House on Haunted Hill
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Movie Reviews of House on Haunted Hill
Movie Review: A THRILLER FOR IT TIME! STILL GOOD!
Summary: 4 Stars
House on Haunted Hill (1959) is a horror film B movies directed by William Castle, written by Robb White, and starring Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. He and his fourth wife, Annabelle, have invited five people to the house for a "Haunted House" party. Whoever stays in the house for one night will earn $10,000 each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.
Exteriors shots of the house were filmed at the historic Ennis-Brown House in Los Feliz, California.
House on Haunted Hill is the tale of five people invited to stay the night in a haunted house by an eccentric millionaire, Fredrick Loren, who is throwing the "party" for his fourth wife, Annabelle, with the stipulation that the power will be out and all doors will be locked at midnight, allowing no accessible escape. Anyone who stays in the house for the entire night, given that they are still alive, will each receive $10,000.
The five guests all arrive in hearses, which he explains may be empty now, but they may be in need of them later. He explains the rules of the party and gives each of the guests a gun for protection. Loren's wife tries to warn the guests that her husband is psychotic, causing them to be very suspicious of him, especially Nora Manning, who becomes convinced that he's trying to kill her when she keeps seeing mysterious ghouls, including the ghost of Annabelle, who had hung herself after being forced to attend the party.
After being driven into a fit of hysteria by the ghosts haunting her, Nora shoots Mr. Loren, assuming he is going to kill her. Dr. Trent, another guest, tries to get rid of the body by pushing it into acid, but the lights go out, and when they come back on, both of the men are gone. Annabelle emerges, having faked her death with the help of Dr. Trent, and having succesfully tricked Nora into killing Loren. Suddenly, the skeleton of Loren emerges from the acid, approaching Annabelle and mourning how she's killed him. In a panic, a screaming Annabelle accidentally backs into the acid herself. The real Mr. Loren walk out of the shadow, holding the pully that he was using to control the skeleton with, and watching Annabelle disintegrate.
Nora tells the other guests that she's shot Loren in the cellar, and they all rush down there. When they arrive, they see that he's actually alive, and he explains to him that his wife and Dr. Trent were having an affair, and they'd planned to trick Nora into murdering him so that they could get away with his money. Unfortunately for them, he'd hadn't loaded the guns with bullets, but powder, and he hadn't been killed. Just when everyone thinks the trauma is finally over, Mr. Pritchard looks up, a terrified expression on his face, and announces that the ghosts are finally coming for them.
The theatrical trailer promoted the film as The House on Haunted Hill, although all advertising material, and the title on the film itself were simply titled House on Haunted Hill. The film is best known for a famous promotional gimmick used in the film's original theatrical release called "Emergo": William Castle placed an elaborate pulley system in some theaters showing the film; allowing a plastic skeleton to be flown over the audience at the appropriate time. [1] [2] In the late 1980s, the Film Forum in New York City had a revival of the film (along with several other Castle pictures) that included the original gimmicks.
Thanks to Castle's gimmickry, the film was a huge success. Alfred Hitchcock took notice of the low-budget film's performance at the box office, and set out to make his own low-budget horror film, which became the critically acclaimed hit Psycho (1960). Ironically, Castle himself was a Hitchcock fan, and tried to imitate Hitchcock's work in later films such as Homicidal (1961).
House on Haunted Hill was originally released by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. The film has since become public domain, and is available in a number of issues. Two major studios have released the film in remastered versions. Warner Home Video released the film on DVD as a tie-in to promote the release of the 1999 remake. In 2005, the film was colorized by Legend Films. The color version was released on DVD the same year by 20th Century Fox. Extras prepared by Legend Films for the Fox DVD release included an audio commentary track by comedian Michael J. Nelson, of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame, two versions of the trailer, and a slideshow of images from the film's original press book. Johnny Legend released a 50TH Anniversary DVD containing a whole slew of Extras such as both Original Theatrical Trailer and TV Spot plus several William Castle and Vincent Price Theatrical Trailers, A Carol Ohmart profile and Golden Age TV Shows starring Vincent Price. A DivX file of the colorized version with the commentary embedded is available as part of Nelson's RiffTrax On Demand service.[3] In 2009, a newly-recorded commentary by Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett was released by RiffTrax.[
Movie Review: A Mystery Movie, Not a Horror Movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
Fredrick Loren (Vincent Price) is an eccentric millionaire that people have never seen. On a dark and stormy night, Loren invites 5 different people to the house on Haunted Hill for a party and to spend the night. Supposedly no one has ever been able to spend the night in the house and Loren is offering each person that does $10,000. Each of the 5 guest he has invited have never met before, but in some way they have all had contact with Loren, though they have never seen him. Things take a somewhat spooky turn when a chandelier falls from the ceiling almost killing one of the guests. Then they discover that the servants have left early and that they are locked in with no way to escape until morning. A vat of acid in the cellar, secret passages, and shrunken heads all have their place on THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL.
The movie is often categorized as a horror film. However, it's more of a mystery than anything else. There are moments that are kind of spooky and the eerie tone of the movie makes it easier for one to get the chills. However, there isn't a whole lot that is scary about the movie. When a key character is involved in an "accident", the audience is not frightened, but is intrigued, wondering how it happened, why did it happen, and what is the purpose behind it all.
