“There’ll be food and drink and ghosts… and perhaps even a few murders. You’re all invited.”
Frederick Loren is a millionaire who has decided to invite five random people to a party which he is throwing for his fourth wife, Annabelle. The location of the party is an allegedly haunted house he has rented for the event. The people invited include the test pilot Lance Schroeder, the newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges, psychiatrist Dr. David Trent, a woman named Nora Manning who works for one of Loren’s companies, and the house owner himself, Watson Pritchard. To the guests, he also makes a promise: they’ll get $10.000 if they stay the entire night in the house. And they need to make up their mind soon, as the doors are closed at midnight, the windows are barred, and there will be no electricity, phones or radios to use. They will all be trapped inside.
Now, Frederick and his wife are not having the greatest relationship. Annabelle even tried to poison him once. She denies it, of course, calling him jealous and paranoid. Well, sometimes you’re jealous and paranoid with good reason. So, why has he decided to throw this odd party, with people they don’t even know, in a haunted house that will be locked down? Even offering the guests a prize for staying? It’s certainly a strange decision. The owner of the house, Watson, genuinely believes that the house is haunted. And there have been numerous murders inside, and most chilling is the murder that took place in the basement, where a man killed his wife by throwing her in a vat of acid. Annabelle suspects that her husband is plotting to use this night to murder her in some way or other, and privately tells Lance about this. And, lo and behold -after the full lockdown takes place, it doesn’t take long until Annabelle’s corpse is found, hanging from a rope. Did she really hang herself? Or is there something else going on…
House on Haunted Hill is a horror film from 1958, produced and directed by William Castle and written by Robb White. Exterior shots of the house were filmed at Ennis House in Los Feliz, California, while the rest was shot on sound stages. There were also several art pieces owned by Vincent Price that were used for set decorations in the film. It first had a limited release, and then premiered in San Fransisco in 1959, played on a double bill with The Cosmic Man. House on Haunted Hill, being a William Castle film, did of course have one of his famous promotional gimmicks: “Emergo“, which was a glowing plastic prop skeleton where they used an elaborate pulley system to have it flown over the audience during the screenings. Must have been quite an experience!
And the film ended up being a huge success, both financially and with the critics. And it certainly is fun! The effects in the film are goofy and somewhat campy for sure, but very charming. The movie was very low-budget, and for the special effects it relied on mostly rubber props and theatrical gimmicks. There’s also a good amount of old-fashioned spooky haunted house atmosphere to be found here, and Vincent Price in the role of the eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren is of course one of the film’s best features. He’s the star of the show, as usual. The premise, while seeming rather simple, is actually quite twist-filled and executed really well. It’s not just a ghost story but also a murder/whodunnit story, and of course we all know who to suspect…
House on Haunted Hill is a fun spooky film, with great atmosphere, some fun effects, and even a few twists and turns. And most importantly, Vincent Price.
Director: William Castle
Writer: Robb White
Country & year: USA, 1959
Actors: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr., Julie Mitchum, Leona Anderson, Howard Hoffman, Skeleton
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051744/
