Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "House on Haunted Hill is the kind of horror movie that's not a bit scary and quite a bit gross. Yet it's also mildly, even pleasantly, entertaining, at least by the diminished standard set by this summer's The Haunting ... [it] sets up hostile relationships between the characters, which allows the audience to wonder who is doing what to whom. Finding out is not so interesting, but getting there isn't so bad." Maitland McDonough of Film Journal gave the film a similar review, saying "The proceedings are all utterly conventional, but watching them unfold is mildly diverting if you're in the right frame of mind, as many moviegoers apparently were over the Halloween weekend," also favorably comparing the film to Jan de Bont's remake of The Haunting.
Kim Newman, writing for Sight and Sound, praised the "try-anything approach of writer-director William Malone" and observed that the film "manages to respect the original's intentions far more than such recent remakes as the 1999 versions of The Mummy and The Haunting... The mix of laughs, shocks and gruesomeness is much the same as in the two Tales from the Crypt movies, but Malone coaxes a slightly fresher flavour, taking on board the influence of David Fincher and even Lars von Trier."
Eric Harrison of the Los Angeles Times praised the performances in the film, particularly those of Rush, Kattan, and Larter, but felt that the screenplay's tone was inconsistent, writing: "Humans do so many horrible things to each other in House on Haunted Hill that the ghosts don't stand a chance of keeping up, which may explain why the script makes such nitwits of the characters—if the spooks are going to make an impression, they need all the help they can get." Entertainment Weeklys Owen Gleiberman gave the film a B− rating, calling it "trash, but creepier than you expect." Joe Leydon of Variety gave the film a favorable review, noting its "cheap scares," but adding: "Given the irredeemable cheesiness of the original 1958 House on Haunted Hill, the makers of the remake had nowhere to go but up. So it's not exactly a stunning surprise to find the new horror opus is a slicker and scarier piece of work."
Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times called the film "a sorry reincarnation" of the original, adding: "This film wastes the talents of actors like Geoffrey Rush and Peter Gallagher in hollow roles and relies heavily on its sets and special effects to do the work that should have been accomplished by its director and writer." The Austin Chronicles Marc Savlov echoed a similar sentiment, writing: "The nicest thing I can say about this remake of William Castle's 1958 shocker is that Geoffrey Rush, god bless him, sure can do a fine imitation of Vincent Price's original mustache, even better than John Waters'swhich is no mean feat."
Accolades
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
|-
! scope="col" style="width:15em;"| Award/association
! scope="col" style="width:2em;"| Year
! scope="col" style="width:25em;"| Category
! scope="col"| Recipient(s)
! scope="col"| Result
! scope="col" class="unsortable"|
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2"| Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
| rowspan="2"| 2000
| Favorite Supporting Actor – Horror
| Taye Diggs
|
| style="text-align:center;" rowspan="2"|
|-
| Favorite Supporting Actress – Horror
| rowspan="2"| Famke Janssen
|
|-
! scope="row"| Fangoria Chainsaw Awards
| 2000
| Best Supporting Actress
|
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
! scope="row"| Golden Trailer Awards
| 2001
| Golden Trailer
| rowspan="2"| House on Haunted Hill
|
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
! scope="row" | Stinkers Bad Movie Awards
| 1999
| Worst Remake
|
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
|}
Sequel
In 2007, the film was followed up with a direct-to-DVD sequel, Return to House on Haunted Hill, with Jeffrey Combs reprising his role as Vannacut and was released in both rated and unrated editions. The film had no involvement from William Malone and received poor reviews, mainly due to plot holes, continuity in the building design and various other features of the film, but it was praised for its state-of-the-art Blu-Ray feature in which the viewer can change the path of the story.
See also
- List of ghost films