With Halloween upon us, I figure there are two types of people in this world: those who love horror films and those who do not. I trust you know that I’m the latter.
If I want to be scared, I’ll watch the news.
Reality. It’s scary enough.
My aunt Dee Dee, now in her 80s, is a life-long fan of the horror genre, particularly the black and white films from her youth. She tells the best stories about her teenage hijinks to skip school to sneak off to her local movie house to watch the scariest films on the big screen. A rebel with a cause.
She would go to the movies in the daytime to get spooked. If the film scared her enough, she’d go back at night and watch it again to intentionally freak herself out. A successful scare would make her either run the entire distance home, or make her race to the closest relative’s house to sleep over, because back then your parents wouldn’t pick you up, scared or not. You went out, you got yourself home. Kids today will never understand.
One of her favourite films that she still recalls with great clarity scared her so badly that she considers it one of her favourite cinematic thrills of all time.
The film was the 1959 cult classic, House on Haunted Hill. Directed by William Castle, the film starred Vincent Price, a legendary character of the horror genre (or as my daughter would say, “the creepy guy in Michael Jackson’s Thriller”).
I was excited when it aired on a classic movie channel this weekend. I had to watch it. I had to know. And I am so glad I did.
In the film, Price plays an eccentric millionaire, who together with his wife, hosts a haunted house party for seven random guests, offering them $10,000 each to spend one night in a home rented specifically for the event. The house was the site of seven suspicious murders, allegedly by ghosts who haunt the halls and secret corridors. Then Price, acting as narrator, comes on screen and welcomes movie-goers to come along too, as a dare, noting there may be even more murders.
In the present day, this film is cheesy, but you bet I watched it because I understood how this film earned cult status. Its kitschy effects were brilliant. From the sound effects, the shrill screams of a woman, the moaning ghosts, maniacal laughter, the creaking slams of doors and clatter of chains, to the simple props, the shadowed lighting and haunting music that gives you all the notice of what’s to come, this was a fun movie.
Highlights include the terrifying (but hysterical) housemaid-ghost Mrs. Slydes, who literally slides in out of scenes to chase people by being rolled across the set to appear as if she is floating. She’s clearly on wheels. Hilarious.
My favourite scene involves the skeleton, who we learn is being manipulated with strings by Price from the closet like a remote marionette. The skeleton got his own billing in the credits, as he should. Classic horror humour.
This is my kind of horror movie. No jump scares. No graphic gore. No dark reality. And it has Vincent Price.
Wishing you all a spooky, happy Halloween.
