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House On Haunted Hill (1959)
Topic Started: Apr 14 2013, 03:21 AM (1,074 Views)
Baby Firefly
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The Devil Himself
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Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his 4th wife, Annabelle, have invited 5 people to the house on Haunted Hill for a "haunted House" party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.
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Vanessa
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Madman
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I decided to give this a rewatch in honor of it being the winner for the 1950s this year. My favorite part of it is the combination of Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart. They play extremely well off of each other. It's too bad that they tried to fit her into a Marilyn mold that didn't really work for her. She could have had a much better career. I love Elisha Cook, too. I always forget Richard Long is in this. He's kind of forgettable generally. It's not in the running for getting my vote, but I always thought the plot was pretty charmingly campy. The who-done-it bits are fun. I love that opening scare, too.
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Neurotic Chainsaw
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Vengeful Victim
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I love this film. I think the remake is much, much, MUCH scarier, but I love this from a campy cult classic standpoint. I LOVE the characters of Frederick and Annabell. The way the actors play off each other's macabre, twisted humor and sensibilities is so, so, so groovy.

Plus I LOVE the original poster. I found a copy of it at a used movie store and bought it. I'm waiting until I have my own apartment to hang it up, though, as I don't trust my cats to not tear it up at this point. I may want to get a frame for it or something.

I watched it the other night, and I did have a laugh at the fact that they're all so excited about $10,000. Wow, how the times have changed. There's that scene where Nora... And I think... Lance... are talking about it, and she's just like "what do you think you're going to do with all that money?" Back then that was probably a big deal, but today... What COULD you do with "all that money?" Maybe buy a studio apartment, and use it to pay for 4 months rent and maybe a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Plus Lance is handsome in that sexy, arrogant, 1950s man sort of way, and there's no denying that kind of attractiveness.
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GL84
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This is a little flawed, but there are some good points to it. The fact that the house looks pretty creepy works for it, for there's always a hallway looks creepy when blackened out or a piece of furniture that makes it gives off a feeling of dread. The big halls and huge spaces make it stand out in the creepiness factor. When it gets to working right, the film is really on. The biggest instance is the film's incredibly creepy finale, which is simply insane and one of the most creative ideas ever used to end a film. Another big moment is it's classic scene of the one character checking hollow walls, and a completely unknown character pops up unexpectedly, which is followed by the being floating down the hallway in an unearthly manner in front of the terrified witness which is a really excellent jump-scene and one of the greatest scenes in the film. There's a couple of other really great jump scenes in here where the ghosts pop out and terrorize the characters, including one really great one near the end where several individual jump scenes converge at once to throw in a really spectacular scene. This does have some great moments, but there are some problems with this one that really lowers this one. The biggest one is that film really makes no mention of the ghosts haunting the house for most of the movie. It's mentioned several times throughout that they're responsible for several past incidents in the house and it's built around them, yet they are hardly in the movie. There are only a few scenes with them involved in the film's play-out, and these don't really do much of anything to make non-believers actually believe that ghosts are behind it. Once the marital strife subplot is brought up, the ghost angle pretty much sinks into the background and is completely ignored for most of the film that winds up hurting the film's premise for the majority of the time. The other really big flaw is that there's a really drawn-out pace for this one. The constant dealings with the married couple, which take up the majority of the second half of the film, is completely dull and boring as nothing interesting happens during the entire part. Seeing them argue with each other is boring and slows down the film, offering nothing much interesting for the film as all the bickering and pretend- deaths get old fast, and even worse they take time away from the film's purpose. These are the film's biggest flaws.
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RECR92
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What does this for me is Vincent Price, and it kind of just ends there.

Maybe the decade just isn't for me, but there was a lot left to be desired. I much prefer the remake.
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The Walking Dude
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Dumb Blonde
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Even almost 60 years later, I think the atmosphere in this movie has rarely been topped. Especially the first 10 or so minutes. Dark and gloomy, best watched on a dark and gloomy overcast afternoon.
"Your drama school accent is slipping" - Paul Toombes (Madhouse)

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Neurotic Chainsaw
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I think there are definitely better ghost movies from the 50s/60s (The Haunting), but they dont reach the level of classic horror camp that this film does.
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Kevin R.
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I think that the first hour or so of the remake is a better film than this, but when you take third acts into account, the original definitely wins. I watched this with my dad, and while I didn't enjoy it as much as he did, I still thought it was alright, if dated.
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Neurotic Chainsaw
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What makes the third act in this version of the film win in regards to a better horror movie? The remake is so much more unsettling to me.
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Basi
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This was a great movie , I one scence really made me jump.

I need to give this a re-watch,

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Toyland Chairman
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Sheriff
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Got the original RiffTrax DVD version. Comes with the commentary and regular film.

Here's a clip from the colorized RiffTrax Live DVD.

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