Dr. Vannacutt

Dr. Richard Benjamin Vannacutt is the primary antagonist of House on Haunted Hill and Return to House on Haunted Hill. He is the owner and the head of the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute (named after his surname), a mental hospital where he and his staff of doctors have committed numerous murders before they died in the insurrection of the inmates and their souls inhabits what is to be forever to known as the "House on Haunted Hill".

He was portrayed by Jeffrey Combs.

History
It began in an abandoned asylum, the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, where numerous murders were committed in the past, mainly the 1920s. The head of the facility, Dr. Richard B. Vannacutt (Jeffrey Combs), performed grotesque experiments and medical procedures on the patients, killing many in the process. The hospital was closed in 1931 after the patients escaped from their cells, killing almost the entire staff (all except 5) and burning the hospital. All the patients died, their souls rumored to be trapped there forever. Vannacutt had rigged the building with numerous iron gates, activated by cranks and levers, to serve as barriers to keep patients from leaving the building, should they escape; some of these were controlled by huge, clock-like timers that wouldn't open for twelve hours. During the fire, he released these gates, keeping the inmates, employees and the fire itself contained. After several unexplained deaths during reconstruction of the facility, it was dubbed "The House on Haunted Hill".

Into the House on Haunted Hill
Evelyn Stockard-Price (Famke Janssen), a spoiled trophy wife, is in a disintegrating marriage with Stephen Price (Geoffrey Rush) ("Price", as well as Rush's appearance, is a nod to actor Vincent Price, who played the same character [Frederick Loren] in the original film), an amusement park mogul with a wicked sense of humor, each of whom would gladly kill the other. Evelyn fancies spectacular parties. Stephen leases the house from the owner, Watson Pritchett (Chris Kattan), for Evelyn's Halloween birthday bash. Evelyn gives Stephen a guest list two pages long; he shreds it to spite her and then creates one of his own. The five people who show up for the party - Jennifer Jenzen (aka Sara Wolfe) (Ali Larter), Eddie Baker (Taye Diggs), Melissa Margaret Marr (Bridgette Wilson), Dr. Donald Blackburn (Peter Gallagher), and Pritchett himself - aren't the ones he invited. Neither Evelyn nor Stephen know who they are. Despite this, Price continues the party's theme, offering $1 million to each one who stays in the house and survives until morning, with any person not making it having his money added to the pot.

Shortly afterward, the security gates are tripped, locking everyone inside and forcing them to remain there until the gates unlock in the morning. Price scolds Carl Schecter (Max Perlich), a company employee - who has developed a series of harmless traps to scare the guests— for not letting him know he planned to pull a stunt like that. Schecter said it wasn't him who did it. Price is then convinced his wife did it somehow. Shortly after, Melissa is killed by one of the ghosts when she wanders off into the basement of the house. It's revealed that the spirits themselves created the guest list specifically to include the descendants of five members of Vannacutt's staff who didn't die in the long-ago fire. Also, it is revealed that Evelyn and Blackburn are working together to bring down Stephen. Evelyn then kills Blackburn and uses his body to frame Stephen. Sara comes across an incoherent Stephen in the basement, and believing that he is Blackburn's murderer, shoots him when he approaches her. After the others return upstairs, Evelyn approaches Stephen to gloat, and Stephen, protected by a bullet-proof vest, attempts to kill Evelyn. The two scuffle and accidentally unleash the Darkness of the house when he throws her through a decayed door. The Darkness is a dark, shape-shifting creature composed of the spirits in the house; this force pursues and tries to kill the remaining guests. It starts by assimilating and corroding Evelyn into itself, killing her while Price watches in horror.

The Darkness reveals that the souls that comprise it want to feed on all those "who are responsible". Upstairs, Pritchett, Eddie and Sara are trying to open one of the iron gates on the windows when they hear Price's screams from down the hall. Pritchett investigates, and The Darkness kills him while Price temporarily evades it. Price runs through the hall while Sara and Eddie follow. He figures that the only way to get out is to go to the attic and try to escape through there. Price runs ahead of them to find an escape route while Sara and Eddie stay behind. The Darkness seeps through the house and tries to kill them.

As they are running up the stairs to the attic, Sara trips, and the Darkness uses Melissa's form to try to lure her to it. Price by then has activated a pulley that reveals an opening in the window of the attic. Eddie and Sara arrive in the attic, while the Darkness seeps up the cracks of the wooden floor. Price sacrifices himself to give Sara time to escape, but the Darkness then severs the rope holding the iron gate, trapping Eddie inside.

When The Darkness confronts Eddie about his ancestor's actions, Eddie screams that he was actually adopted. Pritchett's ghost appears and opens the iron gate, and Eddie escapes to safety with Sara on an outside ledge. Pritchett's ghost and the Darkness then both fade away. As Sara and Eddie sit in exhaustion over the night's events, they notice an envelope halfway through the gate. It contains five checks for $1 million each.

Back to the House on Haunted Hill
Ariel Wolfe ( Amanda Righetti ) is the sister of Sara Wolfe ( Ali Larter ), a survivor of events some years ago in the psychiatric asylum known as the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane. In the early part of the 20th century, the asylum was overseen by the sadistic psychiatrist  Dr. Richard B. Vannacutt ( Jeffrey Combs ). Sara claims that ghosts  killed all who entered the building, but no one believes her. She commits suicide and Ariel tries to find out why.

