Review of House on Haunted Hill (1959) by Nyx K — 03 Aug 2011
Watson Pritchard: There's been a murder almost everyplace in this house! .
"See it with somebody with warm hands".
If I remember correctly, House on Haunted Hill was the first "horror" movie I ever saw when I was probably six. Even then this movie didn't scare me. The movie is hilarious in that it was once considered scary. Despite not being scary, it's still a really cool movie. It has a very simple premise. A rich man invites strangers to a haunted house with the promise of $10,000 if they make it through the night. .
What really makes this movie is Vincent Price. Him and Carol Ohmart were in fact the only ones to give good performances in the film. Everyone else was laughable. But the exchanges between Vincent and Carol are awesome. They play an unhappy married couple who in fact hate each other. They both want the other dead, in fact.
The movie has a crazy amount of gimmicks that were popular among the horror films of the time. None of them really stand out anymore as crazy or "shocking." .
When it comes down to it this and the original are pretty much the same, in that, they are only worth watching for a cool lead performance. In the remake, Geoffrey Rush gives a very Vincent Price performance. He even sports the mustache. I will say that House on Haunted Hill does boast an extremely cool beginning and a pretty cool ending. The middle gets a little slow, but the runtime helps a lot.
This review of House on Haunted Hill (1959) was written by Nyx K on 03 Aug 2011.
House on Haunted Hill has generally received mixed reviews.
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