Review of House on Haunted Hill (1959) by Bill B — 06 Oct 2017

I both loathe and adore most of William Castle's films, and my favorite of the bunch is House on Haunted Hill. I say both loathe and adore because they're not very well-made films, and they certainly don't hold up well at all, but they're charming in their simplicity to just entertain an audience.

William Castle was a master showman and he made it his duty to entertain his audiences instead of just making scary movies. The film worked on me when I saw it as a kid on late night TV. It scared the crap out of me, but now as an adult, I can see all of the flaws and why the film isn't all that scary.

It's fun because it has that bump in the night element to it and some decent actors in it, but it's not really fulfilling as horror film. I enjoy it nowadays for the little things, like the relationship between Frederick and Annabelle.

Stuff like that makes me smile and it sets up the characters quite well. It's a very dated movie, but it's still a fun watch, and dare I say, one of my favorite movies (biased though it may be).