House on Haunted Hill (1959)

There's good cheese and there's bad cheese (I'm personally a big fan of the stinky kind, though I know it's an acquired taste) and the same is true of movies. Some may argue with me, but I think House on Haunted Hill is the best kind. This is in large part due to the director William Castle, famous for using gimmicks in the showing of his films. Props, vibrating seats, actors planted within the audience… this was an artist experimenting with a medium and its boundaries and I wish I could have been alive to witness it. Thankfully, the joy that Castle had in making movies still shows through even if you're on a couch instead of seat belted into a theater chair (yes, he really did that).

The film is a half horror/half whodunnit murder mystery about a group of guests invited to stay at a mansion by an eccentric millionaire. If they make it through the night, they each get $10,000… about $75,000 in today's money. Vincent Price is perfect, as always, as Mr. Loren, especially when he briefly looks into the camera and almost seems to wink at the audience near the beginning. Really, that tells you everything you need to know about this movie: Vincent Price winks at you. What more could you ask for or possibly need?

The supporting cast does an equally great job. Carol Ohmart in particular, playing Vincent's fourth wife, is stunningly beautiful and haunting. Their banter back and forth, consisting mostly of their desire to kill each other, makes for some good laughs.

Like any good cheesy movie, the story is punctuated by laughable scenarios and special effects, but Castle ends up having the last laugh with the surprise ending. When the credits roll you realize there was a certain genius in the way he directed his actors and crafted the effects. That alone puts House on Haunted Hill above most other B movies.

It's worth noting that Castle's daughter directed the 1999 remake and while it's not a terrible watch you should do yourself a favor and stick with the original cult classic.