House on Haunted Hill Review

8/10 

In 1959, a horror masterpiece was made. "House on Haunted Hill" was a surprise hit with critics and fans alike.  Vincent Price was shot even further into stardom, and was now at legendary status. This movie has been applauded for decades for its balance in silliness and creepiness, and it still tends to be one of my favorite classics. 

The movie starts off very chillingly, as screams fill the air, and strange noises and laughs respond.  We are then shown the head of a man named Watson Prichard.  He tells of the house that he owns, and that it is actually haunted.  Immediately after, Frederick Loren comes onto the screen, and tells us of the challenge he has constructed for a party at this house(which he rented).  If people stay in the house for 12 hours, then he will give 10,000 dollars to each one of them(or their next in kin if they don't survive.  After this, the guests of the party come to the house, and we are introduced to each one of them, and their motives for coming.  I really like all of this scene, because while it could be deemed cheesy, I find it very innovative, and it helps the character development move very quickly. 

As all the members enter the house, they begin to talk about how nervous they are. Watson makes things even worse by telling of murders and such.  The only thing that is keeping them in the house is their desperate greed. I really like this a lot, because it is almost a statement on the society in the way that people will do anything for money.  Frederick than introduces himself to everybody, and he spooks them all with talk of ghosts.  In the remainder of the film, spooky things happen to every single guest, and they soon figure out that coming to this house was the worst decision they had ever made...

One of the things I noticed while watching this movie was that it was the absolute innovator of its type of film. There are so many scenes in the haunted house that have been repeated so many times, and it blows my mind. There were also some truly gruesome moments that wouldn't have been mainstream in these early times of American cinema.  A great example of this was when the bloodied and decapitated face was shown in the old chest. 

The next thing that impressed me was the casting.  For starters, I don't think anyone could've done the role of Frederick better than Vincent Price. He had the perfect darkness and evil nature to him, and he could do it all with a smile on his face. It really amazes me how effortless he was in performing, because it comes off as his natural self.  He also had the most amazing voice for a horror actor, because it was so booming and haunting that he was almost like a ghost.  All of these traits really worked, because his character is such a mysterious and disturbing man. Even though he comes off as very hospitable, he has so many demons, and there is a huge possibility that he is a murderer.  So while it was a safe choice to use Price, I really was so happy to see him. Carol Ohmart was also awesome in the role of Annabelle, because as the wife of Frederick, she is very dark and almost soulless. She tries to get sympathy from the others, but in the end, we know she is shallow, greedy, and just plain rotten.   Carolyn Craig was the last standout in my opinion, because she proved herself to be one of the first "scream queens" in horror cinema. In her role of Nora Manning, she gives cries of fear that are so piercing, that they could stab through iron. 

While the movie isn't scary at all, there are a lot of ways that things stayed suspenseful. The first factor that really helped this was the plot twists. Even on my second viewing of the film, I was surprised by what happened. This is truly amazing, and it is one of the least predictable films I've ever seen.  The next thing that really helped the creepiness was the effects. One of the scenes that does this in particular was the skeleton scenes, because even though they are extremely fake, it's still chilling at the same time. 

The ending scenes of the movie really pleased me a lot. Rather than just the revelation of the mystery, even crazier twists happen. I was actually quite shocked, and it was completely awesome. To make things even better, the last thing before the exit is Vincent Price's evil laugh. This was cool, because it showed that Frederick got the best of everybody, and he had a successful night. 

Overall, I enjoyed this movie a lot. It doesn't beat "The Last Man On Earth" for me in terms of Vincent Price films, but it is still a heck of a lot of fun. It was a very innovative, and at times creepy movie, and it was definitely one of his best performances. Any fans of cinema should see this, because it was a landmark movie in our culture.