This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A melodramatic and wildly entertaining example of both fear and of camp, William Castle's 1959 release "House on Haunted Hill" is an indisputable classic of the horror genre. Feeling like both a loving tribute and even occasionally like a self-aware send-up to classic haunted-house tales, the film is nothing less than ghoulishly amusing and wickedly fun. With a low-budget charm, phenomenal performances from the likes of Vincent Price and some of the greatest old-school scares ever committed to film, it's still well-worth checking out for horror fans old and new alike.We follow eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price), who at the urging of his spoiled wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), throws the most peculiar of parties late one night. He rents out a supposed haunted house where seven people have been murdered, and offers a small group of guests $10,000 each if they can "survive the night." As the hours dwindle by, things begin to take a dark and twisted turn as doors open and close on their own, mysterious body-parts begin to appear... and death comes looking for the guests at the House on Haunted Hill...One of the more charming old-school horror releases, "House on Haunted Hill" is just a blast from the past. While it does have some of the greatest scares I've seen (including possibly the best jump-scare ever, which I will not spoil), it's never too frightening, and there's plenty of dark humor and fun character beats to lighten the mood. It knows when to ratchet up the tension perfectly, and I think it would make for a really great "access" film to show to older children who are interested in the genre. I know this spooked me half to death as a child... and I loved it for that!The film oozes some really nice atmosphere and quirky low-budget style that accents the story quite well. Without much money to play with, director Castle and writer Robb White make the most of what they have, with some really simple yet imaginative sequences that will keep the audience at the edge of their seat. There's even an acid-bath! How charming. White's script also gives each and every character their moment to shine- in particular Price and Ohmart, who are at their absolute best here. There's also a really fun, hammy performance by the delightful Elisha Cook as a wide-eyed, petrified man who had nearly been a victim of the house in the past. It's written deliciously over the top, and Cook is clearly having the time of his life in the role.A part of me wishes they still made great, old gimmick-fests like this. (A film that was notorious like many Castle productions for audience-participation gimmicks- in this case "Emergo"... a system that would swing skeletons on wires over the audience during key moments.) While I do adore some modern horror releases, it's rare you see something that mixes classic ghostly chills with amusing camp so well. Horror films these days seem to take themselves a little too seriously (well, when they aren't just shameless cash-grab remakes that is.), with only the rare example of a film like this coming every once in a great while. We need a "William Castle" for the modern age.In the end, the film might not quite be perfect. It's got a few wonky moments where the tone doesn't quite jive and a few scenes feel out of place. But it's another fine example of a William Castle classic. Say what you will, but he knew how to put on a show! I give "House on Haunted Hill" a very good 8 out of 10.

Just recently downloaded a movie app and watched the original House on Haunted Hill, haven't seen that movie in 20, 25 years. Could not remember too much about the movie, except Vincent Price and his on stage wife, Carol Ohmart, could not remember her name at all, except she was hot. There was another actress, Carolyn Craig, who throughout the movie was a screamer, she had some lines but did more screaming than anything else. I started to laugh, she did it so much, her lungs and voice got a good workout on this movie. There were two kind of a funny scenes, the first wasn't meant to be funny but Carolyn Craig went running down the hall past Vincent Price's bedroom screaming her head off, two or three seconds latter, Alan Marshal, who played a psychiatrist walks to Vincent Price's door and knocks, Price opens the door and says, did you hear something? The second funny scene was a skeleton floats out of the acid vat and chases Vincent Price's wife around the basement until she falls in the acid, a false wall opens and Price walks out wearing a contraption with thick string controlling the skeleton, actually he looked like he was getting tangled up in the string. Maybe the acid works on skin but not on string. Elijah Cook Jr was also in the movie, his lines basically were, the ghosts are all around us, they are getting closer, you never really see any ghosts, except a crazy looking old lady. Carolyn goes running upstairs screaming into the living room, everybody says what happened, she told them she saw a ghost in the basement and describes it, Vincent Price says, that's not a ghost,that's the caretakers wife.

A millionaire invites five strangers to stay the night in a haunted house, with a pot of $50,000 to be split among those who manage to survive till morning. But his wife doesn't approve of the plan.Oh, I wasn't expecting this - strictly for fans of cheese. The plot is nonsense, the script is appalling, the characterisation and motivation unbelievable, direction stodgy, effects hilariously bad, and the music is clichéd. Above all it misleads the audience in the cheapest way. It would be unfair to say anything about the actors, because there's simply nothing they can do with the rubbish the writer/producer heaped upon them.I can understand people having affection for this production, but the rest of us should be warned - it truly is a bad film.

Renting a supposed haunted house, an entrepreneur invites guests out for a party for his wife where they learn the house has is haunted by ghosts and forced to stay inside the house as they begin to suspect that the experience has nothing to do with ghosts.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.Today's Rating/PG: Mild Violence.