Film of the Day: 19
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Legendary film maker, producer, screenwriter and actor William Castle was responsible for many of the B-movies of the '50s and '60s, although he started his career in the '40s. He was mainly known for his low-budget horror films that were filled with his trademark gimmicks. He was born April 24, 1914 and died today in 1977 at the age of 63.
He was famous for films such as Homicidal, Strait-Jacket, 13 Ghosts (remade in 2001), The Tingler and my favourite, House on Haunted Hill staring Vincent Price (who was also in The Tingler the same year) which was also horrible remade in 1999. His gimmicks in films varied and in House on Haunted Hill he had an inflatable glow in the dark skeleton on a wire, floating across the cinema over the audience towards the end of the film when Price pursued his wife into a hole full of acid with a skeleton. This was not always frightful to the audience of 1959, sometimes it became a target for soda cans and popcorn.
This film is almost a camp version of the brilliant and eerie The Haunting from 1963 which was a great horror film, and so is this in a way only you must know what you're in for, and that's eerie fun that will sure as hell excite you for 90 minutes. Despite his films being very low-budget, his films were very well advertised, everybody knew of them and him, he had become one of the icons in the B-horror movie genre. He was also the producer of the masterpieces The Lady from Shanghai and Rosemary's Baby.
We now look at Castle's films as cheap horror camp films, but we should look at them for what they were, B-movies, cheaply made to entertain us. Yes they were camp, but they were a lot of fun and we sometimes take this for granted. New audiences are always looking for horror films to make them jump. Well this is also camp in a way, there's not much story in them anyways and back in the day, that's exactly what these films were... cheap thrills.
Click here for the trailer
There is also a documentary honouring William Castle titled Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story from 2007.
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He was famous for films such as Homicidal, Strait-Jacket, 13 Ghosts (remade in 2001), The Tingler and my favourite, House on Haunted Hill staring Vincent Price (who was also in The Tingler the same year) which was also horrible remade in 1999. His gimmicks in films varied and in House on Haunted Hill he had an inflatable glow in the dark skeleton on a wire, floating across the cinema over the audience towards the end of the film when Price pursued his wife into a hole full of acid with a skeleton. This was not always frightful to the audience of 1959, sometimes it became a target for soda cans and popcorn.
This film is almost a camp version of the brilliant and eerie The Haunting from 1963 which was a great horror film, and so is this in a way only you must know what you're in for, and that's eerie fun that will sure as hell excite you for 90 minutes. Despite his films being very low-budget, his films were very well advertised, everybody knew of them and him, he had become one of the icons in the B-horror movie genre. He was also the producer of the masterpieces The Lady from Shanghai and Rosemary's Baby.
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| William Castle |
Click here for the trailer
There is also a documentary honouring William Castle titled Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story from 2007.
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I have not seen this film cause I'm not into horror, although it's not what u'd call a real horror flick.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's comical, to me it would still be that kind of weird, strange humor.
I would still pass this one up.
Great review though!