First, there is only the blackness of an inky night. You are lost in the darkness until . . . there is an unsettling woman's scream! You shift uneasily in your seat as her screams are accompanied by the groans and agonizing laughs of the dead, all returning from their graves. They want you. They want you to join their ghostly legion of the damned, to remain trapped forever as a vengeful spirit, within the heavy stone walls of The House on Haunted Hill!
House on Haunted Hill, directed by William Castle and staring Vincent Price, is by far one of the best haunted house movies to ever be made. To this day, it remains as one of my favorite movies of all time. I used to beg my mother to rent this one for me from the video store. I would always watch this film around Halloween and was ecstatic the day I found a generic DVD copy at the dollar store. (That copy has seen much use over the years and I still have it) It is campy and cheesy, and yet, it still manages to give me the willies.
When the film was first released in 1959, William Castle promoted the movie with the ad campaign of "Emergo." The ads claimed the movie was filmed in "Emergo" and that it meant the ghosts in the movies literary jumped off the screen. In select theaters, where the film was being shown, during the final sequence of the movie, a plastic glowing the dark skeleton on a pulley system floated down over the audience and scared patrons. I can't imagine what my personal reaction would have been but it sure would have been exciting to be there as the ghost from the movie began attacking the audience members!
House on Haunted Hill, directed by William Castle and staring Vincent Price, is by far one of the best haunted house movies to ever be made. To this day, it remains as one of my favorite movies of all time. I used to beg my mother to rent this one for me from the video store. I would always watch this film around Halloween and was ecstatic the day I found a generic DVD copy at the dollar store. (That copy has seen much use over the years and I still have it) It is campy and cheesy, and yet, it still manages to give me the willies.
When the film was first released in 1959, William Castle promoted the movie with the ad campaign of "Emergo." The ads claimed the movie was filmed in "Emergo" and that it meant the ghosts in the movies literary jumped off the screen. In select theaters, where the film was being shown, during the final sequence of the movie, a plastic glowing the dark skeleton on a pulley system floated down over the audience and scared patrons. I can't imagine what my personal reaction would have been but it sure would have been exciting to be there as the ghost from the movie began attacking the audience members!
House on Haunted Hill was so widely successful that when Alfred Hitchcock saw it he wanted to make a low budget horror film of his own. Because of the inspiration we now have the classic horror slasher Psycho.
The premise of House on Haunted Hill is simple and generic. A group of strangers are all invited to a creepy old dilapidated mansion for a haunted house party. If they stay the night they each get ten thousand dollars. It seems like a pretty good deal, until the ghosts start showing up. The house is a cobwebbed and candled tomb that welcomes the living into it's horrible trap. At midnight the guests are all sealed in the house, the only door to the outside is solid steel and all the windows have bars set in stone. When one of the party members dies from hanging the stakes get higher and the fear more intense for the guests. Was it suicide? Murder? Or did the ghosts really come and seek vengeance on the living. It is a well crafted, creepy thriller that keeps the shivers continually running up and down your spine.
The premise of House on Haunted Hill is simple and generic. A group of strangers are all invited to a creepy old dilapidated mansion for a haunted house party. If they stay the night they each get ten thousand dollars. It seems like a pretty good deal, until the ghosts start showing up. The house is a cobwebbed and candled tomb that welcomes the living into it's horrible trap. At midnight the guests are all sealed in the house, the only door to the outside is solid steel and all the windows have bars set in stone. When one of the party members dies from hanging the stakes get higher and the fear more intense for the guests. Was it suicide? Murder? Or did the ghosts really come and seek vengeance on the living. It is a well crafted, creepy thriller that keeps the shivers continually running up and down your spine.
This is a piece that, in my opinion, has stood the test of time. Without being graphic or gory the film manages to scare and excite the audience. To this day I still find my self completely creeped out by the scene with the "ghost" in the cellar. It always manages to get a jump scare out of new viewers. The house, on top of the cellar ghost, is filled with wonderful and creepy elements. Two severed heads that whisper in the dark, doors the open and close on their own, flickering gas lights that turn out on cue, and a vat of acid used to burn the flesh off the living bodies of women. All of these elements are accompanied by one of the most eerie and spine tingling soundtracks in a horror film.
The story strongly focuses on the human emotion of fear and greed. The competition of the two human traits becomes more entangled as we near the climax of the film. Despite the revelations at the end of the film, we are still left to wonder, was there really ghosts in the house on haunted hill, or was it just the ploys of our humanity?
The story strongly focuses on the human emotion of fear and greed. The competition of the two human traits becomes more entangled as we near the climax of the film. Despite the revelations at the end of the film, we are still left to wonder, was there really ghosts in the house on haunted hill, or was it just the ploys of our humanity?
Summing it Up
The classic aura and creepy setting of House on Haunted Hill puts it in my top 5 favorite horror films of all time. It is my standard of measurement when I watch any other haunted house or haunting movie. It is inspiration for role playing games, board games, books, and movies. It may be an old film, but it is great. So if you're looking for a creepy night inside an old mansion, go check out House on Haunted Hill.
Deaths: 2
Language: 2
Gore Factor: 2
Sex Factor: 1
Scare Factor: 3
Fun Factor: 5
Overall Rating: 5
Deaths: 2
Language: 2
Gore Factor: 2
Sex Factor: 1
Scare Factor: 3
Fun Factor: 5
Overall Rating: 5
To learn more about my rating system click here.
Go to the House on Haunted Hill Trilogy Page! click here.
Go to the House on Haunted Hill Trilogy Page! click here.