Insanity and asylums are themes that horror films return to time and time again. It’s possibly because the unpredictable nature of madness adds to the terrifying factor, and House on Haunted Hill makes good use of the mental derangement tropes.
Heavy expectations weighed down the remake of William Castle’s 1959 classic. The original film, starring Vincent Price and featuring some fascinating storytelling, was a show-stopper!
The remake, on the other hand, turned out to be a remarkable reworking of the cult classic, with a cast that included well-known actors such as Geoffrey Rush and Peter Gallagher just adding to the fun. This 1999 film captures the atmosphere of 1950s horror films while also adding a modern twist with a mystery plot and dark comedy.
Although the CGI is old, the practical effects and makeup techniques are outstanding. Dick Smith, a seasoned artist, was in control, which comes as no surprise. The House on Haunted Hill is one of the most underappreciated modern horror treasures, and you must see it to appreciate the enjoyment of the storey.
In this video, we’ll work on the remake from 1999 as well as the sequel from 2007. Stay with us as we delve into the horrors of the night, the Baphomet idol, and uncover a slew of other lesser-known facts about these films.
What exactly happens in the House On the Haunted Hill?
The film begins with several unsettling images. The horrors of the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane are briefly shown! Dr. Richard B. Vannacutt, the once-famous director of this once-famous clinic, was revealed to be a psycho who conducted terrible experiments on mentally ill individuals in the 1930s.
Many people died as a result of the practise, while others were brutalised and gored to death over time. The film begins with a scene from one of the patients undergoing a particularly horrific procedure. This time, though, some of the captives manage to flee. They aggressively attack the employees, and the facility is in complete pandemonium.
But it seems like Dr. Vannacutt had prepared for such an incident in advance. He had set up the facility in such a way that numerous iron gates and bars would seal it completely. These could be controlled by massive clock-like timers that would shut the building for twelve hours.
During this devastating fire, he initiated the failsafe, and everything was destroyed without a chance to be helped! There were attempts to reconstruct the institute, but some unexplained deaths during the process jeopardized the process. It became known as the mysterious house on Haunted Hill and famous folklore for the town.
The next scene brings us to the present day, where we are introduced to eccentric billionaire Steven Price. He has a carefree attitude and loves to live his life on the edge. We see his gimmicks when reporters are interviewing him on his new amusement park, and he pulls a stunt to scare the life out of them through a lift crash!
The rides that he created would seem to have a malfunction only to prank the customers and terrify them. He enjoys life’s thrills, but his personal connections aren’t always perfect. Evelyn, his trophy wife, is spoilt by his wealth, but their marriage is rapidly collapsing. It doesn’t help that Steven has a particularly vile sense of humour, which irritates her even more.
Evelyn enjoys lavish parties, and a television show about the House on the Haunted Hill attracts her. With her birthday approaching, she wants Steven to throw a party for her right there, and she’s even handed him a two-page guest list. Steven, on the other hand, shreds it and makes his own list of who should attend the huge party on haunted hill.
On the fateful night, five people arrive at the gathering. These include: the current owner of the mansion, Watson Pritchett, who leased the house to Steven for the night; a model named Sara Wolfe; ex-baseball player Eddie Baker; Melissa, and Dr. Donald Blackburn. Evelyn is also there, seemingly annoyed that her guests have not been invited and instead, strangers have been brought to the party.
The strange thing about the invitation is that the people who turned upwere not even the ones Steven invited! You would think they would take a lesson from the weird coincidence and leave the premises, but then we would miss out on all the fun, wouldn’t we!
This is when Steven decides to go ahead with his pre-planned celebration theme. The group member who spends the night in this mansion and survives until dawn light will be rewarded with a million dollars. Those who do not make it will merely contribute to the funds of those who do, as their payment will be dispersed among the survivors.
The owner, despite the attractive offer, is hesitant to stay. He demands that Steven pay his debt as soon as possible so that he can leave the estate. We witness him going insane because of the delay, and he obviously recognises that something is badly wrong with the institution.
