Return to House on Haunted Hill Blu-ray offers decent video and great audio, but overall it's a mediocre Blu-ray release
Sarah Wolfe was the only living survivor from the massacre at the Vannacutt Mansion, but no
one believed her claims that ghosts were responsible for the gruesome murders that took place
there. Now her recent and questionable suicide leaves her sister, Ariel, no choice but to devote
herself to finding out who - or what - was responsible for her death. Ariel discovers that Sarah
sent her the diary of the sadistic Dr. Vannacutt just before she died, offering clues to the
diabolical evil that resides within the house. But the diary also makes Ariel a target in a deadly
treasure hunt that leads a group of unwitting victims back to the Vannacutt Mansion,
reawakening the terror imprisoned within the house on the hill.
They say that the souls of the people who die here apparently haunt the house.
Perhaps no other genre has scared up more worthless dreck than has the horror genre. Sequel
upon sequel have been churned out for numerous franchises, regardless of whether the original is
good, bad, ugly, or somewhere in the middle. Every genre is an offender, though. There are who
knows how many American Pie sequels and spinoffs, a plethora of direct-to-video Wesley
Snipes and Steven Seagal action yawners, and a seemingly endless supply of Land Before
Time films to keep the kids occupied. Still, horror franchises seem to wear out their welcomes
before they even get started. Return to House on Haunted Hill, only the second film in
what we can only hope won't become a franchise, is a direct-to-video follow up to, yes, 1999's
House on Haunted Hill. Reveling in gore and stereotypes and shunning plot and cohesion,
this entry into the ever-growing canon of worthless horror leaves no lasting impression, unless you
count life lesson #1,395: watch for falling refrigerators.
The only thing missing from The House on Haunted Hill is a white-picket fence topped with razor
wire.
When Ariel's (Amanda Righetti) sister Sara -- a survivor from the events of House on Haunted
Hill -- commits suicide, Ariel receives in the mail from her recently departed sister a journal
containing clues as to the whereabouts of the Baphomet Idol, an object of much interest and
pursuit in the academic community. Dr. Richard Hammer (Steven Pacey) is one such academic,
and his 20-year pursuit of the idol has him closing in on its whereabouts, thanks to the help of
Ariel's sister Sara. Ariel and her friend Paul (Tom Riley) soon find themselves victims of a
kidnapping at the hands of Desmond (Erik Palladino), a former student of Hammer's who is
searching for the idol, not for fame and study, but for a $5 million payoff. These individuals and
their
entourages meet at the haunted house, and as the search for the idol intensifies, allegiances
shift,
surprises are revealed, and plenty of blood is spilled.
Unlike Rest Stop: Don't Look
Back, Return to House on Haunted Hill eases newcomers to the franchise into
the
lore and backstory of the first film, slickly integrating it into the story through dialogue and
flashback. The movie makes sense as a standalone film, and even if the plot is thinner than a
runway model, it's at least coherent and simple, with the backstory sufficiently explained. That
said,
outside of a basic narrative to hold the film together, the movie features nothing in the way of
intelligent insight, exposition, or dialogue. The film's sole purpose seems to be nothing more than
churning out as much gore as possible, and most characters in the film are instantly recognizable
as horror fodder. Audiences never have any doubt as to the four characters that will survive until
the final act of the movie, and are certain from the beginning that at least one of the characters
will walk out
alive at the end. There is no mystery, no shaking up convention, just straightforward plot
devices to move from one kill scene to the next. Audiences will be treated to a myriad of bloody
demises for the characters. Brains will be pulled form a head, organs will be ripped form a
stomach, a head will splattered under the weight of a falling refrigerator, and a body will be torn
to pieces, drenching the floor with blood and innards. If Return to House on Haunted Hill
was made for nothing more than showing grisly death scenes, it is a success. For those in search
of more intelligent cinema accompanying copious amounts of gore, films like The Thing and Dawn of the Dead fit
the bill nicely.
