House on Haunted Hill (1999)

House on Haunted Hill is a remake of a 1959 classic and holds the same premise of offering guests an incentive if they can spend the night successfully. Geoffrey Rush, starring as Stephen Price, is the owner of the creepy mansion and is offering $1,000,000 to each of the guests at his wife's birthday party. As guests arrive, Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Mason begins to play and the viewer gets a visual of just how massive the structure is from the outside. Rumor has it the building used to be a mental institution but received a major renovation.

Geoffrey Rush and his on-screen wife Famke Janssen end up having some funny arguments except they're missing the charm Vincent Price portraited in the original. However, Rush makes his dialogue interesting especially considering the odd pacing of the overall film. The biggest problem with this movie, in general, is how the pacing works and to some, it can seem quite boring. The majority of the action takes place at the end and the rest is the personality lacking group wandering around the mansion. The CGI, for the time being, wasn't too harsh however, the special effects team did a great job of trying to save the movie as best as they could. There is one particular scene where a ghost chases after the guests. Looking back now one may argue the CGI wasn't the greatest but it held the overall creepy mood created. The film overall had so much potential it's kind of a letdown to some. The CGI and special effects did a great job but the flat characters and odd pacing weighed down the final product.