The others are trying to come to terms with the horrifying situation when suddenly the security gates in the manor are shut. Every door, window, and any possible escape way is sealed behind bars of steel, and the people are now doomed to survive the night inside.
So far, everything is fun and games for Steven. He thinks that a computer employee that he has assigned to scare everyone with traps and shocking moments caused the doors to be shut. On the other hand, his wife is thinking that it is one of her husband’s weird pranks, and she is fuming with the idea of spending her birthday with people she doesn’t even know.
We previously discovered via a brief conversation between the two that Evelyn had been unfaithful in her marriage, and that the two had even attempted to murder each other over their marriage. Now that everyone is trapped inside, they can only plan their next move in the mansion.
When it is disclosed that nobody controlled the gates to be shut, they decide that their first step will be to walk down to the basement and try andopen things back up. However, Pritchett warns them that it is an absolute maze down there. Steven hands them all a gun, as if it would work against the threats they are about to face!
The greatest act of foolishness in such stories is to wander off alone, which is exactly what Melissa does. She becomes the first victim after attempting to investigate the cellar and being killed by the house’s spirits.
We find that the ghosts compiled the guest list in order to include relatives of Vannacutt’s employees who survived the fire all those years ago. The game of survival becomes more difficult as the house’s horrors are revealed one by one. In between, we see Evelyn and Blackburn collaborate to assassinate Steven.
Unfortunately for them, the ploy fails, and Evelyn kills Blackburn instead with the plan to use his dead body to frame Steven. The egoistic billionaire learns about his wife’s intentions to assassinate him, and in a fit of rage, he tries to kill her. This is when the scariest thing about the house is unknowingly unleashed!
They disturb the system of a room that contained the Darkness – a shape-shifting entity that is a combination of all the spirits here. It is composed ofthe dead souls led by Dr. Vannacutt himself, and this entity absorbs anyone who is trapped in the facility to add to the spirits. This being was somehow imprisoned in an abandoned room in the basement.
The only way to enter this room was through a short tunnel, and if the ambiance of the chamber were disturbed in any manner, the Darkness would be released. When workmen were rebuilding the facility, some of them understood the room’s profound secrets and built a concrete wall solely to hide the tunnel that led there.
Perhaps these labourers were slain before they could finish the wall, or perhaps the Darkness simply broke through it, leaving a gaping breach. The Darkness was unleashed when Steven shoved Evelyn through the room’s rotting door, and it assimilated her. Her struggle is briefly seen before her soul is pulled into the Darkness. This monster can leak through even the tiniest cracks, but it is powerless outside the mansion.
Steven stands witness to what just happened, and he runs upstairs, being chased by the Darkness. It reveals that the souls comprising the Darkness will kill everyone who is responsible for their condition.
As all this happens, Eddie, Sara, and Pritchett are desperately trying to open an iron gate covering the windows. They hear Steven screaming, and Pritchett goes to check on him. Just as he is on the other side of the door, Steven opens it and jumps out of the way. The Darkness consumes Pritchett and flows yonder.
Steven and Sara follow Steven, shocked that he is still alive because a while ago, Sara had shot at him. Courtesy of his bullet-proof vest, Steven survived, but now they have a far greater threat than a bullet. They realise Pritchett was correct all along, and the home is, in some ways, alive. They plan to flee through the attic now that everyone save the three has been slain.
Steven takes the lead, and we see glimmers of accountability and responsibility in his character that have been missing so far. The Darkness pursues him as he races ahead, attempting to find his way.
It takes the guise of Melissa to entice Sara, but Steven is able to open a window in the attic by activating a pulley. Eddie tries to get Sara alongside while The Darkness tries to sever the rope that keeps the gate open. Steven sacrifices his own life to save her just as the Darkness is about to kill her.
Although she manages to escape, Eddie is not so lucky and is confronted by the Darkness. It charges him for the actions of his ancestors, and Eddie reveals that he was merely adopted. Upon hearing this, Pritchett’s spirit appears and frees him.
He even opens the iron gate that allows Sara to pull him out, just as the Darkness is almost on him. They barely get outside when the doors slam shut, and they stare into the Sun in absolute exhaustion.
