House on Haunted Hill

Average customer rating:

Step right up for chills, spills and thrills!
Why did I bother?
One of my favs!
There are some nice horror visuals here... and the story isn't too bad.
A GOOD REMAKE.

House on Haunted Hill
Starring: Jeffrey Combs , Peter Gallagher , Famke Janssen , Max Perlich , and Bridgette Wilson
Director: William Malone
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Thirteen Ghosts
The Haunting
Ghost Ship (Widescreen Edition)
Jeepers Creepers
Deep Blue Sea

ASIN: B00003CWRF
Release Date: 2000-04-18

Amazon.com

House on Haunted Hill is one of the new breed of waste-no-time thrill machines, like Deep Blue Sea, and a particularly effective example at that. The plot is pure contrivance: For a party stunt, a wealthy amusement-park manufacturer (Geoffrey Rush) offers five people a million dollars if they spend the night in a former insane asylum where the patients murdered the sadistic staff. But it turns out the five people who arrive aren't the five he invited--did his wife (Famke Janssen), who hates him, make the switch? From there events unfold with a smart combination of human and supernatural machinations; spooky jolts are dispensed at regular, but not entirely predictable, intervals. The visual effects owe a considerable debt to Jacob's Ladder, a much more ambitious movie; House on Haunted Hill just wants to get under your skin, and succeeds more than you'd expect. Rush is his entertainingly hammy self; Janssen, Taye Diggs, Ali Larter, and Bridgette Wilson are attractive and reasonably straight-faced about it all; and Chris Kattan is genuinely funny as the house's neurotic owner. Some elements of the plot seem to have been lost in the editing process, but it hardly matters. More bothersome is that the scares go flat when computer effects take over at the end--the digital images just aren't as creepy as the more suggestive stuff that came before. But that's just the very end; most of the movie has a lot of momentum. Watch until the end of the credits for a final bit of eeriness. --Bret Fetzer

Description

When an eccentric millionaire offer a group of opposites $1,000,000 to spend the night in a so called "Haunted House" with a murderous past, they figure it is a quick way to get quick money and leave. All of them are sure it is some made up story just to mess with their heads a little and test their courage. But, once they stay in the house they start to think about the mistake they made in coming there when mysterious things start to happen.

Customer Reviews:

Step right up for chills, spills and thrills!.......2007-06-29

Ladies and Gentlemen, and American Idol haters and fans, allow me to direct your attention to the big screen, where you'll bear witness to chills, spills and thrills that will haunt you till the day you die. Behold the "House on Haunted Hill," and let the nightmare begin!

As far as remakes go, this is the best I've seen. I saw this movie alone, and let me tell you, it was quite a thrill ride. The high gore level makes this movie really fun to watch. Jeffrey Combs is the greatest actor of all time. Buy/rent this movie, and see if you can survive a trip through a Haunted House for the second time in many years...if you dare. Highly recommended.

Why did I bother?.......2007-03-26

I kind of wanted to see this movie when it originally came out in theaters, but I never got around to it...I'm glad I didn't. This movie was really bad. Most of the scenes just didn't make any sense. The characters weren't likeable at all, I couldn't have cared less if they all got killed. The acting was awful and the script was just down right horrendous. Some of the worst lines came from chris kattan's character like, "this house is alive, we're all gonna die" and "you give me my money right now...I want it, so you give it". Thats the kind of bad script that I'm talking about. The only slightly decent thing in this movie is some of the special effects. I would also like to give credit to geoffery rush for trying to do the best he could with what he was given. All and all...don't watch this movie.

One of my favs!.......2007-03-10

This is by far one of my favorite movies. This is definitely not for the weak of heart though, lots of disturbing imagery.

There are some nice horror visuals here... and the story isn't too bad........2006-09-01

House on Haunted Hill is your standard "group killed off one by one but no one knows who it is" ghost movie, and on that level, it works, despite having "been there done that". With that said, there are decent performances, but what really saves this film is the horror visuals and special FX, which are a little 'trippy' considering a asylum doctor who appears on the monitor, and his head flicks back and forth very quickly. Yes, it was based on an earlier work but it works well here, along with the basic gore FX and dark castle/mansion setting.

The pace is decent, and there are some memorable kills. I've seen worse, and at best, this is a slightly above average ghost film.

