The Haunted House that Started Haunted Houses!

With campy scares, Carolyn Craig's piercing shrieks and, of course, Vincent Price, it's no wonder the House on Haunted Hill (1959) influenced the horror genre so much. William Castle's methods and productions were so enduring that a production company came together under the name of Dark Castle Productions to revive his works. Their first film in 1999? House on Haunted Hill!

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Image Sourced from IMDb

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Would You Stay in a Haunted House for $10,000?

Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) invites five strangers to a party hosted by himself and his aloof wife, Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), at the house on Haunted Hill. The guests are Nora (Carolyn Craig), Lance (Richard Long), Dr. Trent (Alan Marshal), Ruth (Julie Mitchum), and the house’s current owner, Watson (Elisha Cook Jr.) Whoever stays the night will receive $10,000. The house’s history, recounted by Watson, is full of murder, which includes a past victim being dissolved in a vat of acid in the cellar, and he believes the house is haunted. The house is locked by the caretakers for the night and the guests and hosts are trapped until dawn. Frederick issues everyone “party favors,” a euphemism for handguns. Annabelle retires for the night but is later found hanged in the stairwell. Frederick and the guests, fearing a murderer among them, decide to spend the rest of the night in their rooms for safety. Nora, now incredibly distressed, sees an apparition of Annabelle beckoning her outside her window. She grabs her gun and runs, encountering all sorts of frightening obstacles and ending up in the cellar. Later, Dr. Trent secretly wakes Annabelle, exposing her “death” as an illusion meant to frighten Nora to a point of hysteria. Frederick wanders down to the cellar and is shot by a now hysterical Nora who flees once more. When Dr. Trent comes to throw Frederick into the vat of acid, Frederick throws him in instead. Frederick then uses a rigged skeleton (credited as Himself) to scare and push Annabelle into the vat as well. When the other guests arrive at the scene, Frederick reveals Nora’s gun had only blanks and tells them Dr. Trent and Annabelle had simply fallen into the vat. Watson claims the house has taken two more victims.

Gimmicks Galore!

Directed by William Castle, House on Haunted Hill had relatively large grosses when released in 1959, considering its B-movie rating. This may have been the result of a gimmick Castle used in the theaters called “Emergo.” During the acid vat scene where the skeleton rose out of the vat, a fake skeleton on pulleys was flown around the theater to add to the theatrics. Regardless of the gimmick, Alfred Hitchcock observed the high gross and low film budget and in turn created his hit film Psycho. Another gimmick Castle resorted to was the opening soundtrack of shrieks and scary sounds like rattling chains and whistling winds. This inspired the spooky soundtracks commonly used around Halloween or in haunted houses. Additionally, the exterior shots of the house on Haunted Hill are of the Ennis House designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

The House is Haunted! But Where Are the Ghosts?

As the film began, to say I jumped is an understatement. Listening intently with headphones on, the piercing shriek caught me off guard as it no doubt did audiences in the day. The black screen and the eerie sound effects set the tone for the rest of the film. These horror sounds are used consistently throughout the film to induce fear. Some wind sounds almost like a whisper, and I instinctively thought of the two missing heads that speak to each other. Seems Watson’s stories worked on more than just the guests.

As if to emulate the story of the two missing heads Watson tells later the heads of Watson and Frederick are shown in the beginning to tell the story of the house and guests respectively. The house is revealed and looks simultaneously like it could have been built by Frank Lloyd Wright (It was!) and a modern-day Minecraft player. Its unusual, square design only adds to the mystery of the house.

Frederick and his wife Annabelle share a relationship like that of Morticia and Gomez Addams. That is if Morticia and Gomez loathed each other.

When the Lorens are on screen together, there is always a malicious tension between the two of them and they speak to each other sweetly like an almond pastry laced with cyanide. They immediately talk of murder between them, how he might make homicidal headlines and how she might have even attempted killing him in the past. They’re shown to be a dangerous couple with such intense murderous inclinations towards each other, it leaves the viewer wondering who they might involve or what the house will do to them.

Truly, the only “ghoul” in the house is Frederick. His three prior wives either disappeared or mysteriously died, causing the audience to question his involvement. So, he enters the house as the most highly suspect character and leaves the same way. He manipulates everyone invited to achieve his goal of outsmarting Annabelle and ridding himself of her.

There were two deaths in the movie but three accounts of murders recalled by Watson: a bloody murder upstairs, a woman chopping up two people whose heads were never found, and a woman dying by her husband’s hand in a pool of acid. Watson's listing of murders makes the audience wonder how the next one will happen. Too bad he’s already told us. Annabelle and Dr. Trent meet their fates in the same pit of acid.

This doesn’t make for a frightening ending so much as it suggests having a vat of acid may be dangerous.

However, it may also suggest that the audience has been fooled. Who told of the murder in the wine cellar? Who would have had the most correspondence with the murderer beforehand? Who owns the house? Watson. The vat of acid is the most intriguing part of this. It seems odd, if not unbelievable that the vat would have sat full after the first murder. We only see it full, but what if it had previously been drained? Then, it would have had to be filled prior to the party by the only person with access: Watson. Possibly on the order of Frederick. Maybe Frederick wanted him to spread rumors the people were killed there to further scare the guests and his wife. Even if Watson was just a superstitious drunk, he was used the most by Frederick to kill. If Annabelle could have an accomplice, why not Frederick, too?

