Halloween Classic Movie Reviews: The House on Haunted Hill

For some people, a guilty pleasure is trashy reality tv; mine happens to be cheesy B horror movies, and one of my absolute favorites is The House on Haunted Hill. This movie is delightfully campy with a spooky atmosphere, but it doesn’t go over the top with gore. Vincent Price is at his best in his role as Frederick Loren, playing the charming but creepy gentleman. As the host, he invites a company of strangers to spend the night in a haunted house, and if they can make it through the night, they each get $10,000, which in those days was a princely sum. But there are evil forces at work, both living and dead, who are determined to see that certain people don’t make it through the night.

One of the best dialogues in the movie occurs early between Loren and his wife Annabelle before they go down to meet their guests. There’s no yelling, no overt fighting, but plenty of passive aggression, and more than one reference to attempted murder. Loren has already gone through several wives, but with Annabelle, he seems to have met his match. She’s going to stick by him until she gets what she wants, and only one of them is going to make it out alive.

This movie was directed by William Castle, the Alfred Hitchcock of B horror movies. He loved to experiment with all kinds of gimmicks, from a special type of 3D glasses (13 Ghosts), to buzzers hidden in the theater seats (The Tingler). For this movie, he rigged a skeleton to fly above audience members’ heads during a certain scene. Since this gimmick wasn’t part of the movie, there’s no allusion to it during the story, which I think saves it from being a little too over the top, the way 13 Ghosts and The Tingler are — you’ve got to draw the line somewhere, even for cheesy horror movies.

For those who enjoy a fun bit of movie trivia, Robert Mitchum’s sister Julie appears as one of Loren’s guests. She doesn’t play a big role, but she’s a good supporting character. I also enjoy watching Elisha Cook, who plays the owner of the house, Watson Pritchard. Pritchard witnessed a gruesome murder in the house several years before, and he predicts that another one will follow before the night is over. He’s great, and unintentionally funny at times, especially during a moment when he even creeps Vincent Price out a little with his haunted expression and ominous warnings.

One thing I will say about this movie is that it kind of drags a bit in the middle. After a great initial premise and setup, the movie kind of loses its way, slowing down in between climactic moments before picking up momentum at the end. It doesn’t hurt the overall pacing of the movie, though, and if you get through those slower minutes, there’s a definite payoff in the climax.

The House on Haunted Hill is one of William Castle’s more understated movies with no overt gore, but there’s plenty of creepy moments and lots of screaming. It won’t win any Oscars, but that’s not really the point anyway. B horror movies are meant to be fun popcorn fare with some gimmicks, some unintentional laughs, and entertainment, and this movie delivers.