The House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Plotline: A husband and wife arrange for a handful of guests to come to a party they are throwing at a haunted house. Any of the guests that make it through the night--alive--will win $10,000.
Scariness factor: I actually must admit--I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a big fan of older horror movies as they usually are kind of slow and not scary at all. But this definitely had some creepy moments. Some lame moments too. But some creepy moments.
Gross-Out Factor: Minimal and 1950s.
Complaints: The screaming. Dear god. The screaming. Let's just say that I am happy that our female horror victims have finally developed some agency within horror flicks in the past couple decades instead of just standing around helplessly screaming. Over. And over. And over. Without ever running away.
High Points: First off, I've got to mention that the skeleton-attack featured in the picture below CRACKED my shit up because it is SO precisely what The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra was making fun of, and that movie is funny as HELL. All that aside, Vincent Price is in this movie, and he is a creepy weirdo. This movie is also surprisingly shocking at times--at least for the time it was made. It also has some damn creepy moments, again--surprising for the time it was made. Granted, it's dated. But as old horror flicks go, it's definitely a fun one to watch.
Overall: I dug it. It's definitely 1950s, and it may occasionally suffer from slow pacing. But at worst, it'll give you and your friends a good 75 minutes worth of laughter.
Grade: A
Labels: A movies
3 Comments:
Vincent Price also spooked me as a kid. I saw the remake of this and it was awful but I never had the chance to see the original. Sounds good!
I bought a movie 3-pack, which contained this, Night of the Living Dead, and Nosferatu.
I loved it. Especially the scene with the vat of acid.
My favorite scene is when we see the spectral figure of the white-eyed hag glide past in the cellar.
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