House on Haunted Hill (1959)
For the last few years this has become a Halloween season staple. As a fan of Vincent Price, this is one of his movies I can watch over and over again. House on Haunted Hill (1959) is a nice little mystery/horror that satisfies that itch for something creepy, but not graphic, and has Vincent Price in it.
PLOT:
A creepy millionaire offers 5 strangers $10k to stay overnight in a haunted mansion with him and his wife.
Photo Credit: William Castle Productions
Released: Feb 17, 1959
Runtime: 75 mins
Director: William Castle
Writer: Robb White
Actors: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long
There’s not a lot of kills in this movie. Two actual deaths and two fake outs. And we don’t really get to see the deaths. If the movie was made today, the vat of acid kills would be graphic and gooey. We do see a fake head in a bag, but it’s an old black and white movie so there’s not a lot of gore and the blood is near non-existent.
As far as acting, there’s not a lot of actors. Only about 9 in the movie. The acting is pretty good overall. The main star is Vincent Price (known for House of Wax, The Bat, The Tingler, and countless other horror movies) as Frederick Loren. A rich man who has a contentious marriage with Annabelle. Elisha Cook Jr. (known for Rosemary’s Baby and Blackula) as Watson Pritchard, a drunk who owns the house and is very superstitious.
I have to mention that the character Nora (played by Carolyn Craig) screams A LOT! Now, I like scream queens, but the character, to me, was just annoying. Just way too helpless. I know it’s an old movie so I should cut it some slack but it was very aggravating listening to her sometimes.
House on Haunted Hill starts with Wilson Pritchard explaining that this house is the only true haunted house. That seven people have died since being built. Next we get Frederick Loren explaining that he’s hosting a birthday party for his wife. That if anyone stays the next 12 hours they will receive $10k.
The five guests show up in hearses. We meet test pilot Lance Schroeder, newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges, psychiatrist Dr. David Trent, Nora Manning who works at one of Frederick’s companies, and Watson Pritchard, the owner of the house. They don’t know each other, but they all need money.
Throughout the movie we see that Frederick and his wife Annabelle have a very strained and contentious marriage. Meanwhile, Pritchard gives a tour to the other guests. He explains that he believes that the house is haunted and that the house killed his brother and almost killed him.
While on tour, Pritchard shows them, in the basement, a vat of acid. One of the house’s victims died in the vat of acid. Everyone but Nora and Lance go upstairs. They choose to look around. Lance ends up trapped in a room and hit in the head, and Nora is scared by a ghost. (We quickly learn that Nora is very frightened of everything and screams A LOT!)
Lance has an uncomfortable conversation with Annabelle. She warns him about Frederick. They don’t have a good marriage. All of the guests go downstairs and Frederick explains the rules of the party and hands out “party favors” i.e. a gun for each person. Nora wants to leave but the caretakers (a creepy older couple) lock the doors so nobody can leave.
Soon there is a scream, Lance and Trent run to it and find Annabelle’s body, hanging from a noose. Both think Frederick killed his wife. After Nora is nearly strangled, she too believes Frederick is behind the death. Everyone decides to stay in their rooms for the night. But Frederick and Trent decide to investigate, splitting up.
Trent goes into the room where Annabelle’s body is. This is when we discover that she is not dead, and that Trent and Annabelle are having an affair. They set this whole scheme up, hoping to get someone to shoot Frederick by accident. They choose Nora because she is so gullible.
Annabelle, disguised as a ghost, scares Nora again and she runs off and goes into the basement. She runs into Frederick and shoots him. Nora leaves scared and then we see Trent walk in, supposedly to get rid of Frederick’s body in the vat of acid, and the lights go out.
Annabelle goes to the basement to make sure Frederick is dead, but instead she sees a skeleton come out of the acid, speaking in Frederick’s voice, accusing her of trying to kill him. The skeleton comes towards Annabelle, causing her to fall into the vat of acid. We then see Frederick come out of the shadows, wearing a harness. It seems as if he was controlling the skeleton. He knew all about the affair and the plot to have him killed.
The remaining guests find Lance, who was locked in a room. Nora tells them she shot Frederick in the basement. They all go down and hear the story from Frederick. He killed both Trent and his wife by putting them in the acid. He is ready to confess and let justice decide if he is guilty or innocent. Pritchard says the house has taken two more souls.
Overall, a pretty good movie for its time. A decent mystery with creepy and horror elements to it. Granted, I’m a big Vincent Price fan. First actor who got me into horror when I was about 5 or 6 years old. So I have a soft spot for any movie he is in. I feel like this is a good movie to put on if you like horror and mystery and want to watch something that isn’t graphic or bloody. Also, it’s a good start if you want to start watching Vincent Price.
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
Exterior shots of the house were filmed at the historic Ennis House in Los Feliz California, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1924.[4][5] The bulk of the film was shot on sound stages.
The film is perhaps best known for a promotional gimmick used in the film's original theatrical release called "Emergo." In some theaters that showed the film, exhibitors rigged an elaborate pulley system near the theater screen which allowed a plastic skeleton to be flown over the audience during a corresponding scene late in the film.
The skeleton that rises from the vat of acid is a real human skeleton. It was cheaper to buy a real human skeleton from a biological supply house than having one created by the special effects department.
Alfred Hitchcock supposedly made his own low budget horror movie after this movie made so much money. His movie…Psycho.
Cassandra Peterson once said on Larry King Live that this was her favorite horror film.
Julie Mitchum (Ruth Bridges) is Robert Mitchum’s sister.
Let’s get into the rankings:
Kills/Blood/Gore: 2/5
Sex/Nudity: 0/5
Scare factor: 2.5/5
Enjoyment factor: 5/5
My Rank:3/5
IMDB: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 8.4/10 audience: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.5/5
