In 1959, William Castle struck gold with this schlocky, yet very entertaining and impressive, haunted house movie. In the process, he also introduced a young Shawn to the world of horror and the amazing talents of Vincent Price. And for that, I will forever be indebted to William Castle and his amazing talent. House On Haunted Hill was Castle's 42nd film and first collaboration with Vincent Price, which proved to be a good pairing as this was arguably each of their most popular movies. Though they would work together only one more time, their paired talents would forever be etched into the history of horror cinema. Vincent Price stars as Frederick Loren, a self-made millionaire who is throwing his 4th wife, a fancy birthday party. What his lovely wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), doesn't know, is that Frederick has invited a selection of random people, not their friends. Some work for Frederick, others are just know of him, however none of the know why they've been invited to the party, they only know that if they spend the entire night, they will each be given $10,000. From there, the plot starts to take lots and lots of twists and turns as secrets are revealed and pacts are made. To make matters worse, Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr), the man who owns the house, claims it is genuinely haunted by those who have been killed there before. The claims do nothing but nearly frighten to death poor Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig) and make the rest of the guests paranoid and untrusting. Castle successfully creates an incredibly creepy atmosphere within the house, so much that the house becomes an extra equally important character. Screenwriter, Robb White, concocted a truly terrifying tale of paranoia and imprisonment. The characters all soon realize that once the doors are locked for the night by the creepy caretakers, there is no way of getting out. Once the fear takes over, anything and everything can and will happen. Throw in a walking skeleton and the fact that Frederick has given each of the guests a .45 (for their own personal protection, of course), its hard saying who will be left when morning comes. When it came time for the film to be released into theaters, Mr. Castle had a new trick up his sleeve. Back in 1959, films weren't released nationwide like they are now. They were sort of on tour, much like bands and pro wrestling. They might have made 10-20 prints of the film and sent them out to a town on the east coast, they'd play there for 1-2 weeks, then move on down the road to the next town. With House On The Haunted Hill, William would "tour" with the film and set up an elaborate gimmick called "Emergo," where a skeleton, just like the one in the film, would appear above the screen and shoot out towards the crowd, scaring the daylights out of them! He'd travel with the film and set this up at every theater he could, just to add something special to an already special film. Now that’s what I call showmanship! He did this for several more of his low-budget schlocky films through-out his famous career, upping his theatrics a little more with each film. Though this was Vincent Price's 8th horror film, House On Haunted Hill cemented Price as one of horror's most elegant and charismatic. He would go on to enjoy an incredibly illustrious career in, not only horror, but cinema in general, radio, theater and TV. Along the way, he also become one of my favorite actors of all-time. It doesn't matter what I see him in, he always commands my attention. And that’s just what House On Haunted Hill has done, from every aspect of the film, the lighting, the sound, the camera movements, the acting, the story and the direction, everything appealed to my senses. Alfred Hitchcock has said that House On Haunted Hill is one of his favorite films and one year after its release, he tried to emulate it by making a little movie called Psycho! House On Haunted Hill started my obsession with horror movies and haunted houses and instantly became one of my favorite movies of all-time. And trust me, that is no easy feat!
#9 coming soon!
Shawn M
