House on Haunted Hill: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

House on Haunted Hill: Collector's Edition

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
The 90s is widely considered to be a desert for good horror movies. For some reason the decade was plagued with cheesy sequels, botched attempts at new franchises (Think Brainscan), and just a veritable lack of good attempts. The 80s will always be my golden era of horror, but even so, there has been some fun films that dot the 90s landscape. House on Haunted Hill was remade 40 years exactly after the famous Vincent Price film (which Scream Factory has also released in the 2nd Vincent Price boxset a few years back) and while it has been lambasted by critics and fans alike over the years, is one of those films that I actually really like. I can’t explain why, as the film is distinctly predictable, the villain was hilariously over acted (or should I say, ONE of the villains), and the set was done on the super cheap, but I still have a blast with it. Yes, yes, I know. It’s not comparable to the 1959 classic, but House on Haunted Hill 1999 is cheesy bit of 90s pop culture with a who’s who cast of that time period that oozes personality and guilty charm.

With Warner Brothers now supplying Scream/Shout Factory with titles it looks like their catalog depths are no longer re-issuing MGM titles. That means that we actually get never before released films on Blu-ray again! I actually thought this MUST have been already released, as Scream is notorious for rescuing older catalog titles from the studios that already has had a Blu-ray release (and usually giving them some seriously nice special features), but House on Haunted Hill 1999 has actually never been released since the old double disc DVD edition that I have stuck in a box somewhere. Like usual, they have given it a new 2K master (which looks really nice) and almost double the amount of special features available (and of course the nice new slip cover and reversible cover art), making for a pretty sweet collector’s edition.

The story from the 1959 to the 1999 remake is pretty much the same scenario. This time Geoffrey Rush steps in as the main roll of Stephen Price, a roller coaster tycoon, who is setting up a surprise birthday party for his wife Evelyn (Famke Janssen). Being that he’s a showman with a flair for the dramatic, Stephen has set up a bit of a “game” night for his party guests. 5 guests, 5 “one million dollar” prizes, all contingent on if they can spend the night in a seedy little house that was once an insane asylum with it’s own seedy past. To make matters more interesting, the roller coaster tycoon has set up enough special effects booby traps to liven up things. The lights go down, the night begins, but we’re not exactly sure if Price is in charge of the whole thing. Especially when strange things start happening that even the rich host seems unaware of.

The 1959 film with Vincent Price tried hard to put doubt into the mind of the viewer over the supernatural intervention. They wanted audiences to wonder if the scares were all props by their host, or whether there really WAS something mystical going on. William Malone’s remake pretty much dashes that concept into dust within the first 15 minutes. There’s some very obvious spiritual intervention and only the actual guests are unaware that they’re walking into a house with that is in serious need of spiritual therapy.

Though it’s definitely sloppy and predictable, the movie is still a lot of fun to watch due to several cast members. While Taye Diggs and Ali Larter are kind of the “we’ll survive!” heroes, the real stars of the show are Price and his wife. Famke Janssen and Geoffrey Rush are delightfully hammy and vicious in their marital banter. There’s much more of an edge to their banter than Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart did in 1959, which actually gives the tension a good boost. Their interactions are some of the most fun that the movie has, and Geoffrey Rush is one dramatic flair below Captain Barbossa, with Famke Janssen snarling sweetly into the camera every chance she gets.

The jump scares can get grating at times, but Malone manages to capture a little bit of magic as well. The visuals for the film are simply stunning, with the creepy montage of 1950s insane asylum torture gear making for a very visually disturbing look. I won’t go so far as to say that House on Haunted Hill is another classic, but I really enjoy the movie for what it is, and embarrassingly have seen it more times than the excellent original just because it’s that guiltily enjoyable.




Rating:

Rated R for horror violence and gore, sexual images and language




Video:

Being that this is the first time House on Haunted Hill has graced our shores on Blu-ray there’s no way for me to A/B an older disc like I usually do with Scream/Shout Factory collector’s editions, but the 2K remaster by Scream is quite fetching. Shot on film, House on Haunted Hill shows a nice layer of grain, one that doesn’t really fluctuate all that much either. There’s some shots in the basement of the house that shows mild spikes, but it’s very even overall and never obscures detail levels. The colors in the film are warm and inviting (for a dark movie), with splashes of primary blue and red against the light teal backdrop of the creepy old asylum. Black levels are strong with good shadow detail (look at when Stephen Price is locked in the “vault”, the blacks are just silky dark), and there’s almost no artifacting I could see besides some mild crush and a flick of banding that only showed up once or twice.







Audio:

Instead of the usual 5.1 AND 2.0 DTS-HD MA track, Scream Factory presents us with the original 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix, and it’s another crowd pleaser. The mix is aggressive and full of heavy bass, making great use of the surround channels with the creaks, groans and shrieks of the haunted house. Bass is powerful and punchy, while ambient noises come through from all directions. Dialog is crisp and cleanly replicated, with only one flaw that keeps me from giving this a 4.5/5. The dialog is recorded a full 2.5 DB’s lower than the rest of the track (I level matched to be certain) and you have to crank up the track to hear the dialog properly, only to be slammed in your chair when the action happens. I found it was easily fixed by raising your center channel 2.5 Dbs, but still it’s a flaw that is harder to fix without a receiver that allows adjustments.







Extras:

• BRAND NEW 2K REMASTER from the original film elements
• NEW interview with director William Malone
• NEW interview with composer Don Davis
• NEW Interview with visual effects supervisor Robert Skotak
• Never-Before-Seen storyboards, concept art and behind-the-scenes photos courtesy of visual effects producer Paul Taglianetti
• Audio Commentary with director William Malone
• A Tale of Two Houses – vintage featurette
• Behind the Visual FX – vintage featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots
• Movie Stills and Poster Gallery

Final Score: ​

House on Haunted Hill 1999 is a bad, cheesy bit of late 90s horror, with a drastic uptick in gore and violence from the original, but it’s still a surprisingly fun movie in my humble opinion. The acting is hammy and cheesy as well, but that’s part of the charm. Scream Factory has given this Warner Brothers film a nice collector’s edition for it’s first time on Blu-ray (at least domestically), and the new 2K remaster is really a treat to watch. Extras are really well done with a bevy of brand new material to dig into and some snazzy new artwork (I actually like it better than the original WB cover art that’s available on the other side of the reversible cover insert). All in all, a fun watch for those of us who love cheesy horror flicks.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: James Marsters, Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Bridgette Wilson, Ali Larter, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Jeffrey Combs,
Directed by: William Malone
Written by: Robb White, Dick Beebe
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 93 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 9th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[Asere]

Thanks for the review. I watched it at the theater when it first came out and boy was I bored to death. The movie was really slow and IMO there is nothing memorable about it.

 

[JBrax]

I actually remember this one and thought it was great. Thanks for the review and it’s on order!

 

[Michael Scott]

lol, I'm definitely one of the few who think it was actually fun. It's a guilty pleasure of mine.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Never saw this so will check it out once available on amazon prime/netflix.