Review of Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007) by Lex 6 — 15 Jun 2008

Return To House On Haunted Hill isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. It's a horror movie, full stop. You're not going to learn the lesson of life from it, or will be thinking about it after the credits have rolled, but it uses up some time. What is even more fun is that on the blu ray and hd versions of the movie, you can play the movie your way - choosing the fate of the characters etc, something I'd only previously seen on the third Final Destination movie.

Apparently, this had 96 different ways of playing the movie. It's quite funny as the first option is right near the start, but then there's not another one for quite a while - but I suppose it depends on which option you choose. The options are yes or no, but there is a time limit (a syringe with the plunger going down), so you have to choose fast. I always wonder if there's an option you can choose that will finish the film well before it's time - we managed to do it, but it was roughly about half way through at the time.

The good thing about this is you can make the film last as long or as short as you want. It does get a bit annoying trying to choose the options and some of them don't come out with the results you want. (For example, you choose to save a character, and they die anyway.).

There's not much of a storyline. It's a good follow up to the original, but the storyline is pretty much average. Did they deliberately set out to make the audience hate the characters? The gore is pretty good, including a rather pretty girl getting her face sliced off (plastic surgery at its best?), and one guy getting pulled to pieces - literally. It's enough to make my stomach turn anyway.

The ending was a bit of a surprise, and not totally expected. It's also quite sad in a way, if you consider what happens earlier in the movie. I won't reveal anything more you just have to watch it for yourself.

Overall, Return To House On Haunted Hill is one of those movies that will be really cheap, really soon, and is worthwhile getting, even if it's just for the opportunity to have fun with the play the movie your way option. I'm sure there could be lots of fun with that. Maybe I would feel differently if I'd seen the original version of the film first? But chose the 'fun' version first.