When people ask me for horror movie recommendations, it's usually with the caveat that I have to come up with something they're not familiar with or haven't seen in a while. One of the titles that regularly comes up is a movie that was critically panned when it first premiered in theaters in the late 1990s.
Well, buckle up because I'm going to tell you why this underrated gem is well worth your time.
During a time when the genre pivoted toward post-Scream teen slasher tales like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend, a film was released that disrupted the status quo and paid homage to the moody, pulpy thrillers of the past -- four decades in the past, if we're keeping track.
House on Haunted Hill is the film I'm talking about. I think it's required Halloween viewing and, lucky for you, the movie is streaming free on Tubi right now.
A loose remake of a horror classic, it's a schlocky outlier that leans heavily into the style of the late '90s, while retaining the 1950s vibe of its predecessor. It features a pretty solid cast, a wicked sense of humor and offers a delightful respite for audiences who were looking for something other than a group of college kids running from a masked killer.
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House on Haunted Hill is the 1999 remake of William Castle's 1959 B-movie classic, which starred Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart. The gist in both is pretty much the same, centering on a wealthy (and peculiar) married couple who invite five guests to play a daring game: Survive the night, and each person takes home a cash prize. As you may suspect, things don't end up that cut and dry.
Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen star as Steven Price, a theme park mogul, and his wife, Evelyn Stockard-Price. The original movie found the couple inviting folks to their would-be haunted mansion to take on the dare; this movie ups the ante and puts them all in an abandoned asylum with a sinister past.
Genre fave Jeffrey Combs appears sporadically throughout the movie as the evil Dr. Vannacutt, the leader of the once thriving Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane. According to legend, the patients rioted against the staff in the 1930s, leaving a tainted (potentially haunted) energy permeating within the building's walls.
Jeffrey Combs stars in House on Haunted Hill. Dark Castle Entertainment
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