Tuesday, March 24, 2009

House on Haunted Hill (1958)

For my first review, it was suggested I take on the original House on Haunted Hill. I remember seeing this back in '99 when the remake came out and I quite liked it, but the original sucked. I tried to keep in mind the context, but this just sucked. I probably won't be going retro for a while after this, thank God.

A poor attempt to pull off a handful of plot twists, and laden with terribly wooden acting, especially on part of the wrecked blond who screamed constantly like a whistle. The film almost redeems itself with the entertainment we get from the husband and wife, but it's all moot in the end.

This is yet another campy, cheesy, not-scary horror movie classic. For those of you aiming to use these classics as history lessons, @#$! these history lessons. I like horror movies, especially offbeat cult films. Do I need to paste the definition of horror in here?

I probably won't say this a lot, but, save your time and watch the remake.

3 comments:

  1. I really have to rewatch this for the third time, because I walked away saying the EXACT same thing (minus the remake part, fuck the remake). Its definitely a cheesefest, but now that Ive finished the Horror Classics box set and can put the film into perspective against 49 other cheesy films, maybe there will be a new found appreciation for it since the others ranged from terrible to worse. Im with you though, extremely campy and not even remotely scary.

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  2. I don't know what you guys were expecting, this movie is 50 years old. Obviously it's gonna be campy. I'd rather read reviews about modern movies that i might actually watch.

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  3. Lucas - My feelings exactly, which is why I told Chris I'm not spending time on these queer old movies anymore. I could've made a better movie with my iPhone!

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