by Diane Giles
Despite being a horror film-lover, I've never seen the original 1958 House on Haunted Hill. I know, I know--it's a Vincent Price/William Castle movie--so how much of a horror fan can I be?

Enough of one to think the 1999 version is a great movie. Not only is it a great spooky story of madness, murder and greed, it's actually a very artistic film as well.

For those of you who don't know the story, the plot centers on a building formerly the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane. Many years ago, the walls watched as patients were tortured in the name of medicine, and experiments were carried out that were so horrible, they were intended to scare the inner demons from the ill. When an attempted breakout caused a pandemonium-induced fire, patients and staff alike were roasted alive.

Fast forward to the present. An unhappy trophy wife wants thrills and chills for her birthday, and convinces her husband to hold her party in the old asylum. The couple--in this version re-named "the Price's" in homage to the great Vincent-are a bitter, miserable duo, trying to out-do each other in grisly fashion.

The party guests turn out to be only the first surprise of the evening, as perfect strangers often do. The eclectic bunch of four has nothing in common, and when the home's owner is enticed to stay and join the festivities, the mix only gets well, more mixed up.

As the movie rolls on, the guests, one by one, find themselves in various levels of trouble. Some haunted, some hunted, some dead then some undead. Through it all, the plot is advanced with interwoven black and white film images of the house's original inhabitants-the patients and staff of Vannacutt's torture chamb-er, hospital.

Slowly, we begin to see the chilling events of the past take hold in the psyche of the current characters. Steven Price, portrayed excellently-and very Vincent-like-by Geoffrey Rush (Shine, Elizabeth), begins to lose his grasp on reality when he spies the good doctor-many years dead-creeping through the basement laboratory. His grasp is further loosened inside a whirling, spinning solitary confinement chamber-a bit ironic considering Price builds scary amusement parks for a living.

The black and white scenes we see spliced into the story line are haunting in their own right-a doctor shuffling along with a knife raised in his outstretched hand, a woman bouncing the head of a man like a basketball. But what makes the images truly memorable-and truly spooky-is the frenetic pace of the movement. Picture old black and white movies, stuttering and shaky, and speed them up a little. Change the pace, alter the timing, till none of the movement could possibly be natural.

Speaking of things unnatural, this horror flick did have one pleasant surprise for me-a strong, intelligent female character. Considering the time frame of the original--and remember, I haven't seen it--strong women aren't something I would have expected. (Of course, there could have been a few script revisions. Who knows?) And perhaps just as surprising is that Ali Larter, who we recently saw as the over-the-top cheerleader in Varsity Blues, could pull off the role and very well, at that.

Famke Janssen, who played the very sexy, dangerous Xenia Onatop in GoldenEye, expands her range by playing a very sexy, dangerous Evelyn Price. But to be fair, she does it well.

Chris Kattan (Saturday Night Live) moves light years past the atrocious Night at the Roxbury and hands in a terrific performance, as does The Best Man's Taye Diggs.

It's also great to see some old friends in new places. Homicide's Brodie (Max Perlich) pops in as--what else--a video surveillance dude. And James Marsters (Buffy and Angel's Spike) shows up as (gasp) a human.

I guess the most important thing to be said about this movie is that it was a great way to start off my Halloween weekend. I am sufficiently spooked out to truly enjoy this ghoulish holiday season. Maybe I'll even go out and rent the original.