Directed by William Castle and starring the one-and-only Vincent Price, House on Haunted Hill (1959) is a low-budget masterpiece of the macabre. Castle, an eccentric, wanted his film to extend beyond the screen. So, in select theaters, he had elaborate pulley systems rigged so that a plastic skeleton could swing and hover above the audience at the proper moments. Such gimmicks proved to be a success... so much so, that even Alfred Hitchcock was impressed with how House on Haunted Hill was able to accomplish so much with so little, and Hitchcock set out to make his own low-budget horror film soon after... called Psycho (1960).
Millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) is hosting a party for his 4th wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) in a creepy haunted mansion...
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| The House on Haunted Hill. 1959 |
He has invited five strangers, offering them $10,000 each if they can make it through the night in the cursed home...
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| The House on Haunted Hill. 1959 |
The task is far from simple, as ghoulish figures appear...
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| The House on Haunted Hill. 1959 |
and mistrust grows to murder...
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| The House on Haunted Hill. 1959 |
increased tension leads to fright as the walls are closing in...
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| The House on Haunted Hill. 1959 |
but is it really a supernatural force at play...
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| The House on Haunted Hill. 1959 |
or something else entirely...
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| The House on Haunted Hill. 1959: Vincent Price |
