House on Haunted Hill
1999. The end of a terrible decade for horror. Scream had inspired an endless legion of copycats and pale copies of the copycat movies. “Horror” had been primarily reduced to PG-13 movies that inexplicably ended with a female floating ethereally in a white dress, or to R-rated comedies with a rare spray of blood. Clive Barker had a couple of great movies early in the decade, when I was too young to see them in a theater. Wes Craven managed about 5 good minutes in Wishmaster. The rest was pure, unadulterated garbage.
Enter William Malone.
One can only guess that after 15 years between movies, Malone had something to prove.
Point proven.
I had to leave the theater during the Saturation Chamber scene. I tried to close my eyes, but the sounds just made the movie even scarier. I had to take a break. Ten years of garbage – I wasn’t expecting anything at the theater to ever be scary again.
I remember buying a large Mountain Dew. I preached to the bored girl behind the counter that there was finally a truly scary film playing, right under her nose. She had blond hair like a straight-A cheerleader. Not the big poof. The conservative blond cheerleader. She looked at me like I was an idiot. I paced for a couple more minutes, sipped on the watered-down three dollar Mountain Dew, then went back inside. Then I found a seat way in the back where I could close my eyes a little easier.
All of us walked out of the theater making a slight laughing sound that you only ever hear from people who have just gotten off of a really good thrill ride, or cheated death in a fiery plane crash without a scratch.
It was at the Kraft 8 in Port Huron, Michigan.
It has been over ten years, and I remember all of these details with absurd clarity. I didn’t know the name William Malone. I didn’t even know anyone who was in the movie except for Lisa Loeb, and I was glad she did not sing. She is really talented when not being fashionably sad.
I bought the dvd the day it was released. I now have the movie nearly memorized, and can usually watch the saturation chamber scene without turning away. There really isn’t any point of “thoughts as I watch” as I have done with his earlier films.
I also took this chance to re-acquaint myself with the director’s commentary.
Everyone pulled it together to make House on Haunted Hill a great horror film.
Geoffrey Rush puts in a wonderful job as a central character. His character “Stephen Price” sets up the movie for exactly what it is: a terrifying thrill ride. This is a man who is used to being in control, to the point that he can snatch it right out from under anyone or any twist of fate. Of course, he loses it all by the end of this film.
Famke Jannsen – Lord of Illusions, House on Haunted Hill, three X-Men movies. Here she plays a woman who has elevated herself to nearly being a Queen by pure force of will. Stephen Price takes swift control – Evelyn demands it. The two performances play off each other with absolute synergy. Famke herself has a considerable deal of range and undeniable grace – both of which serve her performance.
Chris Kattan – If you would have told me that anyone from Saturday Night Live could do comedy right in any horror movie, especially back in 1999, I would not have believed it. I was thus shocked to find his roots on that show. The character of Watson Pritchett should be held up high as the right way to put comedy in a horror film. Kattan’s comedy serves to add nervous tension to the film – not degrade the movie for a quick laugh.
Jeffrey Combs looks extremely natural as the movie’s primary villain, even beneath Malone’s experiments with the camera. Or perhaps, especially being a part of those experiments.
Ali Larter, Taye Diggs and Peter Gallagher had all been making impressive names for themselves, and would all three go on to have roles in some of the most notable television shows of this last decade (Heroes, Ally McBeal, and The O.C., respectively).
Even the apparently forgotten Bridgette Wilson played her part as an over-enthusiastic personality with wonderfully shameless exuberance.
Don Davis, probably most well known for the Matrix movies, gave the film a wonderful score. The theme – if not the whole cd – makes my annual Halloween mix without fail every year. The organ music in that theme is as iconic to me as Freddy Krueger’s theme.
We also hear Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25 for the first time. Malone would use it once more in a different project. If done right, this could make a really amazing Director’s Trade Mark. Malone may be only one more use of the piece away from such an honor.
Ah yes, back to Malone. Someone had to be at the center of this movie, pulling the strings and making it all happen. Not only that, but he was fighting the flu through several weeks of the ten week shoot. An interesting note in the commentary was that Geoffrey Rush took great enjoyment in helping Malone issue commands.
Even the effects crew did amazing work. Many of the visual effects were added afterward to footage that was constantly in motion, which took a lot more work to accomplish eleven years ago.
I can’t call this the best overall horror movie I have ever seen. There are classics that pushed the limits of the genre to make movies such as House on Haunted Hill possible.
This IS the best experience I have ever had watching a modern horror movie, and the best experience seeing a horror film at the movie theater. I say this having watched Freddy vs Jason in the same audience as Robert Englund himself. That still pales next to having a movie deliver on this level.
Well, my word processor is just now ending page two, and I haven’t even touched on the movie.
House on Haunted Hill is one of the few gems of the 90s, ranking with Lord of Illusions and Candyman in intensity. The true beauty of House on Haunted Hill is twofold:
The movie works as a horror movie. The characters are well defined adults with their own goals and ambitions. These goals and ambitions go far beyond intoxication and cheap sex. Claustrophobia is used nearly to its fullest effect. The basement sets all depict a place that no sane person would want to enter willingly. And the sound.. that blessed, beautiful sound. I can not think of any movie that has ever utilized sound with such expertise.
The movie works as a thrill ride. With so many elements of a great horror movie in place, the filmmakers remembered to entertain their audience in the process. Most adult horror feels compelled to trap itself as an ambient piece dependent on mood plus or more little kids in trouble. There was no time for such tropes in this flick.
House on Haunted Hill is a movie that is seeing more appreciation as time goes on. It certainly wasn’t a game-changer, but that may be to the determent of the horror genre. With any luck, more horror fans will give this movie a second look – along with all of its cast and crew.
Everyone did a wonderful job.
