Trivia / House on Haunted Hill (1999)

• Actor-Inspired Element: Geoffrey Rush modeled his character's look off John Waters. It was only afterwards that they realised how much he resembled Vincent Price from the original - and the director rolled with it.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Taye Diggs took a role in the film when he heard Geoffrey Rush had signed on.
• Billing Displacement: Ali Larter - who was only on her third film - is billed sixth, despite Sara being a major protagonist. In fairness, she's billed fourth in the opening credits, only behind the headliners Rush and Janssen, and Taye Diggs. Her lower billing in the end credits is due to the shifting up of familiar names Gallagher and Kattan, who have a solid amount of screen time as well, but are specially billed in the opening credits.
• Blooper: The invitations Price sent out to the party guests are shown on screen, and boldly name the character Steven H. Price, however, the end credits bill him as Stephen.
  • While on the run from the darkness, Eddie and Sarah both lose their jackets between scenes, and Sara's shirt gets noticeable Clothing Damage. This is due to the sequence where they lose their jackets being cut from the film for pacing.
• Deleted Role:
  • The actual Jennifer Jenzen originally featured, played by Debi Mazar, but her scenes were deleted.
  • Marc Blucas and Ivana Millicevic filmed a short Film Within a Film sequence that was cut. It's included on the DVD.
• Deleted Scene: Two. Sara's presence at the party is due to the fact she kept Jennifer Jenzen's party inviation after Jennifer fired her, and refused to listen to Sara when she offered to give it to her. The sequence was cut due to pacing. The other main deletion is a scene at the end where Jennifer discovers she's inherited the former asylum and is driven to it by a real estate agent. She laments the place is a dump and wanders inside, and we hear her bloodcurdling scream. The camera then returns to the real estate agent, who hasn't shown his face until then. He turns to the camera and reveals he's Dr. Vannacutt, and puts on his distinctive glasses as the film ends. While the sequence eliminates Jennifer's Karma Houdini in the film. Since the first appearance of Jennifer was cut, the second scene was removed as well, resulting in Debi Mazar's deleted role.
• Dueling Movies: With the same year's The Haunting remake. To the surprise of many, this film actually ended up being better-received and comparatively more profitable, despite the Haunting remake featuring a much larger budget and advertising campaign, and the backing of Steven Spielberg.
• Fake American: Geoffrey Rush is Australian. Famke Janssen (Dutch) is a marginal example, as she has the accent naturally.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The roller coaster, "Terror Incognita", is actually The Incredible Hulk Coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure.
• No Stunt Double: Famke Janssen did the stunt where the glass ceiling breaks herself.
• Orphaned Reference: Sara's overcoat inexplicably vanishes as the film goes on. She lost it in a deleted scene.
• Refitted for Sequel: The creature effects during the underwater hallucination were planned for Ghost Story but ultimately not used. Dick Smith did make-up on both.
• Stunt Casting: Chris Kattan was cast to essentially play himself and provide comic relief.
• What Could Have Been:
  • An alternate ending was in the shooting script, where Price dies from the Darkness on top of the staircase instead of Pritchett, and Eddie dies saving Sara instead of Price. Pritchett and Sara make it outside to be found by the cleaning crew. The movie ends with a television report on the events.
  • Christopher Lee was scripted to be the host of the 'Terrifying but True' TV show. In the finished film, Peter Graves is the host.