Reading the other comments on this film showed that few people realize the title, at least, hails from a British film released in 1960, which while having the same name, is fundamentally different. Indeed, I could find NO reference to the original in the film's credits (which I suspect saved them some CASH).
Which brings into focus the whole issue of "remakes'.
For instance, the recent film entitled "The Italian Job" was really NOT a remake. It was merely the central character's favourite film and it "inspired" him to use the techniques in the film to pull off a job. In fact, the recent film might have done better with a completely DIFFERENT title, as it must have irritated many viewers who were expecting a true remake. In fact, if you forget about the original film, the "remake" - as a stand-alone film - is actually quite GOOD.
The same could be said of "The House On Haunted Hill".
On the other hand, TRUE remakes are usually RUBBISH. Treatments of great modern French films and classic British and American films almost ALWAYS suffer in comparison with their originals. This writer avoids them like the plague - I only watched this one (on TV) to see how the subtlety of the original's theme of Lifemanship, Gamesmanship and One-Upmanship had been handled by Hollywood - it hadn't.
In fact, apart from Billy Bob Thornton's character name of "Dr P" (an obvious reference to Alistair Sim's character - "Potter" - taken from the original writer of the books which formed the basis for the original film) and the inclusion of a game of tennis (Ian Carmichael did not HIT Sim in the original!) the only thing taken from the original was the concept of a secret school designed to turn losers into winners.
But in the original, this was achieved by the use of "ploys" designed to instill doubt and confusion in the students' opponents - "Your opponent is everyone who is not YOU" - while in the "remake", the "techniques" involved were more akin to a self-assertiveness class, with subtlety being replaced by naked aggression.
So, as with the "remakes" of "The Italian Job" and "The House On Haunted Hill", this is a film that did itself NO favours by trying to be another example of Hollywood's OBSESSION with remakes. As with the afore-mentioned, it was actually quite a good film on IT'S OWN MERIT.
Which brings into focus the whole issue of "remakes'.
For instance, the recent film entitled "The Italian Job" was really NOT a remake. It was merely the central character's favourite film and it "inspired" him to use the techniques in the film to pull off a job. In fact, the recent film might have done better with a completely DIFFERENT title, as it must have irritated many viewers who were expecting a true remake. In fact, if you forget about the original film, the "remake" - as a stand-alone film - is actually quite GOOD.
The same could be said of "The House On Haunted Hill".
On the other hand, TRUE remakes are usually RUBBISH. Treatments of great modern French films and classic British and American films almost ALWAYS suffer in comparison with their originals. This writer avoids them like the plague - I only watched this one (on TV) to see how the subtlety of the original's theme of Lifemanship, Gamesmanship and One-Upmanship had been handled by Hollywood - it hadn't.
In fact, apart from Billy Bob Thornton's character name of "Dr P" (an obvious reference to Alistair Sim's character - "Potter" - taken from the original writer of the books which formed the basis for the original film) and the inclusion of a game of tennis (Ian Carmichael did not HIT Sim in the original!) the only thing taken from the original was the concept of a secret school designed to turn losers into winners.
But in the original, this was achieved by the use of "ploys" designed to instill doubt and confusion in the students' opponents - "Your opponent is everyone who is not YOU" - while in the "remake", the "techniques" involved were more akin to a self-assertiveness class, with subtlety being replaced by naked aggression.
So, as with the "remakes" of "The Italian Job" and "The House On Haunted Hill", this is a film that did itself NO favours by trying to be another example of Hollywood's OBSESSION with remakes. As with the afore-mentioned, it was actually quite a good film on IT'S OWN MERIT.