House on Haunted Hill (1958)
| director: | William Castle |
| release-year: | 1958 |
| genres: | horror, shocktober |
| countries: | USA |
| languages: | English |
| fests: | SHOCKtober 2025: The Conjuring |
Vincent Price's head narrates straight into the camera, telling us about his wife's plan to throw a ghost-themed party at the local haunted house, which happens to sit atop a haunted hill (and also happens to be the Frank Lloyd Wright house that Decker lived in in Blade Runner) . When we meet Price's wife at said ghost-themed party in said haunted house, she rejects the credit and refuses to even attend. She and Vincent exchange unpleasantries, both threatening to kill each other. It's a strained marriage.

They've invited five total strangers for the party, offering them each $10,000 if they stay the whole night. They can leave freely any time up until midnight, when they will be locked in, wooOOooOo! The young girl says she'd like to leave before midnight, but they lock her in anyway. WoooOoOooO!

From there it's basically Clue, except slow and unfunny and with really cheap and badly executed visuals. And from the 1950s, so they keep offering the women sedatives.

Vincent hands out pistols like candy, and nobody bats an eye. They walk around the house all night waggling their pistols around. There's a ludicrous amount of light in every scene, considering the only source of illumination is a few candles in each room.

Vincent's wife is found dead, hanging from the ceiling. Mysterious! More Clue shenanigans, some secrets, a double-cross, a triple-cross, and a plastic skeleton dancing on fishing wire. There's a vat of acid under the floor in the basement. It ends abruptly, forgetting to conclude itself.
