Directed by: William Castle
Written by: Robb White
Starring: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr., Julie Mitchum
STORY
Frederick Loren is throwing a party.
Of course, when Frederick Loren is played by Vincent Price, accepting the invitation probably should come with a warning, a last will and testament and perhaps a very good life-insurance policy.
Loren has rented a notoriously sinister mansion for one night and invited five strangers to join him and his beautiful fourth wife, Annabelle.
The proposition is wonderfully simple:
Stay in the house until morning and receive $10,000.
There's just one small complication.
The house is supposedly haunted.
And people have died there.
Lots of people.
Watson Pritchard, whose family owns the house, is absolutely convinced that the spirits of its murder victims haven't gone anywhere. He's not telling ghost stories for entertainment. Watson believes every word of it—and Elisha Cook Jr. plays his mounting terror so sincerely that we begin wondering whether perhaps everybody ought to listen to him.
But Frederick Loren isn't terribly concerned.
Vincent Price enters this nightmare with that incomparable Price mixture of elegance, amusement and menace. Loren seems to be enjoying himself immensely, particularly when sparring with Annabelle.
And WHAT a marriage.
Frederick and Annabelle don't merely dislike each other.
They dislike each other beautifully.
Every exchange between Price and Carol Ohmart carries the delicious possibility that one spouse may be contemplating the other's murder—and that the other spouse already knows it.
Then midnight arrives.
The doors are locked.
And nobody can leave until morning.
Suddenly the evening's entertainment becomes considerably less entertaining.
There are screams.
Blood drips from ceilings.
Doors open and close.
A severed head appears where a severed head really shouldn't be.
Nora Manning begins seeing things nobody else seems able to see.
And somewhere beneath the house waits an enormous vat of acid, because apparently this particular piece of real estate wasn't sufficiently concerning already.
As the night progresses, the central question becomes increasingly difficult to answer:
Is the house really haunted?
Or is someone using its murderous history to frighten the guests?
William Castle keeps moving us between supernatural horror and human deception. Just when we think we've figured out the trick, something happens that shouldn't be possible.
And presiding over everything is Vincent Price.
Price understood something essential about this kind of movie: you don't apologize for the material.
You relish it.
A raised eyebrow.
A perfectly timed pause.
That magnificent voice.
A smile suggesting Frederick Loren knows considerably more than he's telling anyone.
Price doesn't merely walk through House on Haunted Hill.
He glides through it.
By the time murder plots, ghosts, skeletons and that unforgettable acid vat have all had their say, Castle has turned one night in a haunted mansion into seventy-five minutes of gloriously theatrical horror.
Is it frightening?
Absolutely.
Is it outrageous?
Frequently.
Is it fun?
Ohhhhh, YES.
Welcome to Fear Frenzy.
AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS
WELCOME, MR. PRICE
House on Haunted Hill was the first collaboration between William Castle and Vincent Price.
And what a pairing.
Castle needed an actor sophisticated enough to give his outrageous premise credibility while still understanding its wicked humor.
Price was perfect.
Frederick Loren became another step in Price's evolution into one of cinema's most recognizable horror stars.
WILLIAM CASTLE: SHOWMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE
William Castle didn't believe audiences should simply watch his movies.
He wanted them to experience them.
Castle became legendary for creating promotional gimmicks around his films—turning moviegoing itself into part of the show.
And for House on Haunted Hill, he came up with one of his greatest.
INTRODUCING… “EMERGO!”
During a crucial sequence in the film, a skeleton rises into view.
For selected theatrical engagements, Castle decided the skeleton shouldn't remain safely on the screen.
So theaters installed a pulley-and-wire system that sent a plastic skeleton flying above the audience.
Castle called his magnificent technological achievement:
EMERGO!
Yes.
A skeleton on a wire got its own name.
THAT is showmanship.
AND THEN THE KIDS DISCOVERED EMERGO
There was one tiny problem with Castle's brilliant gimmick.
Teenage audiences figured it out.
Once moviegoers realized that the skeleton flying over their heads was an irresistible target, some began throwing things at it.
So imagine being a theater manager in 1959.
Vincent Price is battling evil on the screen.