We watch five $1 million checks shoved under the fence as they try to fathom what has occurred to them over the course of the night. They know they’ve won a fortune, and their only concern now is figuring out how to climb down from an attic hundreds of feet above the ground.
The History of the Notorious House and the Baphomet Idol
So, what is the haunted mansion’s darkest secret? As previously stated, it is located along the Los Angeles coast and served as the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane. It was erected by Watson Pritchett’s grandpa, and Dr. Vannacutt oversaw the operations.
He was a brilliant physician and a dedicated humanitarian who enjoyed travelling across the globe. He also enjoyed collecting art, which he considered to be soothing. He came upon the Baphomet idol during one of these journeys, and its evil powers corrupted him.
The cursed Baphomet Idol was placed inside the house, and everyone was infected by its evil. Dr. Vannacutt himself hid this statue in a secret chamber, and this is what drove him to conduct his gruesome experiments, where he tortured the patients. He performed ruthless activities such as electrotherapy, hydrotherapy, and even cremating them alive.
When the inmates of the facility fought back, Dr. Vannacutt activated the door-sealing mechanism of the mansion. He was cut open by the inmates, but he ensured that nobody would get out of this alive.
All the individuals inside were trapped and the fire engulfed everything, leaving only five of his staff living. Due to the presence of the Baphomet Idol, the souls of all those killed in this chaos, including Dr. Vannacutt, remained trapped in the mansion.
They were, in a sense, pawns in the hands of the terrible deity who forced them to do all the murdering. Anyone who entered the abandoned facility was doomed from the start. Attempts to reconstruct had been made, but they never went well, with some of the workmen being killed by the evil spirits in the residency.
The phantoms’ strength is demonstrated by how they broke into Steven’s computer and altered the guest list, selecting people to punish. One guest, however, whom Evelyn had discreetly invited, remained unaffected.
Return to House on Haunted Hill
Many horror enthusiasts were disappointed with the lacklustre follow-up to House on Haunted Hill, which was released in 2007. Do you recall Sara, the woman who made it through the experience in the first film?
Her sister Ariel is the focus of this story. Following the tragic tragedies of the past, the mansion has been abandoned once more. Sara attempted to tell everyone what had happened to the others, including the phantom who had slain everyone in the manor.
Unfortunately, no one was willing to believe her ludicrous story. She kills herself, depressed and traumatised, and her sister Ariel takes it upon herself to investigate the true cause of his death.
She comes across the diary of Dr. Vannacutt, and it sheds light on a lot of the things that were a mystery to her so far. Ariel learns about the notorious past of the haunted mansion, but out of nowhere, she and her boyfriend Paul are kidnapped by an illegal art dealer named Desmond.
It turns out that Desmond also has a fair idea about the chateau, and he is after the prized antique piece of art that is still somewhere inside the building – the Baphomet Idol. He knows all about the figurine of the demon Baphomet, and he wants it in his possession by any means necessary!
Ariel finds out that her sister did not kill herself but was murdered by Desmond. She is forced to help him and, accompanied by Harue and four other henchmen working for Desmond, they step into the place one more time!
One of Paul’s goons holds him hostage, and they wait outside to serve as the protection that will force Ariel to obey. When they enter, they are confronted by Dr. Hammer and his accomplices Michelle and Kyle.
Desmond is a former student of Dr. Hammer, who was persuaded to enter the mansion by Michelle. We hear the same old dreadful sound — the sound of the facility being sealed shut – all of a sudden.
The master-lock has been activated, but Desmond’s men shoot at the system to stop the process. They have a fair idea that the idol is somewhere in the basement, and they split up to look for it! When will people ever understand that splitting up is the worst idea ever in a ghostly building?
Two of the henchmen, Harue and Warren, head off alone, and soon Warren is dead. He is sucked into one of the walls by the spirits, and Harue is seduced by some lesbian ghosts. Later, Dr. Vannacutt does the trick by slicing her face off with a scalpel.
