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Return
to House on Haunted Hill takes place a few years after the 1999 version. The sole survivors are not seen in this sequel,
but are merely mentioned. Sara Wolfe's (One of the survivors from the first movie) sister enters the house
against her will to recover an idol that is apparently causing hell to break loose ... literally. The first movie may not have been perceived well by a lot of the audience and most of the
critics, but I was a fan ... well, up until the last ten minutes that is. It had a lot of things going for it,
such as: The hot leading lady played by Famke Janssen. It also had some of the freakiest scenes I've seen in a long
time, which was caused by a small feature they added to each ghost ... the twitching of the head. But enough of the
first movie, let's talk about the second one. Although it's based
on the "House on Haunted Hill" movies, it wasn't necessary to even use that title for this film. It may
have been better to use an all new name, so the people who saw the first one and hated it would pick this one up
and watch it. To me, it just seemed that they were milking the title for every little drop they could get. And
the twitching of the head effect that I mentioned in the paragraph above was rarely seen ... and if it was seen it didn't
give off the same feeling. I did enjoy the fact that the used the same
house (set) for this version. It may not have been the same set, but it looked exactly like I remember the
house looking. From the details of the lobby - to the glass still on the lobby table which fell in the first half of
the 1999 movie. It was also nice to see Jeffrey Combs playing good 'ole Dr. Vannacutt, a lot of times studios use
different people for sequels ... especially since it's been eight years since the first one. Even though Mr. Combs
reprises his role as the evil doctor, his character seemed different ... maybe it was because he was more of a main character
than a background image. The acting was well above par for a straight
to DVD movie, but not nearly as good as the first. I actually wish they released it to the theaters instead of straight
to DVD ... it would have done considerably well in the box office because it was better than most straight to DVD titles I've
seen in the last few years. Bottom line is - it has a decent storyline
that is different from the last movie, good acting, and some chilling moments that you shouldn't miss ... if you're
afraid to buy the movie, at least grab some beer, cold pizza, and pop in a rental. I don't think you'll regret
it.
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