Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007)

If remakes in the genre are hard to do, then sequels to those same remakes must be even harder…continuing the lore and new storyline from a remake that sets out to impress upon the original. The House on Haunted Hill remake is one of my faves; it had a wild setting, talented cast, and some genuine shock moments. Does the sequel break new ground, or at least tread the same ground just as effectively? In this one, Ariel is the sister of the female survivor from the first. She and her friend are taken against their will to the house to help search for an artifact that might help to unravel the mystery behind the story of the house. Characters get into all sorts of trouble with ghostly encounters while searching and exploring the house. While it gets marks for attempting to have some sort of connection to the previous film, this falls victim to one of the things I hate the most: over-explanation. The motive for the great Jeffrey Combs’ character Vannacutt is tied to some artifact? And the ghosts in the house are being controlled by those same forces? Why can’t they be evil for the sake of being evil…as it is it’s a huge mistake. The cast isn’t nearly as entertaining as the cast from the first and too many details are given regarding what happened to the asylum previously. A better story would have maintained the same integrity of the history and creepy legends without changing some of it for the worse. Simply put, doesn’t live up to the previous outing. Check it out only for the unique ‘choose your own adventure’ style settings as one option on the disc, and a couple bloody deaths.

SLASH SCENE: Death by heart ripping

SLASH SCALE: 2/5