A GOOD REMAKE........2006-08-02

I DONT UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM PEOPLE HAVE WITH REMAKES. I THINK THAT THEY BRING TO THE BIG SCREEN WHAT PEOPLE DIDNT EXPEIRIENCE WHEN THE ORIGINAL CAME OUT. IVE SEEN SOME BAD REMAKES, BUT THIS ONE ISNT. I REALLY THOUGH IT WAS SCARY AND DISTURBING, GEFFORY RUSH PLAYS A GOOD PART IN THIS MOVIE, AND CHRIS KATTAN IS HARSH IN THIS ONE.

Average customer rating:

Not gory like the 1999 version but still good
Schlocky yet creepy
The Beginning of "Horror"
"Watch it with someone with warm hands!"
A great movie for Halloween.

House on Haunted Hill
Starring: Vincent Price , Carolyn Craig , Richard Long , Elisha Cook Jr. , and Carol Ohmart
Director: William Castle
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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House of Wax
Carnival of Souls
The Tingler
The Haunting
The Legend of Hell House

ASIN: B0009X75DI
Release Date: 2005-09-06

Amazon.com

William Castle's gimmick-laden comic thriller is not so much a horror movie as a fairground funhouse come to life. Vincent Price stars as a deliciously silky millionaire married to a greedy gold digger (Carol Ohmart) who refuses to divorce him. When he turns his wife's idea for a haunted-house party into a contest--$10,000 to whoever will spend the night in "the only truly haunted house in the world"--it seems he may have found an alternative to divorce. Five strangers gather to test their stamina, Price hands each of them delightfully twisted party favors (loaded handguns, delivered in their own tiny coffins), and the spook show begins. Blood drips from the ceiling, zombielike apparitions float through rooms, severed heads and skeletons suddenly appear, and then a guest is found hanging in the stairwell. Full of screams and things that go bump in the night, House on Haunted Hill isn't particularly scary and often makes little sense, but, like a Halloween haunted house, the spectacle of spook-show clichés is quite entertaining, and Price makes a sardonic master of ceremonies. The original theatrical presentations featured a typically outrageous Castle-engineered gimmick: Emergo, which was nothing more than a skeleton that appeared to fly out of the screen and over the audience on a guide wire. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Not gory like the 1999 version but still good.......2007-02-26

Millionaire Fredrick Loren played by a young Vincent Price invites five strangers to a party in the House On Haunted Hill. With his delectable wife Annabel in tow, he has set the strangers a task of sorts, if they can spend one night locked in the house he will give them $10,000 each, however there is a bit of a catch to this seemingly generous offer, the house has seen several brutal murders and is reputed to be haunted.

One of the guests in the house was even related to one of the victims and he is emphatic that the whole house is haunted and that they are all doomed because of what they are doing.

At midnight the door is locked and everyone in the house waits to see what will happen next, and very soon all are locked into a game of terror and murder as the House on Haunted Hill takes on a life of its own, but there is a twist in the tale that is deliciously surprising as it is fun.

I enjoyed this film, it wasn't overly suspenseful, but there are enough scenes to make you jump every now and then, the special effects were none-existent and there was a lot of screaming and shrieking from the character Norah a young woman who appears to be being targeted by the ghosts in the house.

All in all a hokum of a movie but great fun all the same.

Schlocky yet creepy.......2007-02-06

Vincent Price. A haunted mansion house. Spooky caretakers. And a giant pile of money to any of the guests who lives through the night. What's not to love?

"The House on Haunted Hill" is one of those rare horror movies that seems as fresh as if it were made yesterday. The script is clever, the acting is solid, and while the direction is a bit on the hammy side, the plot is clever enough to keep viewers riveted until the final twist. It's horror, myster and dark comedy all in one.

Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) decides to host a macabre birthday party for his devious wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), in the "House on Haunted Hill." He invites a test pilot, a columnist, a secretary and the house's unbalanced owner, and offers each one ten thousand dollars if they stay all night. Chandeliers fall, doors slam shut, and they get to see the wine vat full of acid.

But as the night goes on, poor Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig) begins to see specters and rotted heads. The others think she's hysterical -- until Annabelle is found hanging in the hallway, dead. The unfortunate guests start to suspect that Loren brought them there to murder them (except for the owner, who blames ghosts). But the truth is far more complex and sinister....

William Castle made a lot of slightly kitschy horror movies like "13 Ghosts" and "The Tingler," but this clever twist on haunted-house movies is probably his best work ever. Okay, that dancing skeleton is unintentionally funny, as is the gliding crone. But most of the time, it provides some in-your-face chills and great work from Price.

