Even though I absolutely detested "The Last Man on Earth" and refuse to accept that this is some kind of lost classic, it made me aware of Vincent Price who was the only good thing about that movie. Because of him, I decided to check out something that I have never seen before and it was a very good idea. Excellent, in fact.
"House on Haunted Hill" is a delicious Halloween treat, occasionally creepy, suspenseful and harmless enough to watch along with the kids without traumatising them with nightmares. On the other hand, if I was a kid, I would probably pee myself anyway just at the sounds coming out from the darkness, not to mention opening scene with frenzied Elisha Cook as the owner of the haunted house, who warns us that ghosts are real and they are coming. What freaked the audiences back in 1959 is not the same as what we consider scary today but still this old movie absolutely holds our attention, even though we suspect there is no supernatural beings involved in this macabre plot.
Its easy to be cynical and clever in hindsight from our current point of view, but back in 1959 this must have been genuinely scary and strangely enough, it still works, though not so much as horror as a very clever suspense movie. It suggest horror, but we understand there must be some other explanation (otherwise it would have been a really bad movie), Alfred Hitchcock probably liked this because it plays maliciously with our nerves the way he always did. Vincent Price is right front and centre with all the supporting characters twirling around, running around, opening doors and there is a excellent atmosphere of upcoming doom but generally this is great, old fashioned fun and still joy to watch.
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