AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

classicsoncall I imagine we're all products of our upbringing and environment. When I was about ten years old, the original "House on Haunted Hill" scared the bejeezus out of me and set the bar for horror films I'd see in the future. If you watch that movie today, a lot of it comes across as campy or cheesy, but there are still those subtle touches that manage to evoke a response, like the first time a female character turns around and experiences the frightful face of the home's caretaker looking like some evil monster.The reaction I got from this picture was - why did they even bother? It seems like a colossal waste of time, in fact, this is the second time I tried watching it, the first time I dropped out when it just seemed pointless to me. There doesn't seem to be any real rationale as to what should be the logic of the story. Watson Pritchett (Chris Kattan) insists it's the house itself that's evil, whereas we see some guy Schecter running the operation from some crummy basement. Owner Stephen Price (Geoffrey Rush) seems to be in on some of the house's mechanical gadgets but not others. It's no secret that Price and his wife Evelyn (Famke Janssen) hate each other, but no sooner than it's revealed she's in cahoots with Blackburn (Peter Gallagher), she offs him unceremoniously. I just didn't get any of it.At least the picture paid some homage to the original movie. The principal character was named Price in deference to Vincent Price, the star of the 1959 film, and oddly enough, Rush had an eerie resemblance to the iconic actor. This story upped the ante on how much the surviving guests would receive if they made it in the house the entire night. Inflation must have taken the earlier ten thousand dollar award and raised it to a million. The coffin party favors with a gun inside was another connection, but after all that, it was pretty much a disaster to my thinking. If the idea was for the special effects to overwhelm the poor story line, I think that failed too. For all their simplicity, the effects in the original picture left a lot more to the imagination. With this one, I went right to sleep and not a single nightmare.

outrunkid This is a great film which offers some genuinely shocking and jumpy moments. Judging from the rating and the hate in the other reviews I've read I found this actually quite a fair and respectful remake which attempted successfully to take it in a new direction. Geoffrey Rush gives a deliciously camp performance which is totally OTT but entirely suitable for the subject and the fact that he is playing a role previously played by the horror king Vincent Price. A great horror, with twists and turns, with a directing style that is quite 1960's Batman in a way but works well, producing an effect with proves unsettling, a great additional feature for a horror.

FlashCallahan When billionaire Stephen Price and his wife, Evelyn, offer six strangers one million dollars each, there is only one rule to the game,they'll have to survive one night in a former mental institution.But it's supposedly haunted by the ghosts of the inmates killed there, and an insane doctor who did unspeakable things.At first, everyone is having fun, thinking that the whole thing is a joke. But once the entire house automatically seals itself shut, they realise that this is real.....If you've seen the rest of these remakes by Dark Castle, you will know that they are nothing more than trashy remakes, that look great, are lots of fun, but totally empty.This was one of the first, but you cannot help but admire Silver and Zemeckis for getting really prolific actors to ham it up in the name of entertainment.It's not a traditional horror movie as in the fact that it's not scary at all, just full of wonderful over the top scenes, and a set that is just beautiful.Rush channels Vincent Price and John Waters down to a tee, and owns the film, and the rest of the cast are either really arrogant or scared out of their wits.The only problem is that the film doesn't know how to end, and it feels too rushed and forced.Other than that, it's lot of silly fun.

A_Different_Drummer Some of this reviewers need to take a chill pill. There is a huge difference between a remake (which statistically Hollywood tends to mess up more often than it succeeds) and a re-imagining, where the Rulebook is thrown out the window and, basically, its No Holds Barred. This is a re-imagining and as such it is really a lot of fun. It is one thing to make the jump from B&W to colour. It is an entirely different order of magnitude to pump up your re-do with hi tech special effects, magic glasses that enable the characters to see what should not be seen, and at the finale, some sort of giant clockwork that you would otherwise expect to find in Dr. Who. This film was released at Halloween, which means in effect that the studio was looking for a fast buck and not trying to produce THE MATRIX. I think they exceeded their own expectations. A great cast, recognizable names, and the wandering through the basement is very creepy and good scary fun.