Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 1959. That movie is "House on Haunted Hill". Which is the second movie that came off this DVD 2-pack that I own, which also featured "The Bat".
Now, earlier this month, I did review "The Bat", and I thought it was a pretty good movie. It wasn't great, and it certainly didn't feel like a horror movie, but it was a still pretty good mystery film overall. Now, on the off chance anybody asks why these movies are together as a 2-pack, the only answer I can give is that they're both horror movies, they came out in 1959, and they both star Vincent Price. And oddly enough, when I decided to put these movies on the schedule for this month, I had no idea that they both came out in 1959. But hey, you learn something new everyday, don't you?
Now, I'll be honest, I've been looking forward to this movie all month. Because out of every film that Vincent Price has starred in, this is the one movie that almost everyone knows him from. Not only that, but the premise is set in a haunted house, as if the title didn't give that away. As for the premise itself, it involves 5 people that have to stay overnight at this haunted house as a challenge by Price, and his wife in this movie. And if any of them survive overnight, they will each get $10,000. I should mention that I LOVE these sorts of premises, where it involves a group of people that are together in some form of a haunted house or mansion. As I made very clear in the past, I loved "Clue: The Movie", and it still remains as one of the funniest mystery films I have ever seen. In fact, my favorite episode of "Family Guy" is the episode entitled "And Then There Were Fewer". Which was the season 9 premiere where the entire cast of that show get invited to a mansion, and it involved the death of James Woods. And they had to figure out who killed him among themselves before they all ended up getting killed, as well.
So, I'm hoping that this movie is going to be amazing, and that it will live up to the high expectations I have set for this thing. However, I could easily be letdown by this movie, as well. But I have plenty of hopes that this movie is going to be great. And the only way I'm gonna find out how good this movie could possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "House on Haunted Hill".
4 minutes later
OK, guys, so as the opening credits are going by, I have a question. So, one of the guests that has participated at this haunted house is Watson, the guy who owned the haunted house at one point. And he stated that his entire family was killed there. If he knew that the house was haunted, and that seven people were murdered, don't you think that the police, or somebody else, would've torn the place down? Because if there were that many deaths that happened beforehand, then why would you keep the house intact, as is? I understand that the house is, probably, haunted, but you would think that somebody would've done something about it by this point. I don't know, and I understand it's trivial and stupid, but it was just something that came to me, you know?
10 minutes later
So the only reason why Frederick is hosting this party for his wife is because of the ghosts? And she wants to see what they can possibly to do these people who decide to stay overnight? That is rather...and pardon the pun...ghoulish. You know, I've heard of the term "shits and giggles" before, but that honestly just sounds incredibly creepy to me.
19 minutes later
You know, guys, Vincent Price's character in this movie, Frederick, is incredibly creepy, especially when he sounds demanding. I totally understand that it's Vincent Prince, and that he can, damn near, make anything creepy with his voice, but that scene with his wife almost took a dark turn there. And the way he kept insisting that his wife go to her party makes this scene almost uncomfortable to watch.
13 minutes later
Well...out of all the people I expected to see die in this movie first, that one wasn't what I expected. At least it keeps things interesting. But still, I was not expecting that character to die first.
14 minutes later
You know, guys, just seeing that bow rope crawling around Nora's feet like that is rather creepy. I understand that I've been using that word quite a lot in this movie so far, but this scene is really solidifying that. I didn't think a movie was able to make this creepiness work, but, my god, is it ever fucking working. I was not expecting that.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "House on Haunted Hill". I'm gonna shut the movie off...OK. I kinda like how, in the closing credits, it lists the skeleton as himself. I thought that was kinda cute. But anyway, let's talk about the movie, shall we?
Let's start with writing. Writing, for the most part, is really solid in terms of story and characters. Almost everything here works. The only real issue that I had with it was towards the end of the movie. And I'm not gonna tread too deep into spoilers, because I don't want to spoil this movie for anybody who hasn't seen it yet. Within the last 10 minutes or so, we get hit with a buildup, which, by itself, really works, but then we get revealed with a plot twist involving a couple of characters that have been secretly working together this entire time. And it seems as though that they are going to get away with their perfect crime. But as soon as one of the characters tries to dispatch one of the other characters that had been shot in the wine cellar, we then fade to black as one of them has been supposedly been dropped into the acid pool. Then, a moment later, one of the characters tries to check up on them to see if they're OK. And then we are treated to a scene that is suppose to be haunting, where it involves a skeleton that rises from the acid pool, which scares one of our characters as they are being "attacked" by the skeleton. And eventually, it ends up with that character slipping and falling into the acid pool, killing them. And then shortly after that, we are told about the nature of the guns that all of our guests have been given to by Frederick, which I'm not going to spoil here. And this reveal, along with the twist that happens before that, ends up being...kinda cheap. Because it almost comes right out of nowhere, and the fact that they had to fade to black before we get to see what happens to one of the characters that ended up getting shot, felt kinda cheap and rushed. At least, to me, it felt like that. But I don't want you to think that it will ruin the entire film for you, because everything before that is really solid and very engaging. And you're going to be sucked into this movie, because our story is just so good. It's just that the ending felt a little bit cheap and rushed.
