But just like the acting, for a straight-to-DVD horror movie it’s pretty impressive. Is the make-up convincing? No, absolutely not. Plus, I was surprised that a lot of the screaming during death scenes made it just as effective as the make-up effects do. All of the other kills, albeit some being pretty cheesy, are fun and the make-up looks great. The first kill, a man getting his intestines ripped out by a hand in a wall, is actually painful and cringe-worthy to watch. He somehow takes his horrible dialogue and makes it slightly watchable.Īlthough there is a large, nonsensical absence of killing in this movie, the kills that we do see are actually effective and cool. He’s the only legitimately good actor in the whole movie. Everyone else in the movie is okay, but pretty good for straight-to-DVD fare, except for him. He’s no leading man, but he’s made a number of appearances in film and television, because the guy has actual charisma and energy. I wasn’t surprised to see that he has a large amount of credits to his name.
Erik Palladino, who plays Desmond, is actually a solid actor. But everyone else ranges from just okay to actually decent. She’s so bad, it doesn’t help that she has some of the worst dialogue in the movie. That is, with the exception of Cerina Vincent, who is awful in this. This isn’t exactly brilliant acting or anything, but for a bunch of young no-named actors in a shitty horror movie, they do perfectly fine with what they’re given. I’ll start out with the acting, which was actually not that bad for a straight-to-DVD horror movie. Shockingly, there are minor things of value here. Oh yeah, and ghosts kill people sometimes.īefore I yell at this movie, I’m going to take my traditional route of complimenting it first. But Desmond isn’t the only one looking for the idol, also at the house is Richard (Steven Pacey) who has been searching for the statue for decades, joined by his assistant Kyle (Andrew Lee Potts) and a student named Michelle (Cerina Vincent). Desmond inexplicably kidnaps them and brings them to the treacherous House on Haunted Hill, where the long-lost statue of Baphomet is hidden, a statue that is worth millions of dollars. Turns out that her sister’s suicide was a murder in disguise, set up by a treasure hunter named Desmond (Erik Palladino). After Sarah’s apparent suicide, Ariel begins to investigate with her photographer friend Paul (Tom Riley). Didn’t even know that until reading the synopsis two seconds ago) sister Ariel (Amanda Righetti) is the editor of a fashion magazine, living her normal life and inexplicably dodging her sister’s calls. Not like this.Įight years after the events of the first film, Sarah’s (Ali Larter from the original film. I’ve had regrets, we all have, but not like this. That’s when I had realized that I had somehow accidentally purchased Return to House on Haunted Hill, the 2007 straight-to-DVD sequel. Then that’s when out of the corner of my eye I see the words Return on the top of the DVD. I found it weird because I knew that the film featured some notable people, but I had no idea who these actors were on the DVD. I notice something on the DVD, a picture of three of the actors.
I take the receipt and pop open the House on Haunted Hill case to put the receipt in, as I do with all of my movie purchases.
So I purchase my DVDs and walk to my car and drive home. Watching Return to House on Haunted Hill had never even entered my mind, I forgot it had even existed. It was only five bucks so I grabbed it since I had never seen it and I had just recently purchased the original House on Haunted Hill, thought it would be fun to do a double-feature and write about it. A couple weeks ago I walked in to pick up some stuff, when I came across a DVD copy of the 1999 remake House on Haunted Hill. There is a local DVD/Blu Ray store that I visit in town, they have this awesome selection of horror movie DVDs for great prices.