Haunted Hill
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Haunted Hill |
| Original title | House on Haunted Hill |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1999 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | William Malone |
| script |
Robb White Dick Beebe |
| production |
Gilbert Adler , Joel Silver , Robert Zemeckis |
| music | Don Davis |
| camera | Rick Bota |
| cut | Anthony Adler |
| occupation | |
| |
| chronology | |
|
Successor → |
|
Haunted Hill is an American horror film from the year 1999 and the remake of the film House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price of the 1959th
action
Steven Price has become extremely rich through the amusement park "Terror Incognita", in which he scares people with special roller coasters and other attractions. On the birthday of his still-wife Evelyn Stockard-Price, with whom he has a love-hate relationship, his macabre humor reaches a new high point: without informing his wife about it, he rewrites her guest list and invites a group of self-selected people to the former Vannacutt Psychiatry a. In this insane asylum , the patients were under the direction of Dr. Richard Benjamin Vannacutt was tortured and used for medical purposes until a riot broke out in which all doctors and patients except five staff members died.
Steven promises a million US dollars in prize money to every guest who survives the night in the old house. In order to terrify his unsuspecting guests, Price had the house prepared and equipped with gadgets. A specially hired technician is supposed to monitor and control the special effects.
When the guests arrive at Hillhouse, Steven is confused because they are neither Evelyn's acquaintances nor his friends. They are strangers who have never met each other before. Sara Wolfe (posing as "Jennifer Jenzen"), Eddie Baker, Melissa Marr, Donald Blackburn and Watson Pritchett are no less astonished, but Steven decides to go ahead with his planned birthday game anyway. When Evelyn steps up and asks "who the hell" the strangers are, she is almost ripped open by a cracking glass ceiling decoration. Steven offers visitors that they only have to survive the night in Hillhouse and that they will each receive one million US dollars. Then he hands the guests loaded pistols to "increase the tension". But Pritchett is strangely nervous and wants to leave Hillhouse as soon as possible. When he gets hysterical, the central security lock of the house is suddenly activated and all guests are stuck. When Steven visits the technician to praise him for the successful prank, the technician reacts indignantly: he had nothing to do with the lock. Of course, Steven suspects his wife.
It is decided to explore the cellar vault, because the control for the central locking is to be located there. However, the presence of the visitors seems to awaken paranormal forces, as participants gradually disappear and die. The first victim is Melissa, who is abducted and dismembered by the ghosts of the former doctors and nurses . Subsequently, the technician, who is found by Steven with a hollowed-out face, dies. Evelyn dies allegedly from electric shocks, but she only faked her death. She has a secret love affair with Blackburn, but kills him to pin his death on her hated husband. Minutes earlier, Blackburn had locked Steven in the so-called "stimulus oversaturation chamber". This walk-in apparatus should, according to Dr. Vannacutt "Curing the crazy and driving the normal crazy". Sara and Eddie free Steven and later find Blackburn's decapitated corpse in the over-saturation chamber. In the former office of Dr. Vannacutt, Sara and Eddie discover that the invited guests are the descendants of the former sadistic doctors and nurses in psychiatry. Apparently the spirits of the patients trapped in the building wanted revenge and had manipulated Stevens' invitations.
Meanwhile, Steven and Evelyn have a tangible argument until Evelyn falls into a hidden chamber. This releases a kind of demonic being in the form of a blackish ink cloud, which Evelyn immediately devours. The remaining guests flee with Steven to the upper floors, and Pritchett is devoured on the way there. Trapped in the attic, Steven sacrifices himself to save Sara and Eddie, the ghost of Pritchett unlocks a skylight through which Sara and Eddie can escape into the open. Because Eddie had previously stolen Steven's millions of checks, both are now extremely rich. There is only one problem: they are stuck on the roof balustrade at a height of 160 meters. The end of the film leaves open whether they will ever be saved.
background
At a cost of $ 37 million, the film grossed $ 40 million and another $ 36 million through DVD sales. There is Terror Incognito Park , but it's called Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, USA and the roller coaster The Incredible Hulk Coaster .
The main character, Steven Price, is named after Vincent Price , who starred in the original 1959 version of the film. Co-producer Terry Castle is the daughter of director William Castle , who directed the original 1959 film. On the walls in the basement of the building there are inscriptions in poorly worded German.
criticism
John J. Puccio writes on DVDTown.com that the film has too many special effects and too little tension.
Steve Murray calls the film a "bloody mess" in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution .
The lexicon of international films wrote: "Unsuccessful horror film that tries in vain to modernize the classic horror subject of the haunted house with the help of crime thriller elements and a parodic approach."
Awards
Taye Diggs received a "Blockbuster Entertainment Award" in 2000, and Famke Janssen was nominated for the "Blockbuster Entertainment Award".
continuation
In October 2007, the sequel was released , the return to the house of horrors - Haunted Hill ( Return to House on Haunted Hill ) as a direct-to-video production . The direction was taken over by Víctor García and in leading roles were u. a. Amanda Righetti and Cerina Vincent seen.
Web links
- Haunted Hill in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Haunted Hill at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Haunted Hill at Metacritic (English)
- Haunted Hill in the online movie database
- Haunted Hill in the German dubbing file
Individual evidence
- ↑ Haunted Hill on boxofficemojo.com
- ^ Haunted Hill. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .