10. House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Dir William Castle
Cast: Vincent Price, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr, Carol Ohmart...
One of the only movies that I own a shirt of depicting the film's poster, this off the wall 50s cult classic is probably just as notable as the film's legendary director William Castle, the king of the gimmick. Whether it was handing out life insurance policies to audiences before seeing his 1958 film Macabre or floating inflatable skeleton's above audiences seeing the film we speak of today, the eccentric Castle loved to spook people with a great enthusiasm and left behind some pretty entertaining horror flicks, especially with this 1959 film.
Set around the scenario of a small group of people being challenged to stay in a haunted house to receive $10,000. House on Haunted Hill is more or less a big excuse to set up all sorts of scares involving; ghosts, murders and other terrors, but hey I ain't complaining. This movie is just good old fashioned fun and highly entertaining for fans of vintage horror. The highly talented Vincent Price leads a fun ensemble cast into plenty of twists and turns leaving for a surprisingly unpredictable viewing experience.
William Castle's low budget B-movies weren't great cinematic achievements but he did what he loved and it really rubs off an the audience. There's been some pretty crappy remakes of some of his films such as this one and 13 Ghosts (1960) but no way are those films half as memorable as an campy Castle outing. And even if these films were somewhat cheesy it was always a treat to see a talent like Vincent Price capture us with his serio-comic attitude and classic eerie speaking voice. SImply put this is what effective B-movie horror is all about.
Fright Fact: Inspired Alfred Hitchcock to make Psycho
Horror Highlight:All I could find were 10 minutes scenes from the movie, so I'll just give you the trailer.
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