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The fact that Frederick invites strangers is partly his way of sticking it to his wife. Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) invites five strangers to his wife Annabelle’s (Carol Ohmart) birthday party. Let me discuss the plot of House on Haunted Hill. A plastic skeleton would rise up from a black box and then fly over the audience. House on Haunted Hill had a gimmick called “Emergo,” which took place at a particular moment in the finale. Perhaps more than the films themselves, people knew director William Castle for his promotional gimmicks.
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Vincent Price starred in two of Castle’s films, the other being The Tingler(1959). William Castle directed the original House on Haunted Hill. And of course, he was the Narrator in the Michael Jackson song “Thriller.” One of his last roles was as The Inventor in Edward Scissorhands (1990), probably my favorite Tim Burton film. One of his more amusing credits was in the two-part Hawaii episode of TV’s The Brady Bunch. He appeared in the biblical epic The Ten Commandments (1956) as Baka. There are other non-horror projects wider audiences might recognize Price from. I really like the original The Fly (1958) as well. The Haunted Palace (1963) was another favorite, although I haven’t seen it since high school. I know I’m being a bit basic with those two choices. I had the pleasure about a year ago to finally see it in it’s original 3-D format on Blu-Ray. House of Wax (1953) is probably my 2nd favorite. House on Haunted Hill remains my favorite I believe. Through Mark, I became a Vincent Price fan myself, though nowhere near as much as him. At the time Price was his favorite actor, though I don’t know if that’s still true. Afterward, Mark showed me the original with Vincent Price. His dad first took us to see the remake of House on Haunted Hill in theaters. I want to say it was the first time I spent the night at his house. Mark was the one who would introduce me to Vincent Price. We’d rent several horror movies, and watch as many as possible before falling asleep. This tradition was spending the night at each other’s houses. Throughout high school, and even a little further beyond, Mark and I had a tradition. Coincidentally, I also found out that his mother was my psychiatrist when I was younger. I made a friend that year named Mark who shared my love of horror films. I was lucky to see both versions on the same night, when I was a freshman in high school. That anniversary has already passed, on February 17th. The original House on Haunted Hill (1959) celebrates it’s 60th anniversary this year as well. The remake celebrates it’s 20th anniversary this year, on October 27th. As long as you don’t take it too seriously, House on Haunted Hill is goofy fun. It’s similar to those haunted house attractions that come out every Halloween season. House on Haunted Hill cares perhaps more about being fun than scary. It felt like The Amityville Horror was trying to be a more serious, straightforward horror film.
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I think the difference between these two remakes is in the tone. I recently wrote about how that was a bad haunted house remake, for those unaware. It’s type of random, “jittery” ghosts are similar to those you might find in another remake, The Amityville Horror (2005). I don’t know if I can actually argue the House on Haunted Hill (1999) remake is technically a good movie. Alright, let me first get this out of the way.