Critic's Grade: B+

Five strangers. One Asylum. $1 Million each. By don't forget, murder is a way of life at this house.

For his's wife's birthday party, theme-park owner Steven Pryce (Geoffrey Rush- Quills, The Tailor of Panama, Shakaespear In Love) decides that he wants to invite five strangers to spend the night in a supposdly haunted mansion for $1 million each.

Invited are Eddie Baker (Taye Diggs- The Best Man, New Best Friend, The Wood) an ex-baseball player. Jennifer Jenzen (Ali Larter- Varsity Blues, Final Destination, Legally Blonde) VP of a film company. Mellisa Margurite (Bridgette Wilson- Beautiful, Mortal Kombat, I Know What You Did Last Summer), an ex-talk show host who will do anything to get a new job. Walter Bridget (Chris Kattan- Corky Romano, A Night at the Roxbury, TV's SNL), the owner of the house and Dr. Blackburn (Peter Gallagher- Center Stage, Mr. Deeds). No one believes that the house is haunted, by by the end of the night they will.

When everyone shows up, it's a akward meeting and everything seems fine until Steven's wife Evelyn (Famke Janssen- X-Men, Don't Say A Word, Love and Sex). When she does a painted glass picture on the ceiling suddenly breaks and comes crashing down, almost killing her but leaving a small scratch on her face. Learning that the guests that showed up aren't who Evelyn or Steven invited, they each suspect the other of ruining the party. When the strangers get to know each other, everyone is excited until Bridget goes crazy, and starts talking strange, The next thing they know, the house begins to close. Windows close, doors shut, and walls go down. Trapped inside the house, the strangers decide to go looking for a way out which is a bad idea. When Bridget, Steven, Eddie, and Jennifer tour the house, Bridget and Steven dissapear, Jennifer sees a ghost that looks like Eddie, and she is almost drowned in a pool of blood the size of a small car. When Melissa goes looking for some activites she takes her video camera with her to catch scary moments, but they will be her lasts. When she sees the ghosts of three people, we hear a loud scream and she disappears. When the others look for her, all the find is her camera with the broken glass around it, and a puddle of blood with blood going up a wall.

Soon, one by one the remaining survivors begin to die in mysterious ways and secrets are exposed. When it comes down the end, murder is a way of life at the house on haunted hill, and he may come in but your guranteed not to leave.

The film is a remake of a 1959 William Castle film, but is a great remake. The twists, turns, special effects and horror are all good. The chemistry between the characters are amazing and if you watch it at night, with the lights off your guranteed a great spine-tingling movie. Look for appearnaces from music supertstar Lisa Loeb, veteran actor Peter Graves, and TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer star James Marsters.

All Reviews by James Edwards
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