Metascore

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 24 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 104 Ratings

  • Starring: Shannon Elizabeth, Tony Shalhoub
  • Summary: A state-of-the-art remake of the classic William Castle horror film about a family that inherits a spectacular old house from an eccentric uncle. There's just one problem: the house seems to have a dangerous agenda all its own. (Warner Bros.)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 24
  2. Negative: 14 out of 24
  1. Although not for the faint of heart, it's a potent -- and very tricky -- treat.
  2. 60
    This might be as perfect a new-millennium Halloween creepshow as we can expect.
  3. What follows is very gruesome indeed, though the footage of people being chased by hideous ghosts soon becomes rather dull.
  4. If only half as much attention had been paid to story and character as to set design, the cast wouldn't be playing second banana to a gut rehab.

See all 24 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 80
  2. Negative: 21 out of 80
  1. ThomasA.
    10
    Critics schmitics! Great realism and uniquely twisted horrorific bursts of adrenalin accompany this one. Anything with Tony Shalhoub is worth viewing. And Shannon Elizabeth is icing on the cake! Collapse
  2. AbbyL
    8
    This movie actaully freaked me out. It's worth watching on a dark night.
  3. JosephP
    7
    Not scary, then again, what movies are? The acting was rather poor, and there were more than a few plot holes. Not really holes in the basic evil machine requires certain souls, I liked that, felt really interesting. More, they were problems in how it was executed, why they were released one by one, why the uncle didn't control more to keep it from getting out of hand...The spells controlled the ghosts, they don't seem to be scary if you have a means to control them. I loved the design in the ghosts and the house. The little things, the odd symbols that resembled the ghosts, the glasses looked cool, although lacked any story on why they worked (should have had symbols on it, would have been perfectly acceptable). The ghetto black chick was annoying, could have been omitted entirely and would have been better. The ghosts didn't succeed to kill anyone important until the end, effectively making them look less scary than they should have been. The individual stories the ghosts get are interesting, and should have at least been summed up in a sentence to give something cool to it. The glass house was cool, not scary. Not freaky, it allowed you to see the ghosts, but since the characters only saw a ghost if it was in the same hallway or in its cell, that defeats that purpose. The glass house takes away the "this could happen to you" aspect that makes things freakier. The ratings this movie gets that are below 4 are completely useless. This movie didn't make anyone stand in line for a ticket, and it didn't get any rewards, but it was a decent movie and deserved to be acknowledged as decent. Over all the special effects were nice, (if not a bit overplayed on the sparks when a ghost hit anything) This movie was not scary, I thought it was entertaining, the acting is a bit overplayed, but the interest lies in the ghosts and the house. The acting isn't horrendous, it's not terrible, it's ok. The ghosts are all interesting looking, but not scary. The story has problems, but has good points too. Not a scary movie, it's rather entertaining. The people who say it's the worst movie they've ever seen have probably only seen maybe 6 of the best films ever made, in which case most other films fall short anyway...Also that black chick was annoying. This is a decent movie, not great, but worth watching in my opinion. Expand
  4. AlanF.
    4
    Ok the special effects were great but apart from the token comedy black character and the lame story (the concept was great but it got silly after a while) the actual facts are wildly inaccurate...for one no ghost can physically harm a human being, they can scare you and make you think they can (nightmares, visions etc) but they cannot do physical harm as shown in many movies including this one...this movie is just going to spawn a whole new generation of 'devil worshipping' goths with the newe arcana of the tarot made for this movie....i was sorely disappointed after all the hype. Expand

See all 80 User Reviews

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