House on Haunted Hill

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“A millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large, spooky, rented house overnight with him and his wife.”

It always makes me happy to watch the classics. I haven’t seen the 1999 remake yet and I’m glad I haven’t. The aura of this movie is what made horror what it is. The acting is so intensely perfect and while it didn’t have the special effects of the modern era, this movies horror scares were pretty, well… effective.

There is the stereotypes of certain characters and luckily the epic Vincent Price lays out each character at the beginning of the movie.

Is it a ghost? Is is a prank? Is it hysteria? Those are the questions that begin in the first half of the movie, setting up some well played jump scares and questionable actions from each of the characters. Leaving the suggestions and making the viewer start to question and look closer – This is what a good suspenseful movie is made to be.

The actress who plays Price’s wife (Carol Ohmart) gives a striking performance as a strong woman who knows who she is and has this form of control that you didn’t see often in earlier movies. Usually women were weak and submissive. She plays off Price’s character and gives us a relationship that adds to the mystery of the whole situation.

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT

Marriage doesn’t always equal love. And the best laid plans can fall apart. The ending made sense but… still left some things in question. Like, if he knew the plan, why not just… I don’t know. Why the theatrics? Well, I mean, besides making a good movie.

And was the guy who believed in the ghosts crazy or were they real?

Side Note: The skeleton in the end of the movie is actually real. A lot of people try to say Poltergeist was cursed for using a real skeleton but they’ve been used since the dawn of movies.