November 1, 1999 -- The oft-told story of a small group of people caught in a remote place while an unknown killer picks them off one by one is the premise for "The House on Haunted Hill." This has been seen in numerous movies, at least one of which bears the same name. Many of them are based on Agatha Christie's mystery "And Then There Were None."

The problem with this plot, of course, is as the death count goes up, the suspect list goes down. There are ways around that problem and this film uses a couple of those plot devices.

The most surprising thing about this movie is the level of acting talent. It is quite high for what is basically a schlock horror film, the second feature at a Holloween drive-in movie theater bill. You've got Academy Award best actor winner Geoffrey Rush ("Shine") as millionaire amusement park owner Steven Price. Famke Janssen of "Rounders" and Celebrity," plays his hated spouse Evelyn Price. Peter Gallagher ("American Beauty") plays the mysterious Dr. Blackburn. Bridgette Wilson of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" plays showbiz type Melissa Marr, who's looking for new TV show ideas. Ali Larter ("Varsity Blues," "Drive Me Crazy") plays another showbiz wannabe, Sarah Wolfe. Chris Kattan ("A Night at the Roxbury") plays the highly unstable Watson Pritchett. Taye Diggs is a talented actor who is probably not well known to Laramie audiences because some of the popular films he's been in haven't been shown here, such as "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," "The Wood," and one of the most popular movies in the country right now, "The Best Man." Those are all films with mostly black casts. One show that did appear here in which Diggs was prominently featured (as one of the few minority cast members) was "Go." Here, he plays heroic ex-baseball player Eddie.

In a very awkward set-up we see Steven and Evelyn Price setting up the Halloween party in the House on Haunted Hill, an old asylum for the criminally insane, where doctors practiced Nazi-like medical experiments on the patients. Some sixty years ago the patients rebelled, killing the staff, but five got away. The descendants of those five are on the guest list. The deal is, any guest who can survive the night in the haunted house gets $1 million.

Steven Price has one of his flunkies in a secret control room in the house setting up surprises for the guests. It promises to be an interesting night. It also proves deadly as the guests are locked in the house, unable to escape, while a mysterious killer is on the loose.

I did not find the movie frightening in the least, but it did achieve a level of creepiness with some very good set designs and makeup effects. There was also plenty of gore for people who like that. The dialogue was just awful. It was not only poorly written, but unnecessarily crude. The special effects weren't all that special. The murder mystery part did work while it lasted, using the "not really dead after all" ploy to keep most of the suspects alive for an extended period. The plot also made impossible logical leaps and required some characters to get out of character. Another thing, why is it called "The House on Haunted Hill?" The hill isn't haunted, the house is. It should be "The Haunted House on the Hill," or how about "Haunted Asylum?" that sounds scarier.

Movies of this horror-slasher genre are so seldom well-made, but are often successful. Probably the audience goes into them with somewhat different expectations than those who go to see art films. This one was definitely helped by some good acting, particularly by Rush, Diggs, Larter and Janssen, who almost made their poorly-written characters believable, and made it so that you might actually care if they lived or died. This movie rates a D+.

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