The Movie That Released a Skeleton into the Theater
I found the house on a shelf at a used bookstore.
There was Vincent Price, staring out from the cover of House on Haunted Hill, looking as though he already knew how the evening would end. I took the movie home. It wasn’t a coincidence, I was wearing the appropriate vintage T-shirt.
Some artifacts demand proper handling.
Released in 1959, House on Haunted Hill begins with an invitation that sounds almost reasonable. Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren offers five strangers $10,000 each if they can remain inside a reportedly haunted house until morning.
The doors will lock at midnight.
There are no telephones.
The windows are barred.
And at least seven people have already died inside.
Still interested?
An Invitation from Vincent Price
Vincent Price plays Frederick Loren, the host of the evening and a man who appears to enjoy making every sentence sound faintly threatening.
Loren claims that he rented the house to hold a birthday party for his fourth wife, Annabelle. Their marriage is not going particularly well. She suspects he murdered some of his previous wives. He believes she has attempted to poison him.
This is all discussed with remarkable politeness.
The five guests have never met one another. They were each selected because they need money. If they remain in the house until morning, they receive $10,000. If anyone leaves, the remaining guests divide that person’s share.
Then the caretakers depart.
The doors close.
Each guest receives a small coffin containing a loaded handgun.
It may be one of the least reassuring party favors in film history.
Is the House Actually Haunted?
That question becomes surprisingly difficult to answer.
The house contains secret rooms, severed heads, blood dripping from the ceiling and a basement equipped with an open vat of acid. One guest encounters an old woman who appears without warning, glides from the room and becomes one of the most memorable figures in the movie.
Meanwhile, Watson Pritchard, the house’s nervous owner, insists that the ghosts are real. His brother died in the house, and Pritchard believes the dead are still there.
Everyone else suspects that Frederick Loren is arranging the horrors himself.
They may be right.
They may not be completely right.
That uncertainty is where the movie remains most interesting. House on Haunted Hill is part ghost story, part murder mystery and part carnival attraction. Every apparent haunting might have a human explanation, but the house never becomes entirely innocent.
Even after the plot reveals some of its machinery, Pritchard continues listening for the ghosts.
Perhaps he knows something the others do not.
The Real House on Haunted Hill
The building seen in the exterior shots is the Ennis House in Los Angeles. Frank Lloyd Wright designed it for Charles and Mabel Ennis, and it was completed in 1924.
It does not resemble the Victorian mansion shown on the movie poster. Its massive patterned concrete blocks give it the appearance of an ancient temple built above the city.
More than 27,000 blocks were used in its construction. The building later appeared in productions including Blade Runner and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It makes its first appearance in Season 2, Episode 19 I Only Have Eyes for You.
Only the exterior was used for House on Haunted Hill. The strange corridors, bedrooms and acid-filled basement were created on soundstages.
In other words, the house in the movie is really several houses at once: a Frank Lloyd Wright exterior, a collection of studio interiors and an impossible mansion imagined by the poster artist.
That somehow makes it feel more like a legendary place. Everyone recognizes the house, but no one could actually walk through it as it appears onscreen.
The House on Haunted Hill 1959 Cast
The cast includes:
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Vincent Price | Frederick Loren |
| Carol Ohmart | Annabelle Loren |
| Richard Long | Lance Schroeder |
| Carolyn Craig | Nora Manning |
| Elisha Cook Jr. | Watson Pritchard |
| Alan Marshal | Dr. David Trent |
| Julie Mitchum | Ruth Bridgers |
Price commands the movie, but Elisha Cook Jr. gives it its haunted conscience. His Pritchard looks like a man who has already seen too much and made the unfortunate decision to return.
Carolyn Craig also delivers one of the great sustained screams of 1950s horror. According to William Castle’s daughter, Craig screamed so intensely during filming that she reportedly required treatment for her throat.
William Castle’s “Emergo”
The strangest part of House on Haunted Hill did not happen inside the movie.
Director and producer William Castle loved theatrical gimmicks. Long before 4D movies, he created something he called Emergo.
At participating theaters, exhibitors installed a pulley system near the screen. During the climactic scene in which a skeleton rises from the acid, a lighted plastic skeleton traveled along a wire above the audience.
The monster had escaped the film.
Children reportedly threw popcorn and other objects at it as it passed. In some theaters, the skeleton became less a terrifying apparition and more a flying target.
It did not matter. Castle understood that people would remember it.
A movie could be watched and forgotten. A skeleton floating over your seat became a story you told afterward.
That may be the most enduring lesson of House on Haunted Hill. Castle was not merely trying to frighten an audience. He was manufacturing an urban legend one theater at a time.
People did not say, “I watched a movie last night.”
They said, “A skeleton came out of the screen.”
Does House on Haunted Hill Still Hold Up?
Yes, although perhaps not for the reason it did in 1959.
The effects are visible. The skeleton is delightfully theatrical. Some of the scares now feel more like walking through an old neighborhood haunted house than watching a modern horror movie.
That is part of its charm.
The film moves quickly, Vincent Price is having a marvelous time and the bitter exchanges between Frederick and Annabelle are nearly as dangerous as the ghosts.
Beneath the cobwebs is a clever little mystery about money, marriage and people who are never quite what they claim to be.
This movie seems to understand something fundamental about haunted houses.
Entering is easy. The trouble begins when the doors lock behind you.
Final Report
Artifact: House on Haunted Hill
Year: 1959
Director: William Castle
Primary suspect: Vincent Price
Reported manifestations: Ghosts, bloodstains, sever
Watch the movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo6UW_vnQ9Y