Film:
DVD:

The House on Haunted Hill
Written by Rob White
Directed by William Castle
Starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshall, Carolyn Craig

Anamorphic: The Bat is, Haunted Hill is not
My Advice: Rent it

In The Bat, author Cornilia van Gorder (Moorehead) is hosting a party for the weekend. What the guests don't know is that the serial killer called "The Bat" is on the loose and picking off the guests one by one. Bank president John Fleming (Harvey Stephens) confides in his doctor, Dr. Malcolm Wells (Price) about his embezzling a million dollars in securities from his own bank vault. Rather than becoming an accessory, Wells decides to commit his own murder and stake his claim on the whole million rather than splitting it with Fleming. Only Wells knows what the embezzled million and the serial killer have in common and he's not talking.

This film should be heralded as a perfect example of how to write really boring and unrealistic exposition. The very first short scene in the film jumps right into the fact that there is a serial killer on the loose called "The Bat," and does so with all the grace of a drunk hippo. However, once we get past all the boring exposition, this film really starts to pick up the pace and the suspense. This film spends more time creating suspense rather than trying to jump straight to the scares with cheesy special effects--and the suspense it creates is, for the most part, effective. Again, Price is impeccable in his role as the creepy doctor. If his supporting cast were a little better, this film would have been much better.

In The House on Haunted Hill, Fredrick Loren (Price) has decided to host a party for his latest wife, Annabelle (Ohmart), but she doesn't know any of the guests. See each of them are being paid to be there...but only if they can survive the night. The party is going to be held at the House on Haunted Hill, naturally. Each of the guests will be paid $10,000 if they stay the entire night in the house. If they don't survive the night, their money will be given to their next of kin.

It's funny to watch these old horror movies and compare them with the horror movies that are being made today. The special effects that scared the pants off of audiences then simply make us giggle today. The only thing that makes films like Hill worth watching today is Vincent Price's portrayal of these really creepy characters. Everything and everyone else about this movie is really just movie history--and the basis for a remake.

The lack of any special features will keep this double feature on the rental list, but then only on a night when you want to have a decent make-out movie at that.