Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute
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The Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, better known as The House on Haunted Hill, is a fictional psychiatric hospital featured in the 1999 remake of House on Haunted Hill (1999 film), and its 2007 sequel, Return to House on Haunted Hill. It is located in the Pacific Palisades region of Los Angeles, California. Opened in 1922, the institute was nearly destroyed by fire in the early morning of October 11, 1931.
[edit] History
Founded in 1922, The Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute (under the direction of Dr. Richard B. Vannacutt), was known as "the City of Angels' most celebrated medical facility". At 4:00am on October 11, 1931, a patient riot started leading to a fire, causing the death of all but 5 of the hospital staff. After the fire, police and investigators discovered the shocking horrors of the deaths except Vannacutt and his staff. It is said that Dr. Vannacutt hid a small cursed statue of the idol Baphomet in the heart of the house where in Return to House on Haunted Hill It is discovered in a hidden room in the house that is covered in what is known as the house's living organ.
[edit] Synopsis
The legacy of terror at the House on Haunted Hill began in 1931 when sadistic doctor Richard Vannacutt (Jeffrey Combs) and his staff died in a fiery inferno caused by a patient upraising at his hilltop asylum. Rumors persisted for decades that the building was haunted by the spirits of those who died there. The horror continued when billionaire Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush) and his guests were gruesomely slaughtered at a party in the refurbished mansion in 1999. Though the authorities blamed Price for the murders, survivor Sara Wolfe (Ali Larter) claimed that ghosts were responsible for the brutal death of the guests.
Eight years later, Sara's sister Ariel Wolfe (Amanda Righetti) is a successful editor at a men's fashion magazine. Her hectic schedule leaves her no time for personal life, let alone her family. Ariel is distraught when she learns from police that Sara has killed herself. However, not all of the facts add up and she begins to suspect there was more to Sara's death - and that her sister was trying to contact her before she died. Ariel's fears are confirmed when she receives a strange book in the mail, sent by Sara shortly before her apparent suicide.
Archeologist Richard Hammer (Steven Pacey) reveals that the book is in fact the diary of Vannacutt, the cruel doctor who ran the hill house asylum. Sara had been helping Richard decode the diary, hoping that its passages would lead to the location of the ancient Baphomet idol, an occult demonic statue hidden somewhere inside the house. Sara believed that the idol was the source of the house's evil. Richard and his team, grad students Michelle (Cerina Vincent) and Kyle (Andrew-Lee Potts), plan to enter the house and search for the idol.
Ariel wants no part of the macabre treasure hunt but soon becomes ensnared when she is kidnapped and taken to the Vannacutt mansion by Desmond Niles (Erik Palladino) and his mercenaries, who are also after the priceless idol. However, once inside they become trapped, and Ariel and the others come face to face with the terror that dwells within the House of Haunted Hill.
By the end of Return to House on Haunted Hill the statue of Baphomet was set free by Ariel. Ariel and Paul believe the House wanted them to succeed.