Ariel discovers a diary written by Dr. Vannacutt that reveals the cruel history of the Institute. She and her friend Paul ( Tom Riley ) are then kidnapped by an unscrupulous art dealer, Desmond Niles ( Erik Palladino ), who knows a great deal about Sara and Vannacutt's hospital. Ariel quickly realises that Sara didn't commit suicide: Desmond killed her. Desmond forces Ariel to help him find an artifact  allegedly located inside the old Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute, a figurine of the  demon   Baphomet. While Desmond's henchmen Samuel ( Andrew Pleavin ) holds Paul captive outside the asylum, Ariel, Desmond, and four of Desmond's accomplices enter the building. Once inside, they encounter Dr. Richard Hammer ( Steven Pacey ). Dr. Hammer has been lured into the asylum by his assistants Kyle ( Andrew-Lee Potts ) and Michelle ( Cerina Vincent ). Desmond is one of Dr. Hammer's former students, and Michelle is Desmond's lover. Michelle seduced Dr. Hammer to learn what he knew about the sanatorium and the Baphomet idol, and then lured Hammer and Kyle into the asylum so they could help search for the statuette.

Several loud noises are heard, and Ariel explains that the building has been rigged with a series of locks, bars, and gates that will keep everyone inside for at least 12 hours. Using MP5 submachine guns, Desmond's henchmen damage the machinery and conclude they can still escape. The group splits up to search for the idol: Desmond following Ariel, Michele following Richard, and Kyle with Desmond's accomplice Norris ( Gil Kolirin ). The remaining henchmen, Warren ( Chucky Venice ) and Harue ( Kalita Rainford ), each go off alone. Warren is immediately killed when his body is sucked into a wall. Harue is seduced by several lesbian  ghosts, but her face is sliced off by the ghostly Dr. Vannacutt and she dies. Ariel is separated from Desmond and dragged into a padded cell. The ghost of a dead inmate ( George Zlatarev ) traumatizes  her by showing Ariel the depravity he and the other inmates suffered during Dr. Vannacutt's reign of terror. Vannacutt was driven mad by the idol, and later performed his ghastly experiments on the mentally ill. The ghost reveals that he led a revolt against Dr. Vannacutt, during which the sanatorium burned down. (The audience is shown footage from the 1999 film House on Haunted Hill which depicted these events.) The deaths of the characters in the previous film were assumed to be caused by the spirits of dead inmates seeking vengeance. But now Ariel is shown that the dead are actually forced by the idol to do Vannacutt's bidding and did not willingly kill. Ariel, overwhelmed by these visions, falls unconscious. She wakes to find herself in a straightjacket, and screams. Her cries lead Desmond, Dr. Hammer, and Michelle to her cell and they rescue her.

In the asylum's entrance hall, Norris is dismembered by ghosts. Ariel, Michelle, Desmond, and Dr. Hammer hear Kyle scream and rush to the entrance hall. Suddenly, the master locking mechanism begins to lock the house down again. Ariel is the only one able to rush out of the asylum in time. But she discovers that Samuel and Paul have entered into the house. The main door opens again as if to invite her in, and she returns to the interior of the hospital. Back inside the hospital, Samuel swears he heard Desmond tell them to enter the building. While Desmond and the others discuss the situation, Samuel is lured away by a shadow and killed by the ghost of Dr. Vannacutt. In the ensuing chaos, Paul, Kyle and Dr. Hammer subdue and disarm Desmond and Michelle.

Ariel convinces the group to continue the search for the idol, as it is the only way to stop the spirits. The group first looks in the hydrotherapy  room. Desmond knocks Kyle into the water and flees with Michelle. Ariel tries to save Kyle, but he is dragged to the bottom of the pool by a ghost and slain. Dr. Hammer and Paul pull Ariel from the water just in time to save her life. Elsewhere, Desmond and Michelle argue over whether to keep looking for the idol. Convinced Michelle is trying to get the idol for herself, Desmond attempts to kill her. Michelle flees but is killed by the demonic Dr. Vannacutt. Desmond resumes the search alone. Ariel, Paul, and Dr. Hammer discover a grate leading to the sewer and a way out of the asylum, but it is blocked by iron bars too narrow for a person to fit through. The ghost of the rebellious inmate gives Ariel another vision, showing her that the idol is in a hidden chamber behind an oven in the asylum's basement crematorium.

Ariel, Paul, and Dr. Hammer descend to the crematorium, locate the correct oven, and discover a secret exit at the oven's rear. They walk down a hidden corridor and discover the "heart of the house" (composed of living flesh). Ariel tries to destroy the idol with her handgun but it is indestructible. She removes the idol, reasoning that if it is flushed down the sewer and leaves the building all the spirits will be freed. The team ascends the stairs and leaves the oven but are ambushed by Desmond. With the idol threatened, the spirits begin attacking. Desmond is seized by ghosts and pushed into a furnace where he is burned alive. Paul avoids death by fleeing into the oven and back down into the heart of the house. Ariel and Dr. Hammer rush back to the sewer grate to flush the idol before Paul dies. But Dr. Hammer is overcome by the idol's evil and tries to strangle Ariel. They fight, and Ariel screams at Hammer—begging him to resist the idol's influence. Hammer recovers his senses, but the ghost of Dr. Vannacutt appears and begins killing him. Ariel seizes the idol and throws it through the grate and into the sewer. The spirits begin vanishing (saving Paul at the last moment). Several spirits attack Dr. Vannacutt, tearing him apart before all the ghosts vanish. With Vannacutt no longer controlling the locking mechanism, the building comes unsealed. Ariel and Paul leave.