13 Nights of Shocktober: House on Haunted Hill (1959)

by A.J.

Night 13: Happy Happy Halloween

“I’ve rented the house on Haunted Hill tonight so my wife can give a party. A haunted house party… You’re all invited.”

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Fright Favorites written by David J. Skal and published by TCM describes House on Haunted Hill (1959) as “one of the most preposterous movies ever made—and one of the most enjoyable.” “Preposterous” and “enjoyable” are the key words to House on Haunted Hill, one of the classic “so bad it’s good” movies. It is also genuinely entertaining and even has a good scare or two. It was produced and directed by William Castle, who was as much a showman as a filmmaker. He would incorporate carnivalesque gimmicks into the theatrical experience and since his movies were typically low budget and cheesy, this only made them more fun. His most famous gimmick was rigging certain theater seats with a buzzer and hiring actors to jump in their seats during a scene when the monster escapes in The Tingler. For House on Haunted Hill the gimmick was presenting the film in “Emergo'' which meant that for a certain scene a model skeleton, seeming to emerge from the screen, would fly over the audience. The effect didn’t always work. Castle was well aware of his audience, mostly younger people and children, and knew how to give them a good time. House on Haunted Hill is still a good time 

The plot is a take on the ‘old dark house’ story, a type of whodunnit where people gathered in a creepy house had to solve a mystery or murder. The possibility of the supernatural loomed but the solution was rational. Horror legend Vincent Price stars as Fredrick Loren, the host of the party; he also feels like a master of ceremonies. He has invited 5 strangers to a supposedly haunted house he rented to have a party for his wife and is offering $10,000 to the guests if they make it through the night, or he’ll give it to their nearest relative if they don’t survive. So, the bottom line is he’s giving away money no matter what. He may also be using the party as an elaborate way to kill his wife, Annabelle (Carol Ohmart). They cannot stand each other and she only speaks to him with contempt. In one scene he looms over her, pulls her by her hair, asks, “Would you adore me as much if I were poor?” and gives a sinister chuckle. The haunted house party was her idea but he is the host and their continued bickering over whose party it is makes for an unusual, likely unintentional, running gag. 

The protagonists should be Nora, a secretary, and Lance, a test pilot, but she does little more than wander into one spooky situation after the other and scream at everything and Lance proves to be an uncharismatic dolt. Elisha Cook Jr plays the Elisha Cook Jr role, meaning he is the weak pushed around nerd and/or geek. He is the owner of the house and also the most afraid of it. He plays his character well but has little more to do than show up and rattle on about ghosts. Price and his charisma really hold the movie together. You know he is up to no good but want to see where he is going. 

Just how ridiculous is this movie? It opens with a montage of screams over a black screen followed by not one, but two floating heads that appear and explain the premise of the movie. The house has a pre-existing pool of acid in the basement, you might call it Chekhov’s pool of acid. One jump scare that legitimately works, even after repeat viewings, has Nora being surprised by the creepy witch-like face of one of the caretakers. This is immediately followed by one of the most hilarious moments on film as the caretaker-witch simply glides away as though she is a mannequin being pulled on a skateboard. The most preposterous moment of the movie has all of the characters agreeing to a good idea: they will stay in their rooms for the rest of the night. Then they all leave their rooms and start wandering again and no one ever brings up that they were supposed to stay in their rooms. In a great reveal, Price emerges from the shadows wearing an elaborate marionette pulley system and he sells it completely. 

This movie is not scary but it is so much spooky good fun. I think William Castle would be satisfied to hear that his House on Haunted Hill is still entertaining people in the 21st century, even without an inflatable skeleton flying over them. He also wouldn’t be surprised. House on Haunted Hill is in the public domain so you can easily find it streaming and on DVD in both colorized and original black and white (naturally I recommend the black and white). For some extra fun, you can watch the RiffTrax Live version, currently streaming on Tubi, featuring the former stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, providing a hilarious commentary to the movie as well as some shorts.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Matinee

by A. J.

