In 1959, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL was a box office smash, scaring the hell out of audiences and garnering the attention of Alfred Hitchcock, who decided his next film would be a little low budget B&W horror flick called "Psycho".
Director William Castle (Rosemary's Baby) had an eye for showmanship, presenting this movie in a little thing called "Emergo" which basically made a rigged skeleton on a wire fly out over the audience at one key point in the film. Silly but effective, crowds flocked to the theatre.
It's a silly little haunted house tale, with Vincent Price as millionaire Frederick Loren, offering $10,000 to five people if they spend one night locked in his massive "haunted" mansion.
Carol Ohmart is his mysterious young wife, Richard Long (The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor on 60's TV) is a skeptic, Alan Marshall is the doctor in the house, Carolyn Craig (Giant) shows great screaming talent as young Nora who the specters seem to love and Julie Mitchum is an older guest up for the challenge.
Castle throws every scary movie trick at the screen, but was one of the first to cold open a movie with a dark screen and screams & creepy noises before the titles begin.
He unleashes severed heads, floating old ladies, giant vats of acid and enough trick doors and hallways to confuse any house guest.
None of it's very scary, but there are a couple fun spooky moments and enough genuine intrigue to keep you guessing long into the all night test on what's really going on inside this house of mild horrors.
At only 75 minutes long, its built for speed and gets a nostalgic B-. I'll never hear Vincent Price say the immortal Thriller line "It's after midnight..." quite the same again.
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