I've seen the remake of House On Haunted Hill several times (I rather love it), but I never saw the original until last night. I'm amazed at how many plot points from the original actually turned up in the remake. I'd just assumed that the remake was going off on its own crazy tangents. And it did, but not as much as I thought it did.
Vincent Price invites five people he doesn't know (Pretty Girl, Handsome Guy, Business Man, Gosspy Lady and Scaredy Man) to a haunted house party he's throwing for his Bitchy Wife and tells them anyone who stays through the night will be given ten thousand dollars. Then spooky shit starts happening.
The movie is very of its time. It was stagey, it was talky, Handsome Guy was named Lance and Pretty Girl went from zero to hysterical in nothing flat. Is it just me, or is it the fifties in here?
Anyway, the point is, I generally like stagey, talky movies from before I was born and the parts of this movie that were supposed to be scary really were pretty scary, which was more than I was expecting. I guess I just assumed William Castle movies were campy and, without the gimmicks, boring.
And maybe that's true of some of his other movies, but House On Haunted Hill is solid.
End of line.
-Sally
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