The difference is astonishing, and in this aspect the remake gains hugely over the original.Īs the movie opens, it's 1931, and the House isn't a house yet. The new, utterly different House is all verticals, tall and thin and perched atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was long and rectangular and low to the ground, like a bunker. Far from being a creaky Gothic mansion, Castle's House looked more like a modern elementary school with delusions of grandeur. The House in William Castle's original was a Frank Lloyd Wright house, and it stood out for two reasons: first, it was phenomenally ugly, especially in the manner in which Castle's camera captured it and second, it seemed the least likely setting for a ghost story that anyone could possibly imagine. The house itself is the first "character" we see. And I still don't think it's finished to my satisfaction. To give you some idea of the conflicted opinions I have of House., it's taken me over six months to complete this review. Anyway, in view of my reactions to House on Haunted Hill - initially mixed but approving, gradually turning sour the more I thought about it - I'm not sure how I feel about the whole enterprise.
I suppose they're running out of vintage themes to ruin. Remakes of Macabre and 13 Ghosts are on the way. Silver is selling genuine Meat Food Products, but let's face it: they're not the choicest bits of the cow.Īpparently House on Haunted Hill did well enough to convince Silver et al. To abuse a metaphor, Castle over-sold the sizzle because he didn't really have any steak. But Silver and his ilk are fooling themselves. Silver has packaged some real stinkers in his day, so he may imagine himself to be Castle's successor. Castle was the larger-than-life director and producer whose colorful promotional gimmicks were often better than the movies they supported. The idea of remaking at least one of Castle's films is understandable. Dark Castle's first release is a 1999 remake of 1958's House on Haunted Hill.
Joel Silver, along with Robert Zemeckis and director William Malone, has started a new movie company called Dark Castle, dedicated to remaking the films of that notorious showman, William Castle.