This movie has solid dialogue ("Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?") and some truly wicked exchanges between Price and Ohmart, as spouses who completely loathe one another. Castle's weird sense of humor shows up in the coffin-shaped boxes, the vat of acid, and the organ playing itself.

But the most impressive aspect of "House" is that it's not just another ghosts-terrify-screaming-idiots movie. It's more of a mystery, before the crime is committed. We're never quite sure if there really are ghosts haunting the place, or if the humans are the ones who are really causing all this trouble. What's really scary is that the humans are more frightening.

Vincent Price is definitely the star here -- creepy, intelligent, debonair, and he has an acid comment for every occasion ("Don't stay up thinking of ways to get rid of me. It makes wrinkles"). Ohmart runs a close second with her seductive, devious trophy wife; the other actors do solid jobs as well, although Craig doesn't do much except shriek periodically.

It's should be noted that the Alpha Video version of this is a good inexpensive version to buy. Many public domain movies are in rotten condition, but the print for this is clear, sharp and unmarred. There's only one problem: everything is tinted slightly purple. I'm not sure why, but if you can ignore it, it's worth getting.

"House on Haunted Hill" is a deserving vintage horror movie -- a twisty plot, and Price doing his best creepy-might-be-villain act. A must-see.

The Beginning of "Horror".......2007-01-11

When I first saw this movie in a theater as a boy I thought it was the scariest movie ever made. When I watched it again fifty years later I found it initially trite, but then I realized why the 1999 remake paid such tribute to Vincent Price. It had many firsts in it's genre, and what it didn't do first it did best (generally). It set the benchmark for "Horror" and wasn't surpassed in fright by anything other than "Splatter-Flicks" until the evolution of computer animation. This is where it began.

"Watch it with someone with warm hands!".......2006-12-06

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is a movie I'd heard a lot about, but had never gotten around to watching. So when I saw it in the one dollar DVD bin, this was an easy decision to make. The nice thing about one dollar DVDs is that even when I've been told very positive things about a film, only spending a buck on it means that I almost never raise my expectations very high. Therefore, when I come across a genuinely good film, I'm always pleasantly surprised. And I'm happy that HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is my kind of 50s horror film. Camp and goofy, yet atmospheric and creepy when it needs to be.

The plot is very simple. Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) offers five strangers $10,000 each if they'll spend the night with himself and his wife in a supposed haunted house. At midnight the doors are locked until morning. If anyone dies during the night, their share is split between the survivors. It's a game for Price. He's picked these individuals carefully, and it apparently amuses him to blow fifty grand on a macabre dinner party. As with most films that put a small cast into an enclosed set, the characters here are very distinct and have hidden motivations that gradually become revealed.

The characters are introduced via an extremely campy voice-over at the start, courtesy of Vincent Price. (Not that I've ever noticed Vincent Price giving voice-overs that weren't purring and campy.)

Watson Prichard (Elisa Cook, who guested-starred in dozens of 1950s and 1960s TV shows) is currently the owner of The House On Haunted Hill (having inherited it from his murdered brother... murdered in the house, of course) and is a nervous, tense, borderline alcoholic, who permanently seems to be on the edge of a complete mental breakdown (which is the type of character Elisa Cook always seems to play). His role is basically to predict doom for everyone in the house based on the old stories of the murders and misdeeds that occurred there before.

Lance Schroeder is a test pilot and the nominal hero of the story. He progress through the story in a typical let's-get-to-the-bottom-of-this fashion. His love-interest (every hero needs one) is Nora Manning, a secretary for one of Vincent Price's many companies. Psychiatrist David Trent and middle-aged journalist Ruth Bridges provide the movie's voices of reason.

Vincent Price's wife is also locked in the house with the others. Her character is notable simply because of the vast contempt husband and wife hold for each other. Indeed, in their opening scene, the two of them wistfully banter about their previous unsuccessful assassination attempts on each other. Great stuff!

The movie is formulaic, but fun. You know what kinds of things to expect from a closed-set scenario such as this. The "game" will be revealed to be deadly early on when the first person meets an untimely end. The number of characters will slowly be whittled down to the most interesting few. At least one character will be overwhelmingly convinced that all the death and destruction is caused by the supernatural. At least one other character will calmly explain that there must be a rational explanation for all the ghoulish happenings.

Whether the terror is otherworldly or man-made is mostly irrelevant in movies such as this. All you really want is good atmosphere, a collection of some solid, scary scenes and a plot that moves quickly enough from point A to point B before you notice any of the tape holding the story strands together.

In this, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is very much a success. I liked it so much that I was able to forgive its truly horrendous false ending (which gave way to an even more abysmal true ending).

