Despite the fact that just about everyone who has seen it so far has hated it, you have to bear in mind that sentiment aside, the original film was pretty awful. Sure it managed to maintain its cult status over the years, thanks to the classic opening sequence and the equally chilling finale, yet the middle hour was pretty much boring despite the odd sequence or two. This leaves audiences expecting great things from a pretty much straight laced remake, which puts it in an awful position as it doesn’t have the goods to live up to it’s reputation.
When High School senior Jill Johnson catches her boyfriend Bobby making out with her bitchy best friend Tiffany, the two get into an argument on the phone and Jill goes way over her minutes causing her parents to take her phone and her car away, as well as making her take a paying babysitting gig to begin paying off her debt. Jill’s dad drops her off at the remote mansion house (which is stunning) and she settles in for a quiet evening unaware that a family has just been slaughtered some 125 miles away. As she gets acquainted with the house, Jill begins receiving strange phone calls and the familiar tale is told in suitably creepy fashion.
Jake Wade Wall’s script shows great promise and the elements he has added to the formulaic story are its greatest assets. He is hampered however by the need to fulfill some pretty big obligations and this holds any originality back. Camilla Belle is an appealing lead and it’s very much her show here as there’s not much else for the ensemble cast to do. She’s cute as a button and totally believable, so anyone criticizing her acting talents is most likely jealous that someone can be so talented and beautiful at the same time.
The house truly is a character in its own right, as it acts as the backdrop for the majority of the action thanks to its clever technological gadgetry such as remote controlled fire, motion activated lighting and its very own indoor pond/aviary.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when the film first started as it has an unnecessary tacked on prologue and epilogue for that matter, but once Jill arrives at the house until the climax (not the tacked on climax) it’s well made, technically beautiful filmmaking at its creepy best. The creepy location, set design and architecture as well as the sound design for that matter make it an enjoyable movie from start to finish and for that, in my opinion at least; it made it better than the original.
OVERALL SUMMARY
In my eyes, the original film is a 30 minute movie because I skip the middle hour, whereas this is enjoyable from start to finish. Yes it’s made for 15 year old girls and there’s a whiff of self censorship present in some scenes, but its great fun nonetheless.
