REVIEW: House On Haunted Hill (1959)

Title: House on Haunted Hill
Release Year: 1959
Genre: Horror, Thriller and Crime Mystery
Cast: Vincent Price
Plot: An eccentric millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large house inhabited by ghosts, if they can survive the night.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️__

Review: I've always loved the idea of a haunted house, ever since I was a child, when I watched an episode of The Flintstones called "A Haunted House Is Not A Home. So naturally when Rasha and I found House on Haunted Hill, which had both the theme and the star; Vincent Price, we were beyond excited.
I think the idea of being in a place surrounded by the unknown and not being able to escape it, is the scariest type of storyline.

This story reminded me of a board game my siblings and I used to play called Cluedo and An Inspector Calls, a play by J. B. Priestley we read back in school. It also reminded me of Scooby Doo, which I'm sure had some inspirations from this film.

Surprisingly, this is a B-film, yet it had recieved a substantial profit. So big that it inspired Alfred Hitchcock to later create his own low budget film; Psycho, 1960. 

It is also another Price film, that was filmed just two months or so before its release.


The opening scene with the voice of a screaming woman, scared the heck out of me and that says a lot coming from someone from the 21st century, but then again I'm a scaredy cat hehe. I can't imagine what people thought of it at the time though. Plus viewing it at a theatre would've probably made it even scarier.
Anyway, the screaming effect became so popular, that it started a trend of scary sounds recording, like screams and laughter, that we still find today in Halloween parties and displays.

The house was an intregal part of the film, as it was where the story took place.The Ennis House - as it is called - was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924, for Charles and Mabil Ennis. Later owned by several others over the years.

The structure is based on the Mayan architecture with a modern twist. Whether it is because it was part of the horror film or not, I think the exterior looked very chilling either way. I just don't like morbid-looking architecture..

Anyway, only the facade of the house was shown in the film. The interior, which was probably built in the studios, was mostly victorian.
While art deco, in my opinion, would've homoginised with the exterior, I guess maybe they were looking for something more gothic. I don't feel the combination meshed well though. It seemed like the characters were suddenly transported to a different place, rather than just inside the house. Still it added a classic horror touch.

I enjoyed the many creepy objects suggestive of death, like driving each participant to the house in funeral cars and placing guns in miniture coffins for them.

The Story:
An eccentric millionaire hosts a peculiar contest in a house on a secluded hill, that is said to be haunted. The contest has only one rule though, and it is for the participants to stay through the whole night.
Everyone who participated, agreed, but soon found that the contest was just a cover for a murder and that they are now stuck with the murderer and have no way out.

The Characters:
Price played Frederick Loren, the creepy host, naturally. The role wasn't actually meant to be for him. After Price had heard that the director, William Castle, had overlooked him for a role in his film, he decided that they should talk about it over coffee. In their meeting, Castle told him about the storyline and Price liked it, so it was then decided that he would star in it. 

I'm always satisfied with Price's performances, eventhough he doesn't possess the best acting abilities hehe. Anyway, for the kind of films he does, character is needed more than acting.

The rest of the cast were fine, except Carolyn Craig was a bit annoying. I was happy that her character's name was Nora though, so I'd hear Price say my name say my name hehehe.


Julie Mitchum - Robert Mitchum's sister - had a peculiar looking ring on when she came to the set, which Castle had noticed and felt that it would add a little mystery to her character, so he decided to show a glimpse of it in the film. It had an Arabic inscription that says "God is most Glorious". Unfortunately, I never noticed when I was watching. I will have to watch it again, to know if this is indeed true.


Silliest Scenes:
I loved the game rules the millionaire came up with and his sarcasm was very entertaining; "Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?". What I didn't like though, was everybody scattering around the house when they knew very well it was haunted. Who would walk around a haunted house alone if they were scared! That annoyed me a lot but I guess we wouldn't have a film if this didn't happen haha

Another silly thing was when each guest had to stay in their own room, but one of the rooms had a door between them, so when the two guests agreed that the lady would pretend she wasn't there, the guy kept leaving from her room. Why wouldn't he leave from his own so nobody would suspect...
I thought he made it very obvious and that they were surely going to get caught, but that didn't happen anyway hahahha
So I guess it was just a silly error by the half asleep director.

Another funny scene was the image of the millionaire's wife appearing in the window...was it a hologram? Should've been...

Plus nobody ever explained why the caretakers looked and acted the way they did hahahaha 

Scariest Scenes:
When the blind? lady appeared...

I think for a while it was hard for me to even look at screenshots of her scene hahaha

The Ending:
The ending was the funniest part. It was very Scooby-Do-ish, but instead of revealing the perpetrator by the removal of a mask...
Well I'm not going to ruin it as much as I already have, but all I can say is Price is around 6'4" but the skeleton was probably 5'6". 

Reception:
The film recieved high critical acclaim and inspired many adaptations in the following years.

There was a gimmick that Castle enforced in theatres playing his film, which was to have a plastic skeleton hanging on a wire, appear when the skeleton in the film does, as a scare tactic. Many theatres stopped doing it though, after children, who had seen the film a few times, brought in their slingshots and fired at it whenever it came out.
Castle must've said "Oh if it weren't for you meddling kids!" hahahha I miss Scooby Doo.

There were many plot holes in this film, yet I still enjoyed it. And I loved it, even though the people could hear footsteps but not screams hahhaha
I highly recommend this for Halloween, especially if watched at a slumber party.