There are probably a thousand DVD releases of this film. The Digiview release has an adequate picture, but the sound quality is a little annoying. It's sounds very tinny, as if the soundtrack were rerecorded in a cookie jar. I got used to it after a while though.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is exactly the kind of movie you make when you have no money but are hoping to make the best of it. If you can't afford a lot of elaborate sets, just have one location and shut it off from the outside world. If you can't afford a lot of on-screen talent, just get a few character actors to hang out with Vincent Price for an evening. If you can't afford flashy special effects, just get a witty and quotable script. It doesn't work every time, but it works here.

A great movie for Halloween........2006-10-29

If you're looking for a true scare, then look no further than this movie. I like movies that give nightmares, and this one is no acception. Vincent Price is a legend and this movie proves it. This movie has everything, from screams, to all sorts of scares. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

Not gory like the 1999 version but still good
Schlocky yet creepy
The Beginning of "Horror"
"Watch it with someone with warm hands!"
A great movie for Halloween.

House on Haunted Hill
Starring: Vincent Price , Carolyn Craig , Richard Long , Elisha Cook Jr. , and Carol Ohmart
Director: William Castle
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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House of Wax
Carnival of Souls
The Tingler
The Haunting
The Legend of Hell House

ASIN: 0790744309
Release Date: 1999-10-26

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Not gory like the 1999 version but still good.......2007-02-26

Schlocky yet creepy.......2007-02-06

The Beginning of "Horror".......2007-01-11

"Watch it with someone with warm hands!".......2006-12-06

A great movie for Halloween........2006-10-29

Great Scary Movies (The Terror / House On Haunted Hill / Night Of The Living Dead)

Average customer rating:

Three Scary Movies To Chill You
Unbelievable, three classics for less than $10
3 great classics for [$$], I mean how can you go wrong

Great Scary Movies (The Terror / House On Haunted Hill / Night Of The Living Dead)
Starring: Great Scary Movies
Manufacturer: Bfs Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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Classic Ghost Movies (Dominique / Carnival of Souls / Tormented)
Legendary Horror Movies (I Bury The Living / Dead Men Walk / The Screaming Skull)
Classic Mystery Movies (And Then There Were None / Cry Panic / The Bat)
Classic Creature Movies I - (Roger Corman): Creature From The Haunted Sea / Beast From Haunted Cave / The Wasp Woman
Classic Demon Movies (God Told Me To / The Demon / Good Against Evil)

ASIN: B00005QW4Y
Release Date: 2002-02-19

Description

3 Great Movies on 1 DVD. Star Power, Exciting Genre with Extras on each DVD.

Customer Reviews:

Three Scary Movies To Chill You.......2007-05-16

This is a great product for the money. This DVD is alot of bang for the buck and a whole lot of fun. Don't watch it alone in the dark or you may freak. This is truly a popcorn movie. Be sure to hang on to your popcorn or you may throw it clear accross the room. This is a Black and White "B" movie experience. House on Haunted Hill and Night of the Living Dead will definately make you jump. The Terror will make you cover up under a blnket.

These movies are still the best. Even without computer graphics, the special effects are dynamite. If you want to be scared, this is the DVD for you. Don't pass this one by.

Unbelievable, three classics for less than $10.......2003-12-29

Actually, I got my copy at Best Buy for $5, but $10 is hardly excessive here. "Night of the Living Dead" by George Romero needs no introduction. It spawned an entire new genre of horror all by itself. Vincent Price in the original "House on Haunted Hill" is fantastic. While it may not have the CGI imagery of the remake (which is grossly overdone), it remains a genuinely creepy movie that unnerves me every time I watch it. Deciding for yourself what things in the house are the creation of Price's character and which aren't is one of the fun parts of the film. Also, never quite figured out if the housekeepers were ghosts. I lean towards yes!

A final note on the third movie, "The Terror". A *lovely* movie, which showcases an aged Boris Karloff as the "Baron" (he died a couple of years after this film) and a youthful Jack Nicholson as a young officer in Napoleon's army. Nicholson had not yet evolved into the intense, brooding figure we saw later in "The Shining", but it is still clear that his star was rising. He gives a respectable performance as a bewildered bystander to the mysterious events in the castle by the sea. I remember seeing this movie on TV as a child and being transfixed by the climax of the movie, especially the last scene in the graveyard when he finds out his new girlfriend quickly loses her charm when her face melts. Directed and produced by the legendary Roger Corman, this film is an overlooked gem of the genre. Highly recommended for any true fan of classic horror, especially since it only seems to appear in this DVD collection.

