HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) Blu-ray Review

House on Haunted Hill (1959) d. William Castle (USA) (75 min)

This classic fright-fest frivolity from producer/director Castle stars Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren, offering $10,000 to five diverse guests if they can spend the entire night in the titular haunted house; thrills and chills ensue.

Castle has never been more adept at creating straight-faced spooky atmosphere, and Robb White’s snaky screenplay provides characters and mystery adequate to hold our attention through the film’s zippy running time. Doors creak open and slam shut, decapitated heads appear and disappear, and vats of acid bubble deliciously in the cellar, with a wonderfully cheesy skeleton topping off the delightful buffet.

HOUSE OF USHER (1960): CORMAN + PRICE + POE = GOTHIC HORROR GOLD

HOUSE OF USHER (1960) d. Roger Corman (USA)
PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961) d. Roger Corman (USA)

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Journey into the heart of gothic horror with House of Usher, Roger Corman’s moody and mesmerizing film version of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story. Released in 1960, Usher marks the beginning of Corman’s AIPoe series, his celebrated octet of Poe-inspired works, and it’s an atmospheric triumph of mood and style.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) / THE TINGLER (1959) AT 65!!!

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) d. William Castle (USA)
THE TINGLER (1959) d. William Castle (USA)

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Words like "Emergo" and "Percepto" may not be common knowledge for younger horror aficionados, but for classic horror fans, they instantly bring a smile to our faces as we remember the first time we heard the names of producer/director William Castle and actor Vincent Price. Both approached their work with a boundless sense of gusto and enthusiasm, and the results were astonishing and have endured for over six decades.

CORMAN, PRICE, & POE in '64: THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH/THE TOMB OF LIGEIA

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964) d. Roger Corman (USA/UK)
THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964) d. Roger Corman (USA/UK)

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We at HORROR 101 would like to honor the passing of the late great Roger Corman by highlighting two of the more unusual efforts in his now-classic series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, both of which premiered in 1964 and both starring the inimitable Crown Prince of Horror, Vincent Price: The Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia.

THE FLY (1958) / RETURN OF THE FLY (1959) / CURSE OF THE FLY (1965) Round Table!!

Celebrating a classic sci-fi/horror trilogy: THE FLY (1958), RETURN OF THE FLY (1959), and CURSE OF THE FLY (1965)!

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Veteran director Kurt Neumann mostly toiled in mid-tier melodramas, Westerns and Tarzan movies throughout his long career, but had already made a few notable entries in the realm of science fiction cinema with Rocketship X-M (1950) and Kronos (1957). Released two months before his death in August 1958, THE FLY has endured for 65 years as true classic, not losing any of its power to shock and surprise.

THEATER OF BLOOD (1973) Movie Review

Theater of Blood (1973) d. Douglas Hickox (UK) (104 min)

In reportedly his personal favorite role over a very long career, Vincent Price has the time of his life as critically-reviled Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart, who sets out to even the scores with his enemies in the press after being denied the illustrious Critics Circle Award. Interestingly, the film predates the trend of future body-count movies in that it’s less a question as to whether his victims will perish, but rather how they will meet their prescribed demise.

THE TINGLER (1959) Blu-ray review

The Tingler (1959) d. William Castle, (USA)

“Scream! Scream! Scream for your lives!!”

Fresh off the success of House on Haunted Hill, producer-director-huckster extraordinaire Castle, screenwriter Robb White and star Vincent Price re-teamed the same year to serve up this minor horror classic. Price’s pathologist discovers that every living person has a mysterious organism that, sparked by fear, takes possession of our backbones. When he manages to extract the creature from a recent victim, it resembles a centipede-like creature armed with cruel pincers and extraordinary, bone-cracking power.

ESCAPES (1986) DVD review

Escapes (1986) d. Steensland, David (USA) (1st viewing) 87 min

You gotta meta-love it when a character in the movie you’re watching mirrors your own experience by describing the movie he’s about to watch onscreen to a friend on the phone as, “I don’t know where this movie came from. It’s got Vincent Price in it. It’s called Escapes.” Appearing as a bonus feature on Intervision’s recent release of the 90s SOV killer scarecrow flick Dark Harvest, chances are that most viewers will have the exact same assessment and will probably watch it with the same “Oh, what the hell, why not” attitude that both the aforementioned onscreen character Matthew Wilson (Todd Fulton) and your humble reviewer did.

HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS (1983) movie review

House of the Long Shadows (1983) d. Pete Walker (UK)

Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and John Carradine are teamed together, and while the film itself is less than momentous, the horror icons actually get to play off one another (unlike, say, Scream and Scream Again) and seem to be enjoying the opportunity. Desi Arnaz, Jr. might wear out his welcome as a brash young writer who takes his publisher’s bet to pen a new novel – in one night, mind you – while under the titular spookhouse’s roof, but the quartet of aging veterans is clearly having a ball (with Cushing’s lisping quakeboots a distinct highlight) and their enthusiasm is infectious. Longtime Walker fave Shelia Keith lends her distinctive flavor of menace – as well as a few off-key high notes (literally) – to the proceedings.

THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION II Blu-ray Review

Classic film aficionados and horror enthusiasts will relish the 4-Disc Blu-ray release of Scream Factory’s THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION, Volume II, perfectly timed for this year’s holiday gifting season. This extraordinary collector’s set is an essential movie collection for every home entertainment library and brings together SEVEN Vincent Price masterpiece classics, featuring the first-ever Blu-ray movie presentation of HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959), RETURN OF THE FLY (1959), THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1963), THE RAVEN (1963), THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964), THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964) and DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1972).

DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1972) Blu-ray review

Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) d. Robert Fuest (USA)

After the surprise hit of the original Phibes, Fuest and Price returned for another go-round of mirthful murderous mayhem, this time with the mad doctor hoping to revive his lost love via a sacred papyrus scroll and the mythical “River of Life” in Egypt. Robert Quarry co-stars as a millionaire equally consumed with the river’s life-restoring properties, one not at all amused by Price’s propensity for knocking off his expedition members through varied outlandish means.

THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1963) Blu-ray review

The Comedy of Terrors (1963) d. Jacques Tourneur (USA)

After the success of The Raven, AIP attempted to tap the comic vein a second time but with decidedly diminished returns, both artistically and financially. The premise of a funeral home recycling its one coffin and occasionally helping the town’s populace into them is an amusingly dark one, but despite its terrific veteran cast, the comedy feels much more forced and mean-spirited, with Price’s tyrannical drunken lout snarking at underling Lorre and wife Joyce Jameson (who had memorably appeared opposite the two stars in “The Black Cat” episode of that year’s Tales of Terror).

THE RAVEN (1963) Blu-ray Review

The Raven (1963) d. Roger Corman (USA)

A childhood fave that continues to hold up half a century later, thanks to the game comic performances from screen scream veterans Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Peter Lorre. Concerned that they might be repeating themselves, Corman and screenwriter Richard Matheson opted to spin the dark and forlorn premise of Poe’s best-known poem into an extravagant slapstick romp involving quarreling wizards, magic spells, duplicitous wives, and warnings from beyond the grave.

RETURN OF THE FLY (1959) Blu-ray Review

Return of the Fly (1959) d. Edward Bernds (USA)

Philippe Delambre (Brett Halsey) follows in his father’s buzzy footsteps by resurrecting the transporter machine – much to the chagrin of Uncle Francois (Vincent Price) – only to be pitched into it alongside another winged traveler by his duplicitous business partner (David Frankham). Hilarity ensues.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) Blu-ray Review

House on Haunted Hill (1959) d. William Castle (USA)

This classic fright-fest frivolity from producer/director Castle stars Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren, offering $10,000 to five diverse guests if they can spend the entire night in the titular haunted house; thrills and chills ensue.

THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964) Blu-ray review

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) d. Roger Corman (UK)

The last of Corman’s Poe adaptations is certainly one of the best-looking, due to terrific exteriors shot in the English countryside (the notoriously tight-fisted producer/director was looking to explore a different look from the previous studio-bound installments). Adapted from Poe’s slim story “Ligeia” by future Oscar-winning scribe Robert Towne, the film revels in its morbid gothic atmosphere and excellent performances. In the midst of a well-photographed foxhunt, the Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd) comes across grieving widower Verden Fell (Vincent Price) and his groovy period shades.

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964) Blu-ray review

The Last Man on Earth (1964) d. Ubaldo Ragona / Sidney Salkow (Italy/USA)

“Another day to live through. Better get started.” From its opening shots of barren city landscapes littered with lifeless corpses to its bleak conclusion, the first screen version of Richard Matheson’s novel I am Legend is a downer all the way. But considering the subject matter, this is no surprise, and director Ragona (with additional material inserted by Salkow for its U.S. run) is to be lauded for remaining true to Matheson’s apocalyptic spirit.

DIARY OF A MADMAN (1963) movie review

Diary of a Madman (1963) d. Le Borg, Reginald (USA)

Vincent Price takes a brief respite in his parade of Roger Corman-directed Edgar Allan Poe adaptations to strut his stuff as a French attorney advised to take up sculpting to relieve his tension. He begins to come under attacks from the “Horla,” a disembodied malevolent parasitic force that renders its human host helpless, forcing him to perform unspeakable acts of violence and immorality.

MADHOUSE (1974) movie review

Madhouse (1974) d. Clark, Jim (UK)

Vincent Price takes center stage as a hammy horror star sidelined when someone lops off his fiancée’s head at a fancy dinner party (rude, that), resulting in a decade-long rest in the booby hatch. When sleazy producer Robert Quarry decides to resurrect Price’s “Dr. Death” character in a new series of films, the aging icon returns…only to encounter his cast and crew being mysteriously murdered one by one – with himself the prime suspect.

TWICE-TOLD TALES (1963) movie review

Twice-Told Tales (1963) d. Salkow, Sidney

Mildly engaging trio of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s supernatural stories that acquires the star (Vincent Price) of American International’s Poe series, but director Salkow displays little of Roger Corman’s enthusiastic storytelling zeal. (The opening image of a rather limp skeleton hand opening a rather limp volume doesn’t inspire much confidence.)

In the first story, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” old coots Price and Sebastian Cabot (via some dodgy old-age makeup) discover a youth-restoring elixir. When it also revives their long-dead sweetheart Mari Blanchard, romantic rivalries are sparked anew.

“Rappuccini’s Daughter,” the best of the bunch, offers the dark fable of an embittered scientist (Price) who infuses daughter Joyce Taylor with the essence of a toxic plant, making her touch lethal to human contact. All this plays havoc with suitor Brett Halsey’s social life, as he learns that his first kiss with the lovely lass could be his last.

The final tale, an incredibly truncated version of “The House of the Seven Gables,” follows the scheming Pynchon family searching the ancestral mansion for a hidden inheritance, amidst family curses, ghostly music, and otherworldly lovers. This dramatically uneven segment features spectral effects both impressive (model houses imploding in slow motion) and ridiculous (Price lamely throttled by a disembodied skeleton hand).

As anthology films go, this is by no means a disaster, just not terribly inspired.