Happy Halloween! The countdown is over and Halloween is finally upon us. Tonight, hopefully, you'll be relaxing, eating some candy, and watching a scary, or not-so-scary, movie. There are a lot of options for tonight and I hope I've been of some help. Here is my final recommendation to help bring an end to Shocktober:

Night 13: Matinee
Theater Manager: “The country is on red alert. People are already scared.”

Lawrence Woolsey: “Exactly! What a perfect time to open a new horror movie.”

Matinee, directed by Joe Dante begins with real images of actual horrors: stock footage of nuclear blasts annihilating a house, bending and breaking trees. This is what was on the minds of Americans in October of 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, especially those in Key West, Florida where Matinee takes place. Film producer and showman Lawrence Woolsey comes into town to test screen his latest movie, MANT, a cheesy B-horror movie about a man turning into a radioactive ant monster. Woolsey thinks the atmosphere of nuclear hysteria that the town is feeling is perfect for the premiere of his film. He needs it to be a big success to impress a big time theater owner and get nationwide bookings. Luckily, Woolsey has a few tricks up his sleeve.

The other main character is a young teenager named Gene Loomis. His family just moved to Key West because his father is in the Navy and is serving on one of ships surrounding Cuba. Gene and his little brother, Dennis, spend their free time at the local movie theater watching low budget horror movies. When another boy that lives on naval base asks if they want to shoot frogs with an air gun, Dennis is excited until Gene politely tells the boy no and whispers to Dennis, “that’s disgusting.” Dennis immediately agrees. These boys only like horror and death when it is fake and on a screen.

The boys are both big fans of Woolsey and get to meet him outside of the movie theater when Woolsey shows up to address some men protesting his upcoming movie. Gene recognizes one of the protesters from Woolsey’s previous movie and realizes the protest is staged. When he brings it up to Woolsey in a later scene, Woolsey is impressed and befriends Gene. As they walk around town Woolsey talks to Gene about the appeal of horror and monster movies. He tells him that people that put their hands over their eyes for the scary parts aren’t getting the full experience of the movie. When the scare is over you feel safe and alive, you know you are alive. That’s what horror movies are all about.

Matinee is inspired by horror movie producer/director/promoter William Castle and the kitschy, but loveable, movies he made in the 1950s and 60s. John Goodman is great as the kid-at-heart Lawrence Woolsey, who is based directly on Castle. The first time we see Woolsey is in a trailer for his upcoming movie. He is in a pose recreating William Castle's famous silhouette (the second most famous silhouette in movies): sitting in a director’s chair with a cigar and looking up. Castle’s films succeeded largely because of the gimmicks he used to enhance the viewing experience and scare the audience. Perhaps his most famous gimmick is from The Tingler starring Vincent Price. Certain theater seats were rigged with buzzers to give the moviegoers in those seats a jolt, at just the right moment, and scare them out of their seats. Woolsey uses the same effect for MANT, along with a few others. He also hires someone to run out into the audience in an ant suit during certain scenes and requires everyone seeing MANT to sign a waiver in case they are scared to death (another gimmick Castle used for one of his movies).

The screening for MANT is the climax of Matinee and is over the top, to say the least. It’s the kind of showing that William Castle would’ve dreamed of having. However, the real heart of the climax is what is happening between Gene, his friend Stan, and their respective dates. Matinee does a great job of showing us the romanticized version of life in the early 1960s, but also the real fears and dangers of the era. The kids are just as worried about nuclear war as the adults, but they also have average teenage worries that keep them from slipping into hysteria.

Matinee is not just a movie about movies, a genre I happen to love, it is about moviegoers and storytellers. It is about how movies can be a type of catharsis and help us escape from reality, even if that reality is impending nuclear war. It is a rare love letter to horror movies and why we go to them, even bad ones. It does its best to try to show us the intangible experience of going to the movies. William Castle did his best to give his audiences a true and memorable experience and Matinee is a fitting and loving tribute to him and his movies.