Movie Review: Return to House on Haunted Hill

Return to House on Haunted Hill 

Warner Premiere, Dark Castle Home Entertainment, USA, Bulgaria, 2007. 

Editor of a fashion magazine, Ariel Wolfe (Amanda Righetti) is sister of Sara Wolfe (a.k.a. Jennifer Jenzen), the survivor from "House on Haunted Hill (1999)." Life has not been a bed of roses for Sara as she has gone crazy and dies under unclear circumstances. 

Ariel Wolfe

Dr. Richard Hammer (Steven Pacey) is searching for Baphomet-idol. Sara had evil Dr. Vannacutt's journal and he asked help from Dr. Hammer. He tells that according to the journal the statue is hidden on Haunted Hill. Ariel and her friend Paul (Tom Riley) get kidnapped by a gang of rogue art dealers led by Desmond Niles (Erik Palladino). So back to the House on Haunted Hill. 

Dr. Richard Hammer

Paul

Desmond and Norris (Gil Kolirin)

Dr. Hammer and two of his students Kyle (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Michelle (Cerina Vincent) are there already. The doors are locked automatically and ghosts wake up. Desmond's men start to die gruesome deaths. Main course is delivered by ghost of  Dr. Vannacutt (Jeffrey Combs). It was the Cthulhoid idol that turned him evil. 

Dr. Vannacutt

Even the remake spent time to personalize the characters. In the sequel the only purpose the most of the characters serve is to be killed by ghosts so they are given just minimum personality traits. One of the goons is an ex-wrestler, one is a lesbian and so on. Director Víctor García was behind the special-effects of "Hellboy" and here he puts the emphasis on the effects. Sadly the creepy charm of the original or remake "House on Haunted Hill" is lost. The plot is predictable and results to boring gorefest.

DVD extras contain "character confessionals" giving more background information about the characters, a documentary about the search for the Baphomet idol, deleted scenes and a music video from Slipknot doppelgänger band Mushroomhead. 

Rating: Bad 

Starring: Amanda Righetti, Cerina Vincent, Erik Palladino, Tom Riley, Andrew Lee Potts, Jeffrey Combs, Steven Pacey, Calita Rainford, Gil Kolirin, Andrew Pleavin, Charles Venn (as Chucky Venice), Tatina de Marinis, George Zlatarev, Stilyana Mitkova, Laia Gonzàlez, Oksana Borbat, Xeniya Fesenko, Miroslav Petrov, Emil Markov, Deian Dinev, Tanya Kozhuharova, Maria Georgieva, Emil Tonev, Nikolai Iliev, Zhasmina Toskova, Jasmina Jekova, Iva Atanasova, Tanya Nedeleva, Hristo Parvanov, Nikolai Chobanov, William R. Dean, Lyubo Yonchev 

Director: Víctor García