Ariel, who was being accompanied by Desmond, is dragged into one of the padded cells and is traumatized by the visions of the horrifying things that happened there. In the worst conceivable way, she learns about Vannacutt’s reign of terror by watching what the convicts had to endure.
He was the one who led the revolution against the horrific torture, according to the ghost who makes her experience the terrifying activities. We also learn more about the Baphomet Idol’s true power.
Individually, the spirits have no desire to kill, but the idol forces them to do it. Ariel is knocked out, and when she comes to, she finds herself in a straightjacket, screaming for help. Her cries are heard by Desmond and Dr. Hammer, and they rush to rescue her from the room.
The next scene takes place in the facility’s entry hall, where we see Norris, one of the henchmen, being dismembered by the ghosts. They hear the facility’s locking mechanism close once more, and this time, Ariel makes it outside before it closes. However, she is in for an unpleasant surprise.
She discovers Paul has entered the estate, ostensibly on Desmond’s orders, despite the fact that he denies providing any such orders. She gets back inside one more time and happens upon Desmond discussing their plans ahead. In the meantime, another of his thugs, Samuel, is slaughtered by Dr. Vannacutt’s evil spirit. It is absolute chaos, and Desmond and Michelle are disarmed in this situation. Dr. Hammer, Ariel, Paul, and Kyle seize them, and now, they try to escape the building for good.
They attempt to seek out various paths, and one of them leads them to the hydrotherapy room that is filled with water. Desmond tricks Kyle into falling in the pool of water, and despite Ariel’s efforts, he is killed by the spirits that died in the pool.
She barely manages to get out with the help of Dr. Hammer and Paul, who send a chain down for her to climb out. All this while, Desmond and Michelle try to look for the idol themselves, and the moment she falls behind, Dr. Vannacutt kills her.
Desmond seems unperturbed and continues the search by himself. Ariel and her friends discover a possible escape route through the sewers, but the passage is far too narrow for anyone to travel through.
Suddenly, the rebellious spirit gives her another vision, this time showing her where the Baphomet idol is hidden. It is hidden beneath an oven in the crematorium, and they must destroy it if they are to rescue themselves and the ghosts trapped in the mansion.
They head to the crematorium and locate the idol along with the heart of the house. This place is composed of living flesh and is absolutely hellish. They shoot at the figurine, but it proves to be indestructible.
They are ambushed by Desmond, but because the idol was threatened, the protective spirits attack and kill him. He is thrown into a furnace and set on fire. Ariel tries to flush the idol down to save Paul, but Dr. Hammer reveals his true colours when he tries to choke her.
Dr. Vannacutt interrupts their fight and kills Dr. Hammer, giving Ariel valuable time to throw the idol into the sewer. Many of the spirits flee the residence right away, while others assault Dr. Vannacutt.
Paul and Ariel are saved after he is torn apart. As they exit the building, though, we are drawn to a startling discovery. The Baphomet idol’s terrible power has now been released into the world from the limits of the house.
The post-credits scene shows a young couple about to make love on a beach. Suddenly, the woman feels something hard under the sand, and they uncover theidol. The couple starts contemplating the money they can make by selling this antique piece of art to some museum, but we know the horrors that will befall them!
Our Take on the Movies
The film from 1999 is a promising remake of a classic. It’s a terrible story that’s definitely scarier than the trailers promise! After a brief introduction to the characters, we are thrust into the plot, which explodes from the tremendous build-up.
William Malone’s direction, senior players like Geoffrey Rush’s acting, and the intriguing tale will keep your attention throughout. We appreciated the realistic effects that make the horrific parts stand out, and we loved the dark humour amidst the terror. We’re baffled as to why such a fantastic film had mixed reviews and never gained the acclaim it deserved.
However, we cannot say the same for the sequel in 2007. It is a hasty attempt to create horror, and the loopholes in the plot are far too glaring. They seem to completely forget that there were not one but two survivors in the first movie! While it is not a fitting follow-up, we certainly recommend it for those seeking cheap thrills. The original and the 1999 remake, however, are a must-watch for every horror fan!