With All Hallows Eve only a week away, let's knock out another horror film from decades ago. This time we're looking at the 1958 chiller, House on Haunted Hill. This film, just like the last one I reviewed, has been remade recently, about 40 years after the original. However, unlike the previous film and this one that we're looking at tonight, there's not much of a difference in story, but we'll get into that a little later.
Anyway, this film stars Vincent Price as the eccentric owner of a supposedly haunted mansion. As a proposition, he offers the sum of $10,000 to anyone who can stay in his mansion the entire night starting from midnight to 8 in the morning. The house is supposedly haunted by the victims of several murders that took place on that site, including that of the owner's brother, and as such they vowed vengeance for anyone who comes in. One of the instances is a falling chandelier in the parlor or an attacker where one of the guests is convinced is real. Each guest is armed with a pistol for protection, which comes into play later, but I won't spoil it.
The film was directed by William Castle, a man known for including crazy gimmicks in his features, with the help of the theaters. For instance, in this feature, there was a gimmick he called "Emergo." With this gimmick, there was a black box next to the movie screen. Inside this box was a plastic skeleton, not unlike a Halloween skeleton. After a certain part in the climax of the film, the skeleton would come flying out of the box and fly around the theater until it made its way back to await the next showing. However, some theaters discontinued the gimmick prematurely after vandals would try to knock down the skeleton or throw small objects like pebbles or popcorn at it while it made its trek. As far as I know, the remake didn't do this.
Speaking of comparing the two, let's get that knocked out now. The main difference I can see, aside from the casting, of course, is the amount of money offered for successfully staying in the house. In the original, it was $10,000, but in the remake, the amount was $1,000,000.
Price, as expected, puts on a brilliant performance and comes off as chilling more than eccentric, constantly taunting his wife into joining in on the "party" or how she'll try to kill him for his riches. The music is very haunting, especially with the use of a theremin in the theme song (A staple of late 50s features like this). The special effects are good for the time, like the skeleton's marionette effect or the fizzing of the acid. There are plenty of jump scares throughout, and like I said, it'll keep you on your toes.
My only complaint here is that other actors come off as hammy at times, especially the wife of one of the guests, Loren. Of course, this being a smaller budget production, and having one of horror's greatest actors as the star, it's not too shocking and I feel like I'm just looking for something to say that's wrong with this picture.
If you're a fan of haunted house movies or supernatural spectacles, House on Haunted Hill is right up your alley! If you see it on DVD or on TV, give it a watch and you'll get right into the Halloween spirit!
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