Review #1,107: 'House on Haunted Hill' (1959)

Horror icon Vincent Price has played the role of a wealthy eccentric countless times, usually holed up in a beautiful if macabre and mysterious castle while toying with his visitors. It's a role that fits his slightly creepy yet irresistibly likeable persona like a glove, and served him well throughout his extensive career. Before he became the wink-to-the-camera rogue in the films of Roger Corman and many others, he tended to play his parts more straight-faced, but always with a playful aura. One of his most enjoyable roles is in William Castle's House on Haunted Hill, a film that embraces cliche and camp, yet undoubtedly inspired countless haunted house movies that came in the years that followed.

Price plays a charismatic millionaire named Frederick Loren who, at the request of his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), rents a supposedly haunted house to throw a party. He invites five guests - test pilot Lance Schroeder (Richard Long), psychiatrist Dr. David Trent (Alan Marshal), newspaper columnist Ruth Bridgers (Julie Mitchum), one of Loren's employees Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig), and the house's owner Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr.) - to survive the night for a $10,000 reward. They are each given a small coffin containing a gun, and are offered one last chance to leave before the doors close and lock at midnight. Needing the money and believing the spooky occurrences to be the work of cheap tricks, they all stay, but regret the decision when one of the group is found hanged.

It's incredibly basic stuff and only runs for 75 minutes, but Castle's ability to keep the audience guessing and Price's wonderful, brooding performance makes House on Haunted Hill stand out above its many imitators. Castle was known for his gimmicks in the theatre, and here employed 'Emergo', which involved a skeleton being dangled above its terrified audience. Watching it at home, the fun to be had back in the day is of course lost, but the film offers enough genuine jump frights and camp-yet-charming effects to make this an incredibly fun experience on its own. It's certainly not scary, and one scene in particular had me laughing out loud (if you've seen the film, you'll know which moment I mean), but Castle's finest movie makes for a nice alternative to the blood and guts that dominated the genre in the years to come. A silly, deliciously entertaining throwback.


Directed by: William Castle
Starring: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr., Julie Mitchum
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #501: 'Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told' (1968)

Despite it's 1968 release date, Jack Hill's full directorial debut (he had uncredited directing duties on The Wasp Woman (1959) and The Terror (1963)) was shot in 1964, but was delayed due to the financiers bankruptcy. The film sits perfectly in the '60's macabre horror aesthetics of Psycho (1960) and Night of the Living Dead (1968), which gave a more cerebral, and arguably realistic approach to conventions of the uncanny. Within the context of this familial genre piece, there are many references to the "old" horror traits - not least the inclusion of horror icon Lon Chaney Jr. - and makes direct connections with the 1941 Wolfman (which incidentally was one of Chaney's key characters). And it is this reference to the inner beast of humanity that gives the film its horrific and pseudo-tragic narrative.

Bruno (Chaney), a janitor of the "old dark house" has stayed behind after the death of it's owner, to take care of the children. The Merrye family, however, have a dark and demented secret. A genetic abnormality handed down in the family due to decades of inbreeding, has left the children with a severely debilitating illness that sets in towards the end of the teenage years. The illness, referred by Bruno as simply rotting of the brain, leaves these family members with increasingly depraved mental states - and they apparently regress to catatonic states. The above-grounds inhabitants are made up of two sisters, Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) and Virginia (Jill Banner - who was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 35), along with there deeply "retarded" (to use the film's term - not mine) brother, Ralph (an early role for exploitation regular Sid Haig). When exterior family members (not subject to the "Merrye Syndrome"), Emily (Carol Ohmart) and Peter (Quinn Redeker) arrive to take possession of the property, a series of events unfold, revealing the true extent of the macabre "house of horrors".

The titular character is displayed in the first scene of this interesting film, when a mail man pokes his head into an open window. Virginia (the spider baby - as she loves insects and often crawls around the grounds in a peculiar manner) enters the room, a rope "web" in her hands, throws it over the postman and then approaches with two knives in her hands and moves in to sting the man, and eventually slicing off an ear. No doubt for budgetary reasons, the film was shot in black and white, and it's eccentric characters fill the screen with both horror and an awkwardly horrific humour. It could be argued that it bares similarities (if not genre specific) with Russ Meyer's idiosyncratic and oddball comedy, Mudhoney (1965) - despite them having no direct relation, and could also be seen as an influence on Tobe Hooper's seminal Texas Chain-Saw Massacre (1974) - particularly in its production design, and wildly gross-out family table dinner. It's well paced, and climaxes excellently, with a crescendo of absurdist terror. With a brilliant late role for Chaney, he also sings the opening credits song, which parodies the classic 'Monster Mash'.


Directed by: Jack Hill
Starring: Lon Chaney, Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn K. Redeker, Beverly Washburn, Jill Banner, Sid Haig
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy