Badmovies.org Forum

Movies => Good Movies => Topic started by: Ted C on October 06, 2017, 09:23:54 AM



Title: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: Ted C on October 06, 2017, 09:23:54 AM
Watched this one from a DVD full of classic horror movies. The effects are incredibly dated, of course, but the writers and the actors produced a story that doesn't rely on effects to be engaging and creepy.

Vincent Price plays Frank Loren, a millionaire who has offered five strangers $10,000 each if they can spend the whole night in a haunted house with him. The original idea for staying overnight in the haunted house came from his wife, Annabelle, who isn't shy about having married him for his money. Frank decided to turn it into a "party".

The five guests all need money for various reasons. One of them is the brother of the house's previous owner, who is convinced that it's haunted. According to him, at least seven people have been murdered in the house. All were dismembered, and their heads were never found.

The main story is a murder plot, but it's hard to figure out who is trying to kill whom until the plot wraps up. There are also a variety of "ghostly" events that are never really explained. In some ways, the "supernatural" events seem tacked on to a murder thriller story.

A few oddities:
  • If you make an elaborate plan to trick someone else into pulling the trigger on the person you're trying to murder, why would you then want to destroy the body with acid? You want that evidence!
  • What kind of acid destroys flesh and hair but doesn't damage bone?
  • What kind of string suitable for operating a skeleton as a marionette will be unaffected by such acid?

Definitely some plot holes, but when you have the likes of Vincent Price on hand to sell it, it still works.


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: RCMerchant on October 06, 2017, 12:38:17 PM
'Logic? We don't need no stinkin' logic!"
It's a William Castle movie. This is the guy who gave us the TINGLER (1959) which puts forth the idea that fear is a creature attached to your spine and grows larger-but you can subdue it if you scream. If it grows too large it will escape-how I ain't sure-out your mouth or your a***ole-not sure. "SCREAM! Scream for your lives!"


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: Chainsawmidget on October 06, 2017, 02:15:51 PM
Vincent Price had some of the best lines ever in this movie. 

The crime you two planned was indeed perfect.  Only the victim is alive and the murderers are not. 
It's a pity you didn't know when you started game of murder that I was playing too. 


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: RCMerchant on October 06, 2017, 08:22:30 PM
Vincent Price had some of the best lines ever in this movie. 

The crime you two planned was indeed perfect.  Only the victim is alive and the murderers are not. 
It's a pity you didn't know when you started game of murder that I was playing too. 


I think Vinnie says "It's a pity" in almost every role. Right before he kills people. :drink:


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: Chainsawmidget on October 07, 2017, 06:51:18 PM
Vincent Price had some of the best lines ever in this movie. 

The crime you two planned was indeed perfect.  Only the victim is alive and the murderers are not. 
It's a pity you didn't know when you started game of murder that I was playing too. 


I think Vinnie says "It's a pity" in almost every role. Right before he kills people. :drink:
and he says it so well


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: Allhallowsday on October 07, 2017, 09:53:20 PM
I think HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is pretty bad.  Bad as in stupid and not entertaining (if you've seen it).  There are a lot of doorways and walking back and forth and bits that make no sense and that roller skatin' blind old hag in the basement (old hags rolling by are always worth a laugh)...
It does have CAROL OHMART... and that skeleton puppet in the basement... and a very useful (but perhaps unsafe) PIT OF ACID in the basement...  :lookingup:
Ech.


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: Chainsawmidget on October 19, 2017, 06:23:55 PM
You say that like you don't have a pit of acid in your own basement. 

...Am I the only one?  It's not just me is it? 


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: Ticonderoga 64 on November 13, 2017, 03:45:54 PM
A Price classic, might not be HOUSE OF WAX, but it still deserves its' reputation as a shocker from the drive-in era. You cant help but root for Vincent as the rest of the cast is so lame..except for Carol Ohmart, who looks gorgeous here just as she later did for SPIDER BABY(1964), with Lon Chaney, Jr.

http://youtu.be/iabnwQ3r-CM (http://youtu.be/iabnwQ3r-CM)


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: Fox Sake on February 11, 2018, 05:38:54 AM
never really liked "Haunted Hill" - it had a few moments, but i just couldn't take the premise at all seriously.

As for Price, yes he probably saved the film from the room marked "hokum", but for me I thoroughly enjoyed his rather campy role in the far more entertaining "Theatre of Blood"


Title: Re: The House on Haunted Hill (1959) - *** Spoilers ***
Post by: Svengoolie 3 on February 12, 2018, 03:34:20 PM
never really liked "Haunted Hill" - it had a few moments, but i just couldn't take the premise at all seriously.

As for Price, yes he probably saved the film from the room marked "hokum", but for me I thoroughly enjoyed his rather campy role in the far more entertaining "Theatre of Blood"

Even better was the abominable dr. phibes.

I agree the house on haunted hill wasn't perfect, there were some scenes where it's like "HOW could the people have faked that?!" but then some of it may have been the character hallucinating and seeing more than was there.