[Return To House On Haunted Hill]
Plot:It started when five people agreed to spend one night in a haunted house...what began as an evening of fun a harmless scares in exchange for one million dollars to anyone who stayed the night--and survived--soon turned into a night of terror. Years later, several more people risk their lives in search of a cursed statue of Baphomet, a relic worth millions that will come at the cost of their souls. Meanwhile, Sara's sister Ariel visits the house in search of answers to her sisters mysterious death. Now, the terror begins when the doomed Return to House on Haunted Hill.

Cast:Amanda Righetti, Cerina Vincent, Jeffrey Combs, Gil Kolirin, Steven Pacey, Erik Palladino, Andrew Pleavin, Andrew Lee Potts, Clyta Rainford, Tom Riley.

My Thoughts:One house that should've stayed closed.

Review:Usually most direct to dvd sequels to theatrical films are very poorly thrown together and not very well developed. "Return To House On Haunted Hill" is just another example of that. The film picks up where "Return To House On Haunted Hill" left off, this time without Ali Larter back to reprise her role as Sara Wolfe, the film focuses on her sister Ariel (Amanda Righetti), who heads to the house to investigate the reason for her sisters apparent suicide. Already at this point plotholes have developed in the movie, one of the biggest being how Sara all of a sudden has Dr. Vannacutt's creepy old diary which tells of a relic called "the statue of Baphomet" that's buried somewhere in the house.

Notice none of this was mentioned in "House On Haunted Hill", but "Return" doesn't exactly pay attention to detail. In fact, it pretty much forgets "House On Haunted Hill" on as many levels as it remembers it. This "relic" is the underlying theme of the movie, and brings many others to the house including a professor, his "girlfriend", and one of his ex-students who was sent to the house to retrieve the statue for a 5 million dollar reward. This makes Ariel's search for answers to her sisters apparent suicide alot more difficult to find, especially when Desmond (Erik Palladino), the professor's ex-student kidnaps Ariel and one of her friends and forces them to accompany him and his gang to the house with the sole purpose of finding the statue.

"Return To House On Haunted Hill" does offer up some good kills, but that's really about it. If there's one thing writer William Massa got right with this movie, it's the penchant for gruesome deaths that Dr. Vannacutt and the other ghosts which roam the house, have. Watching this film, you really get the feeling that the plot wasn't handled carefully at all, and was really strung together very poorly. For starters, there are too many holes in it, and many of the films good scenes, which could've led to a whole new wrinkle in the design, are cancelled out by something which occurs later on to put the film back onto the same tired old path.

There's not much character development either, or build up to the massacre, which is where the first film succeeded. This movie pretty much sprints into the killing once everyone arrives at the house, and the necessary betrayals and backstabbing occur. Although I wasn't satisfied with this change of pace from the more slow and methodical first movie, it does make sense in a way considering that the house failed to claim the final two party guests at the end of "House On Haunted Hill".

So getting to the slicing and dicing quickly this time around makes it seem as if the house doesn't want to blow this opportunity to pick off a whole new fresh set of doomed visitors. The deaths are pretty creative, but span from unique, such as one character getting half of their face surgically removed in just under 5 seconds by Dr. Vannacutt, played by the returning Jeffrey Combs, to totally "out there" when one character is squashed by a falling refridgerator.

The film also manages to find a whole new explanation for the houses evil behavior, which while it is interesting and clever in a way, it does kind of ruin the mystique the first film had and kind of turns the story upside down far too much. If there's one great thing about "Return", it's that the film boasts the same look, feel, music, and atmosphere of the first movie, despite it's underdeveloped characters. Not even Righetti's character Ariel, who is the sister of Sara was developed well enough to really garner the viewers interest in her. Fans of this series will appreciate the nasty demises, shaky ghost effects, and good looking women.

Those who aren't fans of this series though will find this movie as just another bad trip into the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the criminally Insane, with an ending that's many steps down from how "House On Haunted Hill" finished up. Being a fan of this series myself, I felt the film was decent and pretty much fell in between that gray area of good movie and bad movie. However, being that William Malone wasn't brought back to write the sequel, it was bound to suffer drastically. Which makes the reason why the DVD was provided with a "choose their fates" option all the more clearer.

Positives:Good looking women, decent kills, keeping the original score was a great idea

Negatives:Poorly developed characters, the statue of Baphomet storyline was interesting and clever but it wasn't used right and eventually became a hinderance to the movie.

Overall:Not the best sequel to "House On Haunted Hill", not the sequel that it could've been...but worth a watch.





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