- This article is for the character from the 1999 film. For the character from the 1959 film, see Watson Pritchard.
Unknown grandfather (deceased)
Watson Pritchard was the owner of the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane until he was killed there.
Biography[]
Watson Pritchett's father was mysteriously killed in a construction accident in the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, and since his death, Pritchett owned the facility. At some point, he discovered that the urban myths that the asylum was haunted by the ghosts of its deceased patients and staff were true, but no-one whom he warned believed him. He was sarcastic, cynical and quick to anger, but was still a nice, talkative, friendly, loyal caring and brave when he needed to be, even striking up a strong friendship with Sara and Eddie.
House on Haunted Hill (1999 film)[]
When millionaire Steven H. Price rents the psychiatric institute from Pritchett for one night, Pritchett takes the guests to the asylum. After the guests and Steven's wife Evelyn arrive, Pritchett demands that Steven give him his $1,000,000 so that he can leave. However, before Steven can hand the money over, the facility goes into lockdown, sealing all the exits with iron plates and trapping Pritchett, Steven and the guests inside for the night.
When the guests set about trying to find a way to reverse the lockdown, a reluctant Pritchett takes Sara, Eddie and Price down into the old asylum in search of a mechanism. After Pritchett and Price are separated from Sara and Eddie and fail to find a master control, they return to the building's lobby and meet up with Eddie and a traumatized Sara there. Pritchett warns them about the ghosts and The Darkness in the house, but they do not listen.
Pritchett in the electrotherapy compartment
Shortly after, when Melissa goes missing and is heard screaming in the basement, while the other guests search for her and try to find a way out of the house, Pritchett (believing that Melissa is dead and that he and the others are all going to die) tries to get drunk. Eventually, a brownout occurs and Pritchett and the others go back down into the asylum to find Evelyn in the electrotherapy compartment being electrocuted. After Pritchett turns the machine off, the guests find Evelyn is seemingly dead, and Price turns on the guests.
The guests knock Price out and seal him in the Saturation Chamber. While Pritchett, Sara and Eddie go off in search of a way out, Blackburn stays to watch Price. Eventually, Sara and Eddie come across Dr. Vannacutt's office and discover inside that all of them except for Blackburn and Pritchett are related to the five asylum orderlies who survived the 1931 revolt. Pritchett explains to Sara and Eddie that the house changed Price's guest list to include them, but Eddie refuses to listen.
When they fail to find a way out of the facility, Pritchett, Sara and Eddie go back up to the lobby to wait for Blackburn. When Blackburn doesn't come, Pritchett predicts that he is dead, and he, Sara and Eddie go back down to the saturation chamber to find Blackburn's corpse decapitated, and Price missing.
Pritchett's ghost
The remaining trio search the asylum for Price, when Sara finds and shoots him, believing that he is the one who killed Blackburn. Sara, Eddie and Pritchett then go back up into the house and try to crowbar one of the sealed windows open, when they hear Price yelling from in the basement. Pritchett goes to investigate, and finds The Darkness attacking Price. The Darkness then grabs Pritchett and throws him into itself, killing Pritchett and absorbing his soul.
Later, when The Darkness confronts Eddie in the attic about his ancestor's actions, and Eddie reveals that he was adopted, Pritchett's ghost appears and pulls the attic window open just long enough from Eddie to escape outside. Pritchett then lets the window close, and he and The Darkness vanish back into the house.
Pritchett's soul was presumably freed from the house eight years after his death, when Ariel Wolfe removed the Baphomet Idol from the building in Return to House on Haunted Hill.
Relationships[]
Sara Wolfe[]
Several times, Pritchett warned Sara about the house being alive, but once he saw how badly he was scaring her he would stop for then and say sorry. He did still care for her, such as being polite, if sarcastic while answering her questions, working with Eddie to calm her down after Price had seemingly been killed.
Eddie Baker[]
Pritchett was rude to Eddie, and was angered and frustrated after Eddie smashed Pritchett's last bottle of scotch. However, the two overcame their differences, when they mutually escorted Sara without any arguing. When Eddie was in danger of being trapped for all eternity with the evil souls, Pritchett’s ghost appeared, and held the window door open long enough for him to escape.
Evelyn Stockard-Price[]
It would appear that Pritchett fancied Evelyn, as he tried to ask her out when he hoped to lose his virginity before dying. However, when he saw that Evelyn was more than uninterested in him, he recoiled.