Every scene, in the beginning, sets up the house as a character itself. It seems to have a mind of its own, between doors shutting by themselves and chandeliers dropping near unsuspecting victims. But even so, and with Watson’s fearful tales of murders and ghosts, no real ghosts are ever seen. After being teased for an hour, it’s almost disappointing to find the killer is painfully human.

Nora may be the only person staying to witness a “ghost” but there is one inexplicable, perhaps supernatural, event in the film and it happens to Ruth. A bloodstain on the ceiling seems to follow her, having dripped blood on her downstairs only to reappear in her room later to mark her the same way. Maybe, just maybe, the house is haunted after all.

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House on Haunted Hill 1999

Image sourced from IMDb

Murderers Aren't the Only Danger in the House

Amusement park tycoon, Steven Price (Gregory Rush), invites five strangers to the decrepit building that was once the Vannicutt Institute for the Criminally Insane at the cold insistence of his wife, Evelyn (Famke Janssen). A tragedy occurred there decades before where nearly everyone inside was trapped and burned alive after the inmates revolted against Dr. Vannicutt and his inhumane treatments. The house belongs to Watson Pritchard (Chris Kattan), who is convinced the house is haunted and is also the only guest the Prices’ are aware of, as they paid him for use of the house. The other unknown guests are Eddie (Taye Diggs), Dr. Blackburn (Peter Gallagher), Melissa (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras), and Sara (Ali Larter), who is secretly there impersonating original invitee, Jessica Jenkins. Price still upholds them to his offer: stay the night and leave one million dollars richer. The house suddenly goes on lock down, trapping everyone inside. The guests all receive guns and are sent through the maze of hallways to look for an exit but find only “treatment” rooms fit for torture. After a scream is heard, they find Melissa’s camera in a trail of blood which seems to lead into the ceiling. After retiring for the night, Evelyn is found in the electroshock room, electrocuted to death. After an outburst, the others lock Price in a zoetrope saturation room. Blackburn activates it in secret and leaves Price to the torment. Blackburn rouses Evelyn from her sleep after helping her stage her death. The two talk of their plans to scare Sara into shooting Price so they may collect the inheritance. Evelyn then realizes she needs to do something far worse to push Sara over the edge. She kills Blackburn and brings the unconscious Price to his body to frame him. Sara runs into Price, covered in blood, and shoots him in the chest multiple times. Later, Evelyn finds Price’s who was wearing a bulletproof vest. He throws her through a doorway and The Darkness awakens and kills her. Pritchard is then taken by The Darkness and the remaining three try to flee to the attic. Price sacrifices himself to save Sara and she and Eddie make it out alive and find the signed million-dollar checks.

A Revival for William Castle

The House on Haunted Hill, directed by William Malone, was the first film produced by Dark Castle Films. Director Robert Zemeckis is one of the company’s founders, and the original goal of the company was to remake all horror films made by director William Castle. They made one other, Thirteen Ghosts, and then abandoned the idea to create original films. The Darkness in the film was inspired by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and Rorschach inkblot tests used in psychiatry. Price’s terrifying roller coaster “Terror Incognita” is real, if you want to ride it, although it doesn’t feature the rigged car that flies off the rails. It is a roller coaster in Universal’s Island of Adventure theme park in Universal Orlando Resort in Florida called “The Incredible Hulk Coaster.”

Foreshadowing Overshadowed by... A Shadow!

Any Final Destination franchise fan would feel an immediate connection to Price’s roller coaster, “Terror Incognita”. Seven years before the third installment would come out, featuring a runaway roller coaster taking the characters to their dooms, Steven Price’s creation does the same. Only here it is purely for the scare and poses no real threat to his riders. It does, however, do well to introduce him as a methodical man with an off-kilter sense of humor, and maybe a touch of madness.

The film has several instances of foreshadowing but the most important one fails to pay off. Sure, the saturation chamber and electroshock therapy room are hinted at early on, but these feel more like a Chekhov’s gun (which includes the actual gun party favors), almost inevitable that the characters should fall victim to them in some way. The most important piece of foreshadowing is, or at least should be, the stained-glass window in the entryway. It’s eye-catching, it’s eerie, and it marks Evelyn as the first victim of The Darkness, but in many ways bears no resemblance to it or even any connection. Watson calls it “driving demons from the mind.” These “demons” had to go somewhere once the patients and doctors all died, and they were driven to the enclosed room. The call back needed to be present considering that The Darkness feels more like a twist at the end than something the story built up to.

That being said, I appreciated the artistic design of The Darkness. It is a shadow-like Rorschach test which was fitting for the horrors that went on in the sanitarium years ago. In the closeups you can make out the faces and images of those who died, giving it a somewhat amorphous quality--you can never quite place what you’re looking at. But this is a horror movie after all, and the horrors of the asylum need to be disturbing in addition to being well crafted.