Also of interest is that, aside from the standard director-envisioned version of the film, viewers
may
watch the film and choose for themselves how it progresses. With an advertised 96 "frightening
possibilities," one could conceivably spend hours upon hours trying to put the film together and
view it
through
all the differing permutations. When prompted, and the first prompt doesn't appear for quite a
while, users must choose one of two possibilities before a syringe is finished draining its bloody
contents. The various additional scenes feel like a part of the movie, never tacked on or thrown
together at the last minute, at least no more so than the rest of the film. More gore is to be
found, and the video and audio quality remains consistent in the
"new" segments. It's a neat gimmick, but at the end of the day, that's all it is -- a gimmick. The
movie is not all that interesting to begin with, featuring characters that are merely
one-dimensional hack and slash
fodder that nobody cares about anyway and, frankly, spending more time with them isn't all that
appealing. This technique might work better on a movie with higher replay value, but for now,
and its inclusion on this disc, it's moderately and briefly entertaining at best.
Return to House on Haunted Hill invites viewers in for some 1080p, 2.40:1-framed
goodness. The print exhibits a few white and black speckles and some slight grain, but it's generally
clear. There is nothing spectacular about this transfer, but it doesn't disappoint, either. It's rather
flat and boring, with very little natural or bright light, but the mood of the film calls for somber, dark
locales and the transfer reproduces these well enough. Most scenes in the movie take place in the
interior of the haunted house, and there seems to be a haze over the image that goes well with the
run down, cobweb-infested locale. Detail is moderate, perhaps even slightly below average, but the
murkiness of the transfer doesn't translate into loads of detail, anyway. Black levels are decent and
shadow detail is fine, but unexceptional. The gore is sometimes hard to make out in the darkness
of the image, but those in search of large quantities of blood and assorted innards are in for a treat
with this film. Flesh tones sometimes take on a shade of gray, if only because of the poor lighting
conditions in
the film. Return to House on Haunted Hill translates into a fairly uninspiring but ultimately
passable transfer.
Return to House on Haunted Hill frightens the senses with a solid Dolby Digital 5.1
soundtrack. This is one active and loud lossy soundtrack. The opening credit sequence is filled
with
rumbling bass, excellent surround sound presence, and these elements work to create a lively,
somewhat frightening soundstage replete with thunder, tense music, and some gory sounds and
images to complete the experience. Later, a bustling office comes alive with chatter and the
ringing
of phones permeating the soundstage to place listeners in the midst of the busy working
environment. For a
direct to video, nonsensical movie, Return to House on Haunted Hill does sport quite the
aggressive mix. Various gunshots heard in the film ring out clearly, screams and various sounds
of
horror -- bodies ripped apart, brains pulled out of skulls, and the like -- shine through, and the
track
never relents in assaulting the senses, even if the action, dialogue, and direction, are all
second-rate.
The track never fails to immerse listeners in the action, whether the scene showcases a
rainstorm,
a barrage of ringing cell phones in chapter 12, or a series of falling chairs and a refrigerator in
chapter 15. Dialogue is robust and precise throughout. Return to House on Haunted Hill
is
no slouch, audibly, despite the lack of a lossless or uncompressed option.
Return to House on Haunted Hill scares up a few bonus materials that fans will enjoy.
Leading things off is a series of shorts entitled 'Return to House on Haunted Hill'
Confessionals (480p). Here, users may watch as the characters discuss their roles in the film,
what they want from the house, their thoughts on other characters, how they plan on escaping,
and the like. The Search For An Idol: Dr. Richard Hammer's Quest (480p, 2:51) features
this character discussing the allure and mythology behind the Baphomet Idol and his longtime
search
for the artifact. Four additional scenes (1080p, 7:54) and the Mushroom Head music video entitled
Simple Survival (480p, 3:17) conclude this group of bonus materials.
Return to House on Haunted Hill is a film sure to satisfy any unquenchable thirst for more
and more gore, but it sacrifices every other aspect of filmmaking in the process. With a dull and
predictably clichéd cast of characters, poor acting, and mediocre direction, Return
to House on Haunted Hill boasts nothing more than decent set design and gallons of blood.
Even the dark, cavernous house fails to create a frightening atmosphere, no matter how good it
looks. The obvious highlight of this package is the inclusion of the viewer-controlled experience, but
it gets tedious rather quickly, mostly because the film isn't worth going through several times.
Technically, Warner Brothers' Blu-ray release of Return to House on Haunted Hill is fairly
average. With decent video quality, a good lossy soundtrack, and a few extras, not to mention the
interactive content, hardcore horror fans will probably find something worthwhile here. For general
audiences, and particularly those not sensitive to blood and gore, Return to House on Haunted
Hill makes for a decent rental.
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