I can't really go into what disappointed me with the ending without spoiling it, but I'll just say it was a bit contrived and kind of an 'easy out' for the filmmakers. The ending, in particular was probably my least favorite part of the film, but not bad enough to ruin the whole movie for me. The script is equally as full of eye-rolling groaner moments as it is clever quips and set-ups. If there is one thing the film is never, that is dull. Instead, I think this film would play best in an atmosphere fitting the plot.a party. It's not a film that I would dig out if I were wanting to impress someone with a strong, scary movie. Audiences had already seen two really good ghost movies earlier in the summer, so how would this film set itself apart? By being purely and simply fun, that's how. Released the fall after both The Sixth Sense and Stir of Echoes had wowed horror audiences, House on Haunted Hill had an uphill battle in the ghost/haunting department. It's 150% better than the William Castle remake that would follow, Thirteen Ghosts. Maybe I just had extremely low expectations going in, but I really enjoyed this movie. This is not a great film by any means, but it sure is an entertaining one. Would it transcend the remake sub-genre, or would it just be the same old junk in a shiny new package? So, what better place to start than the films of schlock-meistro, William Castle? The company's first Castle remake was one of the director's most famous films, House on Haunted Hill. A film with better ideas than it had execution. Instead of remaking a true classic of the horror genre, Dark Castle would instead remake a film that audiences could understand a need for a remake of. With this colossal box-office failure still fresh in audiences' minds, a small production company called Dark Castle Entertainment took it upon themselves to try something different with the remake game.

A year prior to 1999 had seen the release of Gus Van Sant's experiment-gone-wrong remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic, Psycho. At that time, you could still count the amount of horror remakes on one hand.

They came sporadically, but most were confined to the years 19. The decade I once called 'the great depression of the horror genre' had gems but they were few and far between.

House on haunted hill 1999 cast