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Led astray by the varied caricatures portrayed by the qualified cast, one is never quite sure which character is in control. The film’s strength comes from its many plot twists, and unexpected ending. The nostalgic charm of scary masks, and rubber skeletons, allow the film to retain a quaint appeal, as its modern audience can reflect on what drew in the film’s intended patrons. With most of the screams coming from the over-the-top acting Carolyn Craig as Loren’s secretary, House on Haunted Hill is a laughable romp in comparison to the modern standards of horror.
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More a suspenseful thriller than a horror, House on Haunted Hill employs the “haunted house” setting to deliver gag after gag of “scream” inducing fright. Wildly successful with audiences, House on Haunted Hill is even said to have been Alfred Hitchcock’s “push” to direct his own low-budget horror film (an insignificant film called Psycho). Released in “Emergo”, a red-eyed skeleton would be placed above the theatrical audience, strung up with a system of pulleys, and released at the height of the film’s climax. Promoted by director/producer, William Castle, House on Haunted Hill was a proficient B-horror complete with its own Castle gimmick. House on Haunted Hill is a great reminder of the innocence in 1950’s America. In classic horror film fashion, the disintegrated group becomes easy targets for the forces that be. Each assuming that one in the group must be the murderer, the first man (or woman) to leave their room, is, therefore, the culprit. Loren, the group becomes overcome with paranoia, placing blame on one another, and choosing to stay the night separately in their respective rooms. The haunting begins almost immediately, and progresses quickly to terror as the group tour the house. Loren is joined by an unlikely band, including a secretary at one of his many companies, an airline pilot, a professor of psychology, a journalist and the house’s drunkard owner. Under the guise of a party for his third wife, Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), an eccentric millionaire, Frederick Loren (Price) has agreed to pay five people $10,000 if they survive the night. Vincent Price uses his trademark voice as both narrator and host to a group of strangers picked to stay the night in a haunted house. House on Haunted Hill is a delight of 1950’s horror, rife with campy performances, and a comical, murder mystery dinner premise.