(dir. William Castle)
*First time viewing
While I
strongly believe that everyone needs at least one dose of Vincent Price in
their Halloween festivities, House on
Haunted Hill is probably not your best option. The film follows an
eccentric billionaire who invites five guests to a supposedly haunted house for
his wife’s birthday. Whoever can survive a night in the mansion will be
rewarded with $10,000. While the plot and eventual twist are decent, the film
drags whenever Price isn’t on the screen. Even the film’s campiness and admittedly
entertaining low-budget gags can’t inject enough life into the film to keep the
mere hour and fourteen minutes from inching by.
As a
horror fan however, the film does offer an interesting look at the evolution of
the genre. Despite the film’s silliness and overacting, the gimmicks that
excite most audiences (flickering lights, loud noises, distant spectral figures,
and gruesome death scenes) haven’t changed much in the past 50-plus years.
Directors have access to better special effects, but the basic tropes of the
genre remain. The film provides a rather interesting look at the execution of
scares.
Scare Factor: 1/5 House on Haunted Hill hasn’t aged very well, and what may have been
shocking to audiences in 1959 is more likely to induce chuckles and grogginess
from modern viewers. Still, if you’re a film history buff invested in horror,
it’s certainly worth a watch if only because of the impact it’s had on the
genre and its marketing.
**Available to watch on Netflix Instant.
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