Review of Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007) by Trevor T — 28 Dec 2007

This film was just mediocre on the DVD showing. I was more interested when I got the blu ray and played it on the version where I make the decisions. Having Paul and Harue as the survivors and letting Sara's sister Ariel die was so much better for me.

I like the concept of Harue finding the statue and taking it off to be a really cool setup for a third film that would hopefully bring back Debi Mazar to play the role of Jennifer Jenzen, without the role being deleted this time.

Sadly, Harue died in the "director's version" of the film, so I'm feeling that would be the version that would be the basis for a third film if it were to be done. In any case, this film still only got three stars because Sara Wolfe died, Ali Larter didn't even reprise the role, Eddie Baker (Taye Diggs) wasn't in the film nor mentioned, and there weren't any ghosts from the first film.

That would've been a good reason to bring back Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Chris Kattan, and Bridgette Wilson. The star power, and the references to the first film would've helped this film greatly in that way if the ghosts of the party goers were around to interact with the new characters in the house.

.. Plus they really should've reconstructed more of the sets from the first film more properly instead of just the party room. The bedroom that Price and Evalyn was in should've been shown, the large cloud of ghosts should've been back, the scene with the attic should've been left back in, Jennifer Jenzen should've been involved, and the house's main entrance gate should've been in the proper location from the first film.

This sequel could've had so much potential if they'd gotten back the actors from the first to join the actors from the new cast and if they'd taken the time to keep the continuity in line.

Such a waste.