A skeleton is sailing majestically over the auditorium.
And teenagers are trying to shoot the poor thing down.
Cinema!
EVEN THE SKELETON GOT A CREDIT
Stay through the credits and you'll discover one of AIN's favorite little touches.
The production actually credits:
“Skeleton — By Himself.”
No agent.
No manager.
Apparently no SAG card.
Just a hardworking skeleton finally receiving the recognition he deserved.
THE HOUSE IS A MOVIE STAR TOO
Those striking exterior shots weren't photographed at some ordinary Gothic mansion.
The exterior is the Ennis House in Los Angeles, designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Its unusual architecture gives Castle's haunted house an appearance quite different from the traditional Victorian mansion audiences might expect.
Before anyone even enters, the building looks like it knows something unpleasant.
FIVE GUESTS. TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS EACH.
Castle and screenwriter Robb White understood the irresistible simplicity of a great movie premise:
Five strangers.
One haunted house.
One locked night.
$10,000 each if they survive until morning.
You can explain the movie in seconds.
And immediately you want to know what happens.
That is storytelling economy.
VINCENT PRICE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT MOVIE HE'S IN
Price never treats Frederick Loren as a joke.
That's why he's so funny.
His dry delivery allows the humor to emerge from Loren himself rather than from an actor winking at the audience.
Price can make a threat sound like an invitation to dinner—and an invitation to dinner sound suspiciously like a threat.
That quality would help make him one of the defining personalities of American horror cinema.
CASTLE KNEW THE AUDIENCE WAS PART OF THE MOVIE
There is something wonderfully modern about William Castle's approach.
He understood that the movie didn't have to end at the edge of the screen.
Advertising.
Theater gimmicks.
Audience participation.
Publicity stunts.
They could all become part of the entertainment.
Long before anyone used words like “immersive experience,” William Castle was figuring out ways to make audiences feel as though the movie had escaped the screen and entered the theater.
HORROR WITH A SMILE
House on Haunted Hill occupies a wonderful corner of horror history because Castle understands that fear and fun aren't opposites.
Sometimes they're partners.
The audience screams.
Then laughs.
Then screams again.
That roller coaster is precisely what makes a great haunted-house attraction work—and Castle essentially built one on film.
THE AIN FINAL WORD
William Castle was more than a horror director.
He was a showman.
He understood that independent filmmakers couldn't always outspend Hollywood.
But they could sometimes outthink it.
Give audiences something irresistible.
Give them a story they can explain to their friends.
Give them Vincent Price.
And if necessary…
FLY A SKELETON OVER THEIR HEADS.
There is something wonderfully AIN about that philosophy.
Castle took limited resources, an irresistible premise and an extraordinary leading man and turned them into an experience audiences remembered long after they left the theater.
Because movies aren't merely budgets.
They aren't algorithms.
They aren't corporate calculations.
At their best, movies are a filmmaker whispering:
“Come inside. I've got something to show you.”
William Castle opened the doors to the House on Haunted Hill.
Nearly seventy years later, we're still accepting the invitation.
And somewhere, suspended proudly from a wire above us…
Emergo is still waiting.
AIN SEO / ROKU SEARCH INFORMATION
TITLE: House on Haunted Hill
ORIGINAL RELEASE: 1959
U.S. PREMIERE: January 14, 1959 — San Francisco, California
U.S. GENERAL RELEASE: February 17, 1959
GENRE: Horror / Mystery
TYPE: Feature Film
LOCATION: United States
RATING: NR
RATING LOCATION: US
RATING BOARD/AUSPICE: USA Parental Rating
DIRECTOR: William Castle
WRITER: Robb White
STARRING: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr., Julie Mitchum
LANGUAGE: English
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
RUNTIME: Approximately 75 minutes
FORMAT: Black and White
SEARCH / DISCOVERY TAGS: House on Haunted Hill, Vincent Price, William Castle, haunted house, haunted mansion, classic horror, horror, mystery, ghosts, ghost movie, supernatural horror, cult classic, 1950s horror, black and white horror, Frederick Loren, Carol Ohmart, Elisha Cook Jr., Emergo, flying skeleton, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ennis House, independent horror, Fear Frenzy