The House on Haunted Hill stars Geoffrey Rush as Stephen Price, a vaguely sleazy amusement-park owner who gets a kick out of giving people bowel-loosening scares. His wife Evelyn (Famke Janssen) is of a like mind -- though the pair has a love-to-hate-you relationship -- and demands that her birthday party be held at the former site of the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane. The location is creepy enough, and it's creepier still since the Vannacutt was burned down in the '30s during an inmate revolt in response to the horrific treatment of Dr. Vannacutt. Only five people made it out alive.

Price shreds his wife's original guest list out of spite, and then his list is replaced by someone, or something. The guests include Eddie (Taye Diggs), a one-time professional baseball player; Dr. Blackburn (Peter Gallagher), a doctor; Sara (Ali Larter), who stole her boss' invite to the party; and Melissa (Bridgette Wilson), a former TV host looking for a break back into show business. None of them knows who Price is; they are there for the $1 million promised to those who survive the night. Also in attendance is Watson Pritchett (Chris Kattan), the building's owner, who just wants to get out alive.

In addition to Price's staged antics and a few things Evelyn's got up her sleeve, strange things begin to happen. One guest disappears, leaving only a pool of blood. Pritchett drinks and drinks, moaning about the house, the house did it. Pretty soon, everybody comes around to Pritchett's way of thinking, and it becomes them versus the house.

The House on Haunted Hill teeters between campy (all of Rush's and Janssen's scenes) and doggedly mundane. There are a few nifty twists, but those are overshadowed by the smirky sarcastic dialogue, with "fucking" being the chief adjective.

What really smarts about this movie is that it was released as The Haunting just a few months ago -- with the same premise (a pissed-off house) and Academy Award-winners (Rush and Liam Neeson) who really should have known better.