in the original Castle film. A point of trivia: Geoffrey Rush was written in the script, despite his last name deliberately referring to one of the most famous horror actors of all time, as looking like an ordinary business man; Rush thought that was lame and suggested that his character by dressed up to resemble film director John Waters.
This was part of planned series of William Castle re-boots, by Dark Castle Entertainment, the intention being that all of Castle's horror gimmick films would be remade, all the help of Castle's daughter Terry to come up with ideas for both update her father's movies, and to make suggestions as to how to make them scarier; she has a producer credit on this as well. In the end, only two were made, this one and Thir13 Ghosts. I like them both, but this far and away my favorite. It has a thoroughly solid cast, a great big spooky as hell set, solid cinematography (Rick Bota) and the dark humor is timed in just the right places against a backdrop of some solid scares, a nicely here-and-there serious gore. Another thing that I like about the film is that when the shocks come the music and sound effects are not over-whelming. So many ghost films these days are ruined by their loud soundtracks and give away "gotta ya" far too loud sounds when something is about to happen. The point behind a solid ghost film is "less is more," even for a film like this that is made more like a funhouse, than say a Changeling (1980). This gets away with some sound effects that wouldn't work in a straight forward ghost film, simply because it's campy remake of a film made by a man who used to do things like put buzzers on theater seats, unbeknown to any theater goer sitting in it.
There are many interesting updates to gags from the first film that didn't show in actual ghosts, obviously this one does.. The house actually makes the list for one thing--not the Lorin character. Price's wife Evelyn tells him that she left a list guests on his office desk, which great acting aplomb Price growls "I've got you guest list right here" as he's shredding her list (reminds me of a similar performance of Rush's later on in the Coen Brother films Intolerable Cruelty that involves a "Lifetime Daytime Achievement Award....") Price, though gets outdone by the house, that promptly remakes the list. Another fun update is the funeral procession up to the house on the fire access road of Griffith park, complete with Marilyn Mansion's cover of The Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" playing in the background (Mansion, actually, was an early consideration for the role of Dr. Vannacutt). In the house, there is a full blown bar, put in we are told after a series of rather deadly renovations. The little coffins the conceal the guns are floating on a bed glowing gel. Chris Kattan puts in a very funny and convincing performance in the part of the drunk house owner Watson Pritchett (played by Elisha Cook as "Watson Pritchard" in the original). There are no caretakers and Price has a gag man ready to attempt to scare the hell out everyone hid away in a room (things don't work out so well for him!). Another interesting update is is a display of the dissected plasticized body of a horse complete with any equally plasticized human rider (actually there are several such specimens). Having Stephen Price being a personal owner of a chain of seriously thrilling amusement parks, is clearly some sort of poke at Walt Disney, which amuses me, because Disney wasn't exactly the kind old man inventor that he wanted the public to believe he was! As another point of trivia, the roller coaster that Price is "debuting" at the beginning of the film is located in the Universal Theme Park, not Disney...because Disney does lame roller coasters!! And finally, we get an explanation as to how such a birthday celebration location was selected in the first place--there is a wonderful set up in the beginning of the film with Evelyn sipping a Bloody Mary (fitting choice) in a bubble bath watching a fake show Terrifying But True, hosted, as himself, by Peter Graves.
Perhaps the best update to the film is the manner in which Evelyn fakes her death. This being an old psychiatric hospital "for the criminally insane," of course it has a seriously outdated shock therapy room. We suddenly hear some god awful electrical sound start up, and Pritchett tells everyone it's coming from that room in the basement, all of this while Eveylyn is supposed to be asleep upstairs in the good Doctor's room. When everyone (those actually left of the cast at this point) hurries to the location, sure enough, there's Evelyn being shocked to death. It is at this point, since Price has already told the "revelers" earlier in the film that he's never heard of any them, that we find out which one of these people is Evelyn's accomplice (Annabelle Lorin has one as well in the original film). We already know that Vannacutt is not the only doctor in the house; one guest is a Donald W. Blackburn M.D.--and as a doctor, he is quite qualified to revive Evelyn after her shock. The remaining guests later find out that they are all there because the house chose them to get back at the seven people that survived the original lock down that killed Vannacutt in the first place...they then rightly wonder why Blackburn's name is not on the list. The house doesn't care though, and apparently neither does Evelyn.
 |
| Before |
And After....
I've encountered several comments in other reviews that complain about the building itself being such skyscraper edged on a cliff, and the fact that it huge maze like basement (because why would such a building that tall need one??). For me, that just adds to the whole zany, "William Castley" aspect to the whole thing, this a dark humoured horror funhouse affair with real spooky scenes along the way, and some truly effective gore. "Oh Miss Mar!" [Castle did pull some stunts at the premier of his House On Haunted Hill in the theater in 1959.]
As for extras, there is an awesome "silent film" like surgical scene after the end credits finish running that is not to be missed! There is a deleted scene from the beginning of the film available in in extras on the DVD that is useless, skip it if you like, it adds nothing of note to the story. The commentary track on this by director William Malone, is one of the best I've heard on a horror movie. All in all, this is a film that is meant to be fun above all, but it's got some truly great gore, and genuinely creepy moments and imagery--skin crawling bits. Worth a look. One of the few horror remakes (or remakes of any genre) that I really like and think has respect for the original, after all Terry Castle was sort lording over it all!
 |
| Castle gag from 1959 premier. The man LOVED a good horror joke! |
No comments:
Post a Comment