Horror movie maker William Castle is basically remembered these days, if at all, as a guy who came up with all manner of crazy gimmicks to get butts into seats to see his cheap horror films. 3D, Smell-o-vision, electric shocks built into seats, stuff that flew across the ceiling during key moments, the works. Now, I’d never actually seen one of Castle’s movies, and a part of me seriously wonders how effective they would be without his gimmicks.
Then, while scrolling through Shudder’s new releases, I saw The House on Haunted Hill was up. A movie starring Vincent Price that only ran about 75 minutes? If nothing else, it would be some good, schlocky fun.
Opening with what looks like the disembodied head of character actor Elisha Cook Jr. explaining that this large house he owns cost his brother and sister-in-law their lives, and that whatever happened there was so traumatizing he’s never been able to stay there more than one night, we open to Vincent Price’s disembodied head as his Frederick Loren explains that he has invited five people to spend the night at the house as a party being thrown by himself and his fourth wife Annabelle. Loren is a wealthy man, aware of the house’s reputation, and each of his five guests are coming for a chance to gain $10,000 if they can last the whole night. The guests likewise have never met each other or either of the Lorens. Said guests are a test pilot, a newspaper columnist with gambling debts, a skeptical psychologist, a young secretary who works for one of Loren’s companies, and Cook’s alcoholic homeowner Watson Pritchard. The group ranges in belief from supreme skeptic Dr. Trent to true believer Pritchard.
So, there’s the premise, along with a lot of hints of the Lorens having an unhappy marriage due in part to Frederick being rather sinister. He may be on his fourth wife, but it sounds like he hasn’t ever been divorced either. To further incite things before the doors close and lock at midnight, Loren even offers all his guests loaded handguns for their own protection after a tour of the house which for some reason includes an acid pit. There’s even additional cash to be earned in the event someone dies before the night is through. Is the house really haunted? Or are there some potential murderers among the party guests?
So, I wasn’t sure what to expect here. As I said, Castle’s gimmicks can’t possibly work in the age of streaming. I knew Price was a reliable horror movie actor, and heck, Cook is generally fun to see in anything as the perennially nervous guy. What I wasn’t expecting was the fact this actually was a well-crafted and suspenseful haunted house movie. It even had a couple decent scares. Sure, they were of the jump scare sort, but the movie earned them. The plot works, the characters are fairly well developed for the sort of movie this is, especially given the run time and time period, and it may not make sense to have a vat of acid under a trap door in the basement, but darned if it doesn’t work within the context of the film.
Heck, the movie even made the obviously cheap special effects work in a way I found rather fun. Given the time period, the genre, and the budget, this was a surprisingly fun movie. I went in not expecting much more than a cheap flick with an overqualified actor in the lead role, and I came out with a new favorite horror movie. Sure, it isn’t all that scary in the grand scheme of things, but as an example of how to put together a lot on a little, I was incredibly impressed. I might need to see how much some of Castle’s other work holds up.
Grade: B+
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