So, is The Darkness frightening? I think not for a few reasons. Firstly, it simply doesn’t mesh with the rest of the movie. The atmosphere of the film was beefed up by props and set design, so the actors had something physical to react to. While, yes, The Darkness looked all right, it just wasn’t real enough. Furthermore, many shots of the creeping Darkness don’t reveal anything new. Yes, it’s smoky and it creeps along the ground real slow but there was no need to lead into every manifestation of the Rorschach ghost that way. It seems like director Malone was so taken by the look of it that he didn’t realize how boring the shots become. Still, although I can’t say it was particularly scary, I can say it was an original design.

For a film where the most action happens in the final fifteen minutes, the ending ultimately peters out. It’s hard enough creating a solid way to wrap up a film when you introduce a twist at the end like The Darkness and House on Haunted Hill suffers from that. In exchange for those idle shots of The Darkness, the film sacrifices Eddie and Sara earning their escape. Sara just escapes by being pushed around, once out of the way of the Rorschach ghost by Price and then again when she’s pushed outside by Eddie. Eddie’s fate, too, is essentially left up to chance. He proclaims to the ghosts that he’s adopted and therefore isn’t one of the intended victims. Then, Watson’s spirit, which somehow wasn’t absorbed into the mass, opens the shutter to let him out.

Frankly, I see little reason why Price, Eddie, and Sara should not have made it out alive sooner. Price could’ve made it out if he had just gone back to the opened shudder after telling Eddie and Sara. The two could have escaped after him if Eddie hadn’t told Sara to stay put. Even so, Sara should have gone with him anyway. I mean, there was a corrosive spirit chasing them so why bother waiting around? I guess Malone wanted more drama and to try to drive home the point that the house always gets those it's marked.

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Finally We Have Ghosts!

A Vincent Price classic film will always remain his and it seems Malone tried to emulate that in his 1999 remake with Gregory Rush’s character. This remake’s eccentric billionaire is a man named Stephen Price, no doubt in honor of the late Vincent Price. He even sports the same pencil-thin mustache that was associated with the late actor to boot.

Frederick Loren was as deceitful as he was cunning, and I admit I had my doubts early on if the character of Stephen Price would be upheld to that standard. True, he was vindictive against his wife and remained relatively cool under pressure, but there were many factors of the party he didn’t account for. The guests were not whom he invited, his man behind the scenes seemed not to be in control of the house at all and eventually had his face torn off, and even the bullets that were supposed to be blanks in his wife’s gun were live rounds. Once he was thrown into the saturation chamber I lost all hope of him keeping any of his sanity. It is soon revealed, surprisingly, that Price was a man of the long con. He knew precisely what Evelyn had been up to and had been acting to thwart her plans every step of the way. Loren masterminded the whole party, down to every last detail and his revised character, though perhaps not as or

proved just as methodical.

The house in the newest film goes from being an actual mansion to an abandoned insane asylum. This isn’t necessarily a problem as both have dark backgrounds, but one is more insidious than the other. Years of inhumane experiments conducted within the Vannicutt Institute for the Criminally Insane and a gruesome fire that killed all but five surviving workers and created a horrible evil in the asylum. Here, spooky housekeepers are nowhere to be found, only decrepit surgical rooms and menacing anatomical displays. Compared to the asylum, surviving the night in the 1959 house seems like a breeze, provided you’re not Annabelle or Dr. Trent.

The vat of acid in the wine cellar was disappointingly not in the remake at all. There was a vat of blood that an apparition of Eddie fell into, but it wasn’t the same. With modern effects, a scene with someone falling into acid could have been terrifyingly gory. The 1999 version instead translates the corrosion into the effects of The Darkness, the full effect of which is only witnessed in Evelyn’s death, as Price’s is much shorter. In a sanitarium of horrors like the electroshock room or the saturation chamber, surely there must have been a bath somewhere filled with some sort of caustic or hazardous fluids.

Most importantly, Malone’s House on Haunted Hill gives the viewer what I always felt was denied in the original: real ghosts. William Castle’s film is full of jump scares that are revealed to be the work of Dr. Trent, Annabelle, and Frederick. Ghosts are only mentioned and implied through Watson’s drunken, less-than-trustworthy stories. Without seeing any real haunts, his final line “they’ll come for us… and then they’ll come for you!” feels like an empty promise.

On the other hand, Malone’s version follows the William Castle's formula until the last fifteen minutes, which are entirely original and full of specters. Aside from a few dark hints sprinkled throughout the beginning, most of the shenanigans were conducted by the people in the house. The characters, save Watson, even believed Melissa and the watchman’s deaths to be fake or the work of another person. When all hell breaks loose, quite literally, the ending does become more satisfying, even as it falls apart. This is what we came for! Bona fide spirits!

Malone’s remake feels like an improvement upon the original. The original tricks the viewer; it terrorizes us and makes us believe the house is out to get Nora. The shock comes when it’s revealed the culprit is more real than an ethereal mass. In the remake, however, the story dances between human and ghost evildoers and finally rests with the release of The Darkness. The remake is deserving of its title House on Haunted Hill.

Edited by Miles Ericksen