La Nuit de tous les mystères

Forget the awful, senseless remake, the original 'The House On Haunted Hill' is one of the most entertaining and enjoyable chillers of all time. William Castle's over the top camp style is an acquired taste for many, but once you enter into the spirit of things you're in for a wild, fun ride. The legendary Vincent Price is in his element here as the cynical millionaire trapped in a loveless sham of a marriage, and Carol Ohmart, who I have only ever seen in the cult classic 'Spiderbaby', is a knockout as his tough as nails "better half". Their haunted house party guests, led by the much loved character actor Elisha Cook, Jr ('The Maltese Falcon' ,The Killing',etc.etc.), are well cast and amusing, and the whole thing is a hoot! I recommend this movie to all horror fans. It is quite possibly the single most entertaining horror thriller of the 50s. Supremely silly but still scary at the same time. Great stuff!

There's something to be said for a society that could be scared much more easily than they are now. These late fifties and early sixties horror movies always filled the bill. There was always a hand reaching from behind a curtain to touch a young lady's shoulder, there was always a room where we shouldn't go, there was always Vincent Price. In addition to the introductions at the beginning which I love, especially Elisha Cook, there are all the dark wonderings put forth for us to chew on. Right on cue, something would make us jump, a few minutes would pass, and there it was again. I remember when skulls and skeletons could drive anyone to hysterics. They are tame now; we want more gore, dismemberment, disfigurement. This is a nicely paced mystery story. It could be pretty average but for Price's consistently eerie presence. He is so pained all the time. I imagine he has been seen as the villain in almost every film in which he appears, but we always wonder. The young woman in this movie supplies enough screams for everyone, and well she should. She seems to be the one that is being used over and over. We have the handsome Richard Long who is consistently skeptical as his young romantic lead tells him story after story. She is being set up to shoot Vincent. And then the house, which looks from the outside like a sports museum, has the secrets. Cook keeps reminding us that seven have been killed. He is an absolute mess but we need someone to keep the ghostly element involved. Did anyone think it might be a good idea to do something about that vat of acid in the basement. Did anyone stay in their rooms when all mayhem was breaking out. It doesn't matter because this movie is what it is. A spook show for a Friday night in the late fifties.

William Castle has made several wonderful horror films; some obviously better than others, but at the top of the list are "Thirteen Ghosts" and "House on Haunted Hill." This movie might though have been all but forgotten if not one plucky guy recently remade this movie in to a much more gory movie. That movie is a remake in name only, but this one is obviously more superior because it has the incredibly creepy presence of Vincent Price and the nervous tick of Elisha Cook. The ghosts aren't very scary, nor do we see anything really supernatural, but the atmosphere and uneasiness of this film makes for an incredible who done it story as you wonder who will get it. The set is intoxicating inasmuch as you never really see all of it, nor is it really explained what such a dangerous pit is doing in such a precarious spot in the basement. Such a matter isn't important. On the other side of the coin, the music and the special effects are rather hokey, but then when this was in the theaters, a lot of the teenagers would have been making out to have really bothered to pick this movie apart. It is only in recent years that movies have turned away from gore and back to movies with style and substance that we appreciate films like this.

Vincent Price asks five strangers to spend an evening in a haunted house for ten thousand dollars a piece. With his estranged wife in tow, the seven house guests begin a nocturnal odyssey of mayhem, murder, and the macabre. This film is a great vehicle for Price's unique talents as an actor, and is also a very atmospheric film due in large part to the direction of William Castle. Castle gives us all kinds of horror in the traditional vein...a severed head, a skeleton, the screaming-without-end hysterical young woman, the plot twists and turns, and the firmly planted tongue-in-cheek. The cast is very good, with Carol Omhart, as Price's elegant and gorgeous wife, and Elisha Cook, as a drunken sot who continually rants about all the evil that has happened in the house, as standouts. This is a great Halloween film, or one that you turn off the lights to watch.

This film is truly awful. A revamp of the old Cat & the Canary formula. A theme done to death. Yet I love it for the shallow and stiff characters, lazy script and muddled story line. None of it works. The writer feels the need to 'explain' everything - but a psychological intepretation would have been better? But who could forget that final scene of the skeleton trundling out from the vat of acid - a giant string puppet!!! Oh what rubbish but I've seen this film time and time again and it IS a little scary in parts. I have to say I enjoy it more than the recent Gosford Park. Ahhh they don't make them like this anymore. Unintentionally funny throughout!!!