House on Haunted Hill (1959) Review

House on Haunted Hill (1959) Review

Vincent Price is an actor every fan of the horror genre should be familiar with. He starred in over a hundred films spanning many genres, but he’ll be forever remembered for starring in classics like the original House of Wax, The Fly, and this. House on Haunted Hill was the first of his films I saw, and it’s one of the most-fun horror films he starred in. 

Price plays the host of a party at a mansion. He’s rented it for the occasion, but it’s supposedly haunted. He appears to the audience as a floating head superimposed over an exterior shot of the house to explain this, also saying that whoever stays the night will be given 10,000 dollars. The place is haunted, though, so it’s not like everyone can just sleep the night away (even though they almost all agree to do that at one point). The five guests are in for many shocks and scares, like a severed head in a suitcase and a creepy old blind lady floating down the dark hallways. As the night goes on, the guests start to question the authenticity of these supernatural occurrences, and uncover the mystery behind what’s really going on. 

House on Haunted Hill is a classic, but it’s quite silly. That’s what I thought when I first watched it as a kid, but now I appreciate it in a different way, though it’s still campy, and has always been thought of that way, even back when it was released. It was directed by William Castle, who was known for using cheap gimmicks to scare audiences, like buzzers in theater seats and skeletons flying overhead. House on Haunted Hill pulls out all the stops when it comes to using clichés, but that’s part of its charm. 

Though it may sound like a generic haunted house movie, it’s actually a murder mystery, with shady characters and secret motivations. Some of the quirkier aspects are what I enjoy the most, such as the pool of acid in the basement. Why is it there? Oh, probably just so we could have a big scare toward the end of the movie. I won’t spoil it, but it’s worth seeing. Some of the characters are annoying, but Vincent Price outshines them all, keeping you unnerved from beginning to end. The story unravels at a nice pace. It shares a couple similarities with the Shirley Jackson story The Haunting of Hill House, which, ironically, was published the same year this film was released, but isn’t very comparable.  

House on Haunted Hill packs in lots of entertainment, with legitimate scares, unintentionally funny moments, actual funny moments, and memorable scenes. It was remade in 1999, but I’ve never seen it, and unfortunately, most people today probably know the title from the remake instead of the original, but the original is still worth checking out for some old school spooks and laughs.