Overall, I must say this DVD is a steal, buy it!

3 great classics for [$$], I mean how can you go wrong.......2003-01-28

Nothing beats the oldies.
Night of the Living Dead alone is worth [$$], getting
House on Haunted Hill and the Terror are a great Bonus,
I absolutely love these old compilation DVD's, I buy every
one I find,and this one is one of my favorites.

Average customer rating:

Not gory like the 1999 version but still good
Schlocky yet creepy
The Beginning of "Horror"
"Watch it with someone with warm hands!"
A great movie for Halloween.

House on Haunted Hill
Starring: Vincent Price , Carolyn Craig , Richard Long , Elisha Cook Jr. , and Carol Ohmart
Director: William Castle
Manufacturer: Good Times Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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House of Wax
Carnival of Souls
The Tingler
The Haunting
The Legend of Hell House

ASIN: B00005B1WS
Release Date: 2003-09-16

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Not gory like the 1999 version but still good.......2007-02-26

Schlocky yet creepy.......2007-02-06

The Beginning of "Horror".......2007-01-11

"Watch it with someone with warm hands!".......2006-12-06

A great movie for Halloween........2006-10-29

Vincent Price: House on Haunted Hill/Last Man on Earth/The Bat

Average customer rating:

Last Man on Earth

Vincent Price: House on Haunted Hill/Last Man on Earth/The Bat
Starring: Vincent Price
Manufacturer: Pop Flix
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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House of Wax
The Fall of the House of Usher /The Pit and the Pendulum
The Abominable Dr. Phibes/Dr. Phibes Rises Again!
The Comedy of Terrors/The Raven
The Tingler

ASIN: B000EQ47K4
Release Date: 2006-04-11

Description

Hero of horror Vincent Price stars in three silver scream classics! In House on Haunted Hill (1958, B&W, 75min), an eccentric millionaire (Price) invites several of his enemies to a party at his creepy mansion. Each guest who survives the night will receive $10,000 - but will anyone be alive to collect the reward? In Last Man on Earth (1964, B&W, 86 min.), a nightmarish apocalyptic vision of a zombie invasion, a global airborne virus has transformed Earth's population into vampire-like creatures. Scientist Robert Morgan (Price) is the last living soul on earth. He hunts the sleeping monsters by day, but at sundown he becomes the hunted, stalked by zombies thirsting for his blood. Murder, mystery and terror reign in The Bat (1959, B&W, 80 min.), a bone-chilling thriller starring Price, Agnes Moorehead and Darla Hood. A creaky haunted house has a hidden fortune of stolen money, and the bodies pile up as a mysterious prowler known as "The Bat" tries to uncover the loot.

Customer Reviews:

Last Man on Earth.......2007-01-17

My hubby liked this movie the most because of the 50's and early 60's cars shown parked and being driven in this sharp B and W movie. Vincent Price is wonderful...this movie is the obvious precursor to Night of the Living Dead, and Charlton Heston's The Omega Man. This is a wonderfully acted, greatly photographed early film. This is truly a gem.

Discontinuities have to be forgiven, this is the proto-ur-zombie movie. It is not bloody, but has it's psychological moments.

Average customer rating:

Drama in the House on Haunted Hill

Manufacturer: CustomFlix
ProductGroup: DVD
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amazon.com

This is a clever and funny movie based on the original movie "The House on Haunted Hill." Filmmaker Michal Judd has taken the public domain movie "The House on Haunted Hill" and he has eliminated all of the audio and replaced it with new audio and dialogue. Very very funny stuff. This movie proves that public domain material can be used for commercial success. The informative short documentary "Public domain - do or die" is included.

House on Haunted Hill/The Last Man On Earth

Average customer rating:

paid under five bucks
Two must-see Vincent Price classics
A nice surprise
A great value for Vincent Price fans on a budget
A Strictly "Subjective" Assessment

House on Haunted Hill/The Last Man On Earth
Starring: Vincent Price , Carolyn Craig , Richard Long , Elisha Cook Jr. , and Carol Ohmart
Director: William Castle , Sidney Salkow , and Ubaldo Ragona
Manufacturer: Diamond Ent. Corp.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Fall of the House of Usher /The Pit and the Pendulum
The Abominable Dr. Phibes/Dr. Phibes Rises Again!
The Haunting
The Omega Man
The Tingler

ASIN: B00004WGAB
Release Date: 2000-10-03

Customer Reviews:

paid under five bucks .......2007-03-11

They just don't hold up all that well. Last Man... is better than the other, although that's not saying much.
Also, you can see where George Romero borrowed heavily for his Night of the Living Dead flicks.