Most of the actors are relatively no names, with only Price and Elisha Cook, Jr. (as Watson Pritchard) being the only truly memorable actors. The rest of the cast does a decent job and it's a shame that so many of them died early deaths (often from heart attacks). It would have been interesting to see what kind of career Richard Long might have had, for instance.
THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL has become a cult classic, largely because the movie stars Price and also because the film was directed by William Castle, a director who used gimmicks to get people into the theatres to see his movies. In THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL a device called "Emergo" was used--which was basically a skeleton in a box that emerged and hovered across the audience on a wire as the skeleton in the film appeared. The movie is also notable because of the Ennis Brown House in Los Angeles, which was used for all the movie's outside shots. The Ennis Brown House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and build in 1924 and is now on the National Historic Register. It is also rumored that the success of THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL inspired Alfred Hitchcock to create his own horror mystery, PSYCHO.
Movie Review: William Castle's Spooky Fun House Galore
Summary: 4 Stars
William Castle's fun, somewhat silly, and innocent spooky classic "House on Haunted Hill" holds up as an enjoyable chiller fifty years after it first dangled a skeleton on a string over the heads of screaming and laughing audience members in theaters. For me, the film still has a creepy fun & Halloween charm that can be enjoyed during the season or whenever you wish to view it.
The movie opens with plenty of moaning and screaming, followed by disembodied heads floating in to introduce the House and its history. The main plot concerns Vincent Price (at his villainous best with some great lines) as millionaire Frederick Loren setting up a haunted Birthday party for his wife at one of the most notoriously dangerous haunted houses around. The house has supposedly claimed several victims. So, Price has invited several guests to a Birthday party for his wife. There's a catch but also a prize; the guests will win a $10,000 dollars for spending the night in the House, a House that has claimed victims...if they survive the night. All arrive to the party in hearses and receive complimentary guns in little black coffins.
From there, after midnight, the doors lock leaving the guests trapped...the mayhem begins. We're witness to crashing chandeliers, and pianos playing as if on their own. Maniacal looking wild haired strangers emerge from pitch darkness and pass by to disappear again. Decapitated heads appear and then vanish, and a ghost from a suicide passes by to spook and taunt the living. It may not be Henry James' "Turn of the Screw" but it's a lot of ghoulish fun. Castle was an 'architect' in making fun houses out of movies.
Amidst the so called mysterious ghostliness, there is also intrigue and suspicion amongst the guests and if Price's character can be trusted, and who could be up to something possibly murderous. And, it's all linked together playing on fears of the unknown. So, settle in this Halloween or really, whenever you like, for tonight, the dead are restless and moving...
Movie Review: Beware the night.
Summary: 4 Stars
Five people are challenged to spend the night in a haunted house. As you can see, this flick just oozes with original ideas. This fright festival of 1959 vintage has a treasured place in the realm of "so bad, it's good" nostalgia that keeps aging baby boomers going. Schlock director William Castle pulls out all the stops in this hilarious re-working of the "haunted house" cliches. The humor is no doubt unintentional, but who cares? It's still funny 40 years later. Vincent Price mugs his way through the script looking pained and worried in all the expected places. The obligatory vat of acid in the basement serves its usual purpose. As the screaming Nora Manning encounters the dead woman hanging in the stairway, a monstrous hand reaches around the corner and grabs for her. This tidbit of terror goes otherwise unexplained. Another thing that leaves the viewer wondering is the spot on the ceiling that drips blood. It's spooky, but the script takes it nowhere. The house itself looks more as an ancient Egyptian temple than the Victorian manse that typically populates haunted house stories. Elisha Cook hangs around as the descendant of the original owner. When he is drunk enough he gloomily foretells doom. The old lady who floats through the basement is a great funhouse moment. Put it all together and it is fine fun, in a reverse sort of a way. Watch it on Halloween or any time that Saturday matinee nonsense is warranted. The cleaned-up DVD version is more palatable than the lower grade VHS edition that previously haunted our movie shelf. Recommended for multiple viewing. ;-)Movie Review: The Master of Suspence and Horror - Vincent Price
Summary: 4 Stars
Recently, a movie was released that was a remake of this film. It was .... This film, being from the 50's probably doesn't get too many viewers these days, and that's unfortunate. This film is one of around a dozen films starring Vincent Price. These films are what made him famous. His acting ability was renown at the time. He was able to play characters like someone with multiple personality disorder! He could go from an average joe, to a murdering husband in this film.The film follows a group as they are invited to spend an evening in a haunted mansion, for which they'll all receive a hefty sum of money (for the day). As it turns out, the whole thing is a plot by one of the people in the house to murder one of the others. The suspence is good, as well as the campy 50's blood and gore. The severed human head was my personal favorite.
This film is widescreen, which is how I like it. For those of you with smaller TVs, flip the disk over and watch the full screen version. The audio is Dolby 2.0, and not 5.1. This didn't really bother me, as I didn't expect too much from the audio. The video was obviously transferred from the old reel to reel. Occasionally, you can see some artifacts, but I think they add to the experience.
Anyway, I picked this one up for $.., which I think is a bargain. I'm trying to build a collection of these old horror films, and this one is my first. If you have to pay the full price for this, I would be a bit reluctant. Try to find it below $.. if you can.