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Reviews:
House on Haunted Hill
This remake of William Castle’s 1958 classic
horror tale boasts of spine-chilling special effects,
but the story has too many loose ends and sounds
contrived.
Billionaire Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush), a theme-park
mogul, decides on a wacky idea to celebrate his
spolit wife Evelyn’s (Famke Janssen) birthday.
He arranges a party at the abandoned Vannacutt
Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane,
that was known for its most horrifying medical
experiments history conducted by the late and
deranged Dr. Vannacutt.
But soon Price discovers that the five guests
are not the ones he or his wifehave invited. The
guests too are surprised as to why they have been
chosen.
CAST
CAST: Geoffrey Rush, Peter Gallagher, Chris
Kattan, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Ali Larter,
Bridgette Wilson Sampras
DIRECTOR: William Malone
PRODUCERS: Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, Gilbert
Adler
VISUAL EFFECTS: Robert & Dennis Skotak |
Price proceeds with the party nevertheless, and
announces that anyone who manages to spend an
entire night in the house will bag a million dollars.
He’s sure that no one will because he has
secretly rigged the house with insidious devices
which are meant to scare the guests away and make
them leave the mansion.
But his tricks come to a nought when the mansion
“comes alive” and begins to generate
its own terrorising activities. All the outlets
get locked by themselves, making sure no one leaves
the house. And scary apparitions make their presence
felt. The inhabitants, who continue their search
for a way out, discover that one by one, they
are all set to be devoured by the evil that haunts
the insane asylum.
The film is scary alright, thanks to the special
effects that conjure images of the evil spirit,
and those of a body and its head torn off its
flesh, that are quite repulsive. But that’s
it. The plot which takes off interestingly, fails
to sustain viewer’s interest as the shocks
become predictable. The climax too is highly inconvincing.
And since it’s a horror film, there is hardly
any scope for actors to perform. A special mention
needs to be given to art director for coming up
with a very eerie set of the haunted house.
S K
salmakhatib@hotmail.com
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Review:
Cast Away
Review:
Such A Long Journey
FROM
THE ACADEMY AWARDS FILE
Prosecution
sums up bribe, gun case against puffy
Ex-Spice
girl Geri gets driving ban
OSCAR
HIGHLIGHTS
Click
for Nominations of the 73rd Academy Awards 2001
Films
that have got five Oscar nominations or more
The
making of Cast Away
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