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However,despite the overall appearance and fun flow of the film, the veryheart of House on Haunted Hill is its character. People, more thananything else, are the lifeblood of House on Haunted Hill, so muchthat beyond the interpersonal intricacies, there's not much else tosay. Most of the ghostly activity can be explained by backstabbingand double-crossing, and most of the suspense is driven by humansuspicion and fear rather than spooks and gore.
Remakes
A promotional stunt was created for its release in theatres, for which a plastic skeleton was flown over the audience during key moments of the film. After Nora, Watson, and Ruth release Lance from the secret room, Nora tells them that she shot Frederick. When they arrive in the cellar, Frederick explains that he loaded her gun with blanks, that his wife and David plotted to kill him, and that they both met their ends in the vat of acid. He says he is ready for justice to decide if he's innocent or guilty. Watson remains convinced the house is haunted, with David and Annabelle now added to its ranks of ghosts, and that he will be the next victim.
Audience Reviews
House on Haunted Hill is about five individuals who receive an invitation for a party at Frederick Loren’s home (Vincent Price) that he rented to celebrate his wife, Annabelle Loren (Carol Ohmart). Loren alleges that the house is haunted and offers an award of $10,000 to each of the five individuals who can stay the entire night and survive. Once the doors lock and the people are trapped in the house, strange and mysterious things start to happen.
Where to Watch
Frederick is convinced Annabelle tried to poison him to acquire his wealth, which Annabelle somewhat evasively denies, attributing his suspicions to paranoia and jealousy. Watson believes the house is genuinely haunted by the ghosts of those murdered there, including his own brother; he claims to have spent one night there before and "was almost dead" when found the next morning. He gives a tour of the house, including a vat of acid in the basement, which a previous resident used to kill his wife.
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The 1999 film was released to negative reviews but was a box office success, while the 2007 sequel was direct-to-video and widely panned. The poster for the film included an illustration of a house in yet a third style, that of a fanciful four-story Romanesque structure. Frederick Loren has invited five strangers to a party of a lifetime. I first saw this movie when I was in grade school and loved it (though even back then I was a bit surprised by how fake the witch looked). Watching it again this summer, however, left me pretty disappointed.
On several occasions, for example, Frederick and the others spend a great deal of time conversing and speculating with each other, weakening the overall spook factor of this film.
The two have been attempting to frighten Nora so badly that she will be spooked into shooting Frederick. Indeed, after being driven into a fit of hysteria by the repeated frights she has experienced during the evening, Nora does fire upon Frederick, assuming he is going to kill her. After she flees the room, Dr. Trent slips in and tries to get rid of Frederick's body by pushing it into a vat of acid, but the lights go out and the sounds of a struggle are heard. At a certain key moment in the movie, a glow-in-the-dark skeleton appeared from behind the screen to swoop over the heads of the audience. Annabelle privately warns Lance that her husband is scheming something and that she suspects him of murdering his second and third wives after his first wife disappeared. The guests learn the party's rules downstairs, and each is given a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer for protection.
Production
He then explains to guests that his wife and Dr. Trent had been trying to kill him and that they each have met their end in the vat of acid. He says solemnly that he is "ready for justice to decide" his guilt or innocence. By combining a claustrophobic setting with classic horror tropes (e.g. severed heads, lightning storms, and living skeletons), House on Haunted Hill—filmed in eerie black-and-white—generates a chilling, suspenseful atmosphere despite being plagued by technical and budgetary limitations. House on Haunted Hill, American horror film, released in 1959, that was produced and directed by popular B-filmmaker William Castle, who was known for his theatre gimmicks. Hearing a scream, Lance and David find Annabelle's corpse, suspended to suggest she hanged herself, but the absence of a perch immediately arouses suspicions of murder. Nora confronts Lance and tells him an unseen assailant strangled her and left her for dead.
Film Information
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Loren later uses Trent’s skeleton to scare Annabelle into the acid as well. House on Haunted Hill is a 1959 American B movie horror film from Allied Artists. It was directed by William Castle, written by Robb White, and starring Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. He and his fourth wife, Annabelle, have invited five people to the house for a "Haunted House" party. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors. An eccentric millionaire and his wife host a party in a haunted mansion for five strangers, who’ll each be given $10,000 if they survive the night.
He tells her to remain out of sight so that her attacker will still think she is dead. Lance and David propose that everyone stay in their rooms and shoot anyone who enters to survive the night. Thus the innocents will have no reason to leave their rooms (and a good reason to stay inside them) and the killer must stay put or admit guilt. To no surprise, Vincent Price has a natural demeanor fitting perfectly with horror films. He gives off an eerie vibe, that is so subtle, it entices you to keep watching.
Campy by modern standards but spooky and atmospheric, House on Haunted Hill is a fun, well-executed cult classic featuring a memorable performance from genre icon Vincent Price. I'm old enough to have first seen this in a theater--sans Emergo, dammit. Castle gives us one 360 degree shot around the house's main room which is silent. As with the new Paranornal Activity, your eye shoots back and forth trying to pinpoint the spot at which something is going to happen.
He invites five people from all walks of life – a test pilot, a secretary, an alcoholic, a sceptical psychologist and a newspaper columnist – to the notorious House on Haunted Hill, offering each $10,000 if they can survive the night. As they settle in for the night, all of them see ghostly apparitions. Loren’s much-despised wife is then found having hung herself in a suspicious manner. The guests begin to suspect that one of their number might be a murderer. In House on Haunted Hill, Castle does not just stop at theatrical gimmickry – the entire film has been constructed as the cinematic equivalent of a fairground haunted house show with heads popping up out of boxes, ghosts out of closets, hanging bodies and acid pools.
The moment is silent as well, and that is disorienting since we're so used to sound cues. With fewexceptions, the rooms and hallways are always shadowed, such that theviewer can't actually see who or what is moving around. And, ofcourse, when you can't see what's coming, it's always moreterrifying. Ensconced in shadows, its impossible to tell if thatmovement really was just the wind, or if that shadow coming down thestairs is really human. The film is full of indistinct shapes andobscured movement, giving it a somewhat creepy feeling despite thegeneral hokeyness of the surrounding décor.
Overall, it lends justenough credence to the spooky happenings, tempering theridiculousness and making the whole film easier to swallow. The film was given a worthwhile big-budget remake as House on Haunted Hill (1999). This in turn produced a direct-to-dvd sequel with Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007). MovieMeter aims to be the largest, most complete movie archive with reviews and rankings, in the World. Our team of journalists delivers the latest news for movies and TV shows.
Suddenly, people start disappearing or getting hurt and each person suspect each other as to who is behind these horrific acts. The story continues as the mysteries begin to unfold in this haunted tale. Producer and director Castle was known for adding extra “special effects” to his B-film productions.
Here you will find an overview of the cast of the movie House on Haunted Hill from the year 1959, including all the actors, actresses and the director. When you click on the name of an actor, actress or director from the movie House on Haunted Hill-cast you can watch more movies and/or series by him or her. The film was remade as the 1999 film House on Haunted Hill, which had a 2007 sequel titled Return to House on Haunted Hill.
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