Review of House on Haunted Hill (1959) by Stephen M — 31 Jan 2010
The original black and white B-movie that bills itself as having thirteen of the greatest frights of all time. I'm not quite sure where they were... suffice to say this hasn't aged well.
A rich eccentric businessman (Vincent Price - quality as ever) and his argumentative wife have invited five strangers to spend the night in a haunted house with them. Whoever lasts the evening gets $10,000. As the night progresses various spooky things happen before the host's wife is found dead - prompting the guests to believe that one of them is a killer.
Presumably movie goers must have been easy to scare back then because this all seems pretty tame now. Some night photography and Vincent Price can't really save this from being a bit of a plod. The real notability of the film seems to be that the producers arranged for a skeleton to be hoisted over the audience in theatres on it's original release - maybe that shook people up more than what was going on on-screen?
This review of House on Haunted Hill (1959) was written by Stephen M on 31 Jan 2010.
House on Haunted Hill has generally received mixed reviews.
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