The House on Haunted Hill

Campy horror movie, released in 1958. Directed by William Castle and written by Robb White. Starred Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshall, Carolyn Craig, and Elisha Cook, Jr.

Here's the basic plot: eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren, played by Price, and his fourth wife, played by Ms. Ohmart, have invited five people to their mansion on Haunted Hill for a haunted house party. Anyone who stays in the house the whole night and makes it out alive will be given $10,000 each. As the guests are locked into the house, ghosts start appearing and people start dying.

When the film was shown in theaters, it featured one of producer Castle's patented gimmicks: at a certain point in the movie, a glow-in-the-dark skeleton appeared from behind the screen and swooped over the heads of the audience.

In 1999 a remake of the original 1958 version was released. (see the excellent writeup by Jet-Poop for info about the original) This remake was directed by William Malone. Re-written by Dick Beebe. Players: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson, Lisa Loeb, and more.

Six strangers have the chance to make $1,000,000 each. All they have to do is make it through the night alive.

An eccentric millionaire, Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush), hosts a party for his wife Evelyn (Famke Janssen). They are both very dark individuals and decide to have the party in a nearby "Haunted" Asylum. Instead of the usual friends of Evelyn Price invites six individuals to spend the night in the place offering them 1 million dollars each if they can survive the night.

I thought this movie was pretty intense. Although I think the first half to two thirds of the movie was better than the rest. It kind of lost me when it dropped the suspense and merely went on horror and gore. Try to get this on DVD it has some pretty cool extras. I'll give this movie 3.0/4.0.