House on Haunted Hill (1959)

"Once the door is locked, there is no way out.", 12 April 2009

Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) is a wealthy man with some strange ideas about throwing a party. He rents a supposed haunted house, invites five strangers, and offers them each $10,000 if they can make it through the night. But when Loren's wife ends up at the wrong end of a noose, the fun's over (or is really just beginning). Is a killer loose in the house or is the House on Haunted Hill really haunted?

You know what I enjoy the most about older horror movies like House on Haunted Hill – they were made at a time when horror movies could still be fun. Ridiculous looking heads could pop out of suitcases, unexplained hands could grope from behind walls, and skeletons ruled the cellar. Sure, it was all unrealistic, but was it ever a blast. And that's exactly what keeps me coming back to movies like House on Haunted Hill – that sense of fun. Today's horror movies are too realistic, try too hard to be one big gross out, and have lost most of the enjoyable elements of old.

One big plus for House on Haunted Hill is the cast. Well, not all the cast, but the movie does feature a couple of outstanding, memorable performances. Horror icon Vincent Price was just getting his feet wet in the genre in 1959. He may not have been the scene-chewing, over-the-top actor that most of us remember so fondly, but he was still rock solid in the role of the wealthy Frederick Loren. Almost as good is Carol Ohmart. Whether playing the victim or the victimizer, she's equally adept. As for the rest of the cast, the less said the better. I know we're supposed to identify with and root for the characters played by Carolyn Craig and Richard Long, but they're both so annoying that I always want to see both take a swim in the acid bath.

Finally, what comment about House on Haunted Hill would be complete without a mention of the scene with the old lady in the basement. The horror in most of House on Haunted Hill may have been played for laughs, but when the hag in the cellar pops up, it's one of the best jump scares in the history of horror. I've seen the movie a dozen or more times and I know when the scene is coming up, but it still works.

7/10