House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Directed by William Malone
Written by Robb White & Dick Beebe

The remake of Vincent Price's 1959 House on Haunted Hill is mainly appreciable for Geoffrey Rush's deliciously on-the-mark recreation of Price's essence—as with nearly all of his performances, it rides the line between greatness and camp really hard.

Everything else about it is competent—good supporting cast, flashy direction, some creepy moments, and the always-pleasing Peter Gallagher—but nothing really shines.

It's one of those "several strangers trapped in a haunted house" movies, with shifting alliances and supposedly shocking secrets revealed. But it tumbles over a bit with some lame CGI shit in the last half hour, trying to get all ghosty, but not achieving adequate crap-your-pants scares.

One additional strike against it is the dour presence of Lisa Loeb (?) as a news reporter who is nearly killed in a plunging elevator in the first five minutes of the film. Had they actually killed that squeaky cunt, I'd have enjoyed the rest of it much more.

Review by Caitlin Champagne