One thing I need to talk about is the pacing. I should note that this movie is only an hour and 15 minutes long. And in most cases, you don't have a lot of time to boil up a slower-paced story. Now, you would think that this movie would suffer the same fate, because it does have to work with such a short runtime. But surprisingly, this movie was able to pull that off, and it pulled it off really well. And that's something I don't see happen often in movies. Usually, a lot of movies would try to stretch it beyond or close to 2 hours, and they still wouldn't be able to build a good story out of it, or get any decent characters. This movie, however, is able to show you that you CAN pull off a slower-paced story, despite a short runtime, and get pretty good characters out of it as well. Now admittedly, not all of our characters are super developed. But to be honest, this movie didn't need to do that. Because you know why they are at this haunted house. We're told at the beginning of the movie by Frederick that he invited all of these people at this haunted house for his wife's party, so that he can offer them $10,000 if they are able to survive overnight there. And he explains why certain individuals need that kind of money. For example, we have Nora, who happens to work for Frederick's company, because she needed the money the most to support her family. Another one is Watson, who owned the haunted house, after seven people in his family were murdered. Which I'm still trying to figure out why exactly no one decided to tear the place down, after there were seven murders that happened in this haunted house? Again, I understand it's trivial, and almost no one is going to think about that kind of thing, but it is something that kinda nagged at me for a bit. As for our other characters, barring Frederick and his wife, most of them are there to help move the story along. And all that's perfectly fine. Now, a moment ago, I was talking about the pacing, and I want to go back to that for a second. So, because we have all of our characters trying to survive overnight to get $10,000, you would think that this movie would try to go for the quick approach to try and kill off most of these characters, so that way we can find out who's going to survive by the end of the night. However, that doesn't happen. Because this movie is taking a different approach, by going the more slower route. Rather than killing off our characters right off the bat, it's actually doing a slow buildup to where we get established as to who our characters are, our setting, and what they need to do to survive the night, and all of this works really well. Again, the last 10 minutes or so felt a little bit rushed, but that's honestly not going to affect most people who watch this movie, because they're probably going to end up really liking how the last 10 minutes plays itself out. So, despite all of that, the writing here is really strong throughout most of it's runtime.
Now, let's get to the acting. Once more, Vincent Price steals the show in this movie. Which is not surprising, because you could give Vincent Price almost any bad script, and he would still be able to turn it into solid gold. Now, that isn't to say that nobody else here tried. In fact, everybody else was able to pull their own weight when it comes to the acting. The only one I would have to make mention of is Carolyn Craig as Nora. Now that isn't to say her performance was bad or anything, but her fucking screaming got really irritating at a couple of points, to where I thought she put a little too much effort into overacting her screams. But aside from that, her acting is still really good. It's just that fucking screaming of hers was really irritating to listen to. And as for everyone else, like I said, they do a really good job here, and it makes a really good horror movie even better.
Speaking of which, let's move on to special effects. Now, unlike the previous Vincent Price film I covered, which was "The Bat", I talked about how that movie didn't really feel like a horror movie. Well, this movie decided to rectify that, and become what it was suppose to advertise itself as. And it definitely lives up to that, because you feel like you are trapped with these guests at this haunted house. The tension is mostly there, and it sorta helps keeps you guessing on where the story is going to go next. But I'm getting off track, because I haven't covered special effects yet. We have quite a bit of blood in this movie, and that comes from a couple of points when it drips onto one of our female character's hand. There are also couple of bits of makeup effects when it comes to the caretakers of the house, and they look rather decent, too. One other one I'm going to make mention of, and it has to do with that skeleton I talked about earlier on. Now, this effect is more intentional, but I still feel the need to bring it up anyway. So, the skeleton first appears when it starts to rise out of the acid pool. And that looked really cool, except that you can see the wire from the top of it's head being pulled out. And you might see a shot of it's arm being pulled with the invisible wires. And if that twist didn't happen, then I would've written that off as the only cheap effect in this movie. However, it was intentional, and I'm not going to go any further than that, without having to discuss spoilers. Special effects, overall, are really good, especially for a movie that only had around a $200,000 budget.
Camerawork here is really good. Lighting is lit pretty well. Sound-mix here is mostly good, aside from, maybe, the very beginning of the movie where we get to hear a really loud scream, and I felt like it was a little too loud, even for me. But aside from that, sound-mix from everything else is pretty good. Music here is really well done. But it's only needed, when it needs to be. And going back to the last 10 minutes for just a second, there is a moment when one of our characters enters the wine cellar. And during this bit, there is no music playing. Just pure silence as the candles are going out, and the place begins to get dark. And that moment was fantastic. The payoff wasn't as great because of what I talked about earlier, but the buildup to it was really good, because of that one moment where no music was playing. And that's something that I wish more horror movies would take advantage of, because it shows you that the people in charge of the music cared about when to use it, rather than just phoning in a bullshit, generic, horror movie score that you get in a lot of horror movies. But I'm getting off track. The score here is great.
Ultimately, guys, can I recommend "House on Haunted Hill"? Oh, hell yes. This movie was great. Often when you think of any of Vincent Price's movies, most people would cite this off as his absolute best, and it certainly shows. This movie was fantastic, and it damn near surpassed my expectations. While the ending was kind of a letdown, everything else before that was great. And I am happy that I actually get to own a physical copy of this movie, thanks to this 2-pack. And to anyone who's into horror movies, and you've not had a chance to see this one yet, by all means, check it out. It certainly lives up to being a classic. And I know that the move is on YouTube, so if you're hesitant on buying a physical copy, there at least a few copies of it on YouTube, so you don't have to worry about spending money on it. And if you enjoyed it enough, definitely find a copy of it somewhere. Whether it's through this 2-pack that I bought, or if it's just a standalone copy by itself, pick it up. It's certainly going to satisfy anybody that's into horror movies. And I'm definitely going to be adding this to my list of horror movies that I'm going to watch every year around Halloween. This movie was just that awesome. Now...I've still got a few movies left that I need to watch for this month, and I'm gonna do that by watching "Clue: The Movie". I talked about it earlier, and I really need to watch that again, because that movie is just fantastic on every single level. So, I'm gonna go do that, and this movie is going to have a very happy spot on my DVD shelf.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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