In a desperate attempt to put a coherent plot together, the writers of Return to House on Haunted Hill not only screwed up this movie, they actively took some of the impact away from the 1999 original. She has to get it out somehow but with the building on lockdown this seems like an impossible task. It drove Vannacutt insane & is keeping the spirits trapped inside. Ariel discovers that the Baphomet figure is to blame for everything that has occurred in the building. Vannacutt himself doing the exact same stuff as before. However, it’s not long before the ghosts of the building start causing havoc.įorget the black mist monster of the first, here we have lesbian ghosts, Silent Hill nurses & Dr. Forced to work together, they begin searching for the Baphomet figure. Once both groups arrive at the Institute the building goes into lockdown trapping everyone inside. Richard Hammer (Steven Pacey) alongside his assistants Kyle (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Michelle (Cerina Vincent) are also looking for the idol. As he believes a legendary figurine of the demon Baphomet is inside & wants Ariel to help him find it. Desmond came to Sara because of her time in the Vannacutt Institute. Upon visiting her apartment, Ariel has vision of Sara who warns her about the Vannacutt Institute in the film’s first of many terrible attempts at being scary.Īlong with her boyfriend Paul (Tom Riley), Ariel is kidnapped by Desmond Niles (Erik Palladino) & his hired goons. It’s all part of the spirit of the houses’ plan to ‘finish the job’ & all guests but 2 are killed.Ĩ years later & Sara is found dead, seemingly having committed suicide. Many years later descendants of these 5 are invited to a party held by Steven Price in honour of his wife. Before he died though he initiated the buildings lockdown trapping everyone inside where a fire consumed all but 5 members of staff. This & the harsh medical treatments saw the patients stage an uprising, attacking & killing the staff including the Dr.
Over the opening credits we’re reminded again of the events that made the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane such a haunted place.ĭr Richard Vannacutt (Jeffery Combs) abused his power to perform experiments on the patients. What might be surprising is just how bad it is.Ĭentred around Ariel Wolfe (Amanda Righetti), the sister of Sara Wolfe who you’ll remember was one of the two survivors of the original. So in 2007 we got a sequel to the reboot called Return to House on Haunted Hill. That it didn’t need expansion & any kind of sequel would just be a poor rehash of what we’d already seen. Still, regardless of if the remake was your thing or not, most could agree that the story was told. Damn, that thing ruined a perfectly fine horror movie. It’s also got some damn fine scares, that is up until the CGI smoke monster appears. It’s utterly absurd with a mix of awful & hilarious acting. I have a bit of a soft spot for the 1999 remake/re-imagining of House on Haunted Hill.