House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Plot Outline: A wealthy millionaire challenges a group of strangers to spend a night in a alleged haunted house. Whoever survives the night will be paid $10,000 each. At midnight they are locked inside the house and then the fun really begins.

The Review: Not so much a horror film but more like an attempt to bring a fairground ride to life, House on Haunted Hill goes straight for the gimmicks and never ceases with them until the end. There are severed heads, ghosts floating through rooms, blood dripping from ceilings and walking skeletons amongst a manner of other gimmicky tricks. It's not scary at all and a 4 year old could watch this and see how ridiculous it looks nowadays. But credit is needed because the tricks never stop - there's always something going on around the house. However after a decent premise and spooky opening, once the house is locked you'd expect a lot more to happen. Instead the film turns into a "whodunnit" as the characters look at each other when one of their number is found hanging from the ceiling. This does make for a few interesting plot developments but leads up to a pretty poor finale and a complete let down of an ending. Vincent Price hams it up slightly as the millionaire with an agenda - his velvet voice is perfect for trying to make himself sound slimy and deceitful. Yet again Price's performance is the standout from a pretty sub-standard film.

Final Verdict: Completely undeserving of it's reputation as a "horror" film, let alone a classic one, House on Haunted Hill is an interesting watch, if only to see the lengths that some filmmakers went to to try and get the audience involved more in the film.

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