I must add: Richard Matheson is a highly respected genre writer. Besides writing LAST MAN ON EARTH (among other books and screenplays) He's the guy who wrote the excellent DUEL,
starring Dennis Weaver. Get it, if you've never seen it.
I really don't blame him or the late Vincent Price for the way LAST MAN... turned out. It's really not a bad flick...and yet you can't help feeling that it should have turned out far better, that the material was there...

Hey, if you're about ten years old...you might get a real kick out of it.

Two must-see Vincent Price classics.......2005-09-20

It doesn't get much better than this twin-bill of Vincent Price classics. I consider The House on Haunted Hill to be one of the best haunted house movies ever made. The effects may seem somewhat silly to modern audiences, but the simplest frights are often the most effective. The plot itself is gratifyingly complex and twisted, and the ending is by no means disappointing. Anyone with an interest in the horror genre should find this Vincent Price gem to be quite a hoot. Then there's The Last Man on Earth, which is one of the best horror movies ever made, period.

As a jaded modern horror fan, I can't say The House on Haunted Hill really scared me, but I daresay that if you put a couple of hundred people inside a modern movie theatre and showed this film to them, you would get some delightful screams and jumps out of your audience. A movie such as this belongs in black and white, and the whole mood is appropriately creepy. The director left almost nothing out: creaking doors, apparitions, secret rooms, screams (almost so many they become annoying), skeletons, thunder and lightning, organ music, moments of total darkness, a pit of acid, and - of course - Vincent Price.

Mr. Loren (Price) is an eccentric man of wealth throwing a haunted house party for his fourth wife (who is as anxious to kill him as he is to kill her). He promises to pay $10,000 to anyone who can make it through the night. Five strangers make up the party guests - a former test pilot, a society newspaper columnist, a psychiatrist, an unassuming, vulnerable young lady, and the house's owner, who keeps going on and on about the murders that took place there. Naturally, weird things start to happen, and then all of the party goers find themselves locked in the house prematurely with no hope of escape until morning. Naturally, rather than stay together, the houseguests end up wandering around on their own, and the impressionable young lady is especially traumatized throughout the evening by what she sees and experiences. There are games afoot, the full extent of which are not revealed until the ending of the film. In its original theatrical release, the ever so fiendish director William Castle had a skeleton rigged inside each theater that would appear above the audience's heads at the appropriate time - I would love to have experienced that.

The Last Man on Earth is based on Richard Matheson's incredible novel I Am Legend, in my opinion the second best vampire novel ever written. Price plays Morgan, a man left completely alone in the world by a plague that wiped out the rest of the population, including his wife and young daughter, three years earlier. The virus behind the plague was a vampiric bacillus, so all of the people who died and were not destroyed by fire have come back as vampires. Luckily for Morgan, the vampires are quite weak and simple-minded, for they attack his fortified home every night in an effort to get in and kill him. By day, Morgan goes out hunting the walking nightmares and driving stakes through their hearts, but there are so many that the project seems almost useless. Midway through the movie, we are treated to a pretty extended set of flashbacks to the early days of the virus and the deaths of Morgan's wife and daughter. Toward the end, Morgan is shocked to find a woman wandering outside during the day, the first human being he has seen in three years. He takes her home with him and thus sets the stage for the movie's memorable climax.

Obviously, Vincent Price carries this movie on his own back, given the fact that the vast majority of the action takes place around him and no one else. He plays things rather subtly for the most part, which I found quite effective. His memories make him laugh sometimes, but Price's signature laugh evolves quite effectively into sobs of anger and frustration. The most poignant moments of the film, in my opinion, come when Morgan finds a dog outside his house, the first living creature he has seen in three years. The dog initially runs away from him in fear, but the suffering creature eventually comes back. Morgan cleans him and fixes up his wounds, but the new friendship he exults over soon becomes just another tragedy. The movie doesn't dwell on the dog episode nearly so much as Matheson does in his novel, and for this I am grateful because I find it heartbreaking. The little dog gives an incredible performance, but as is so often the case the canine actor does not even merit a mention in the credits.

The Last Man on Earth really is a remarkably good movie and really showcases the immense acting abilities of Vincent Price. I wish it would have delved into the science of the virus much more intensely than it did; the scientific aspects of Matheson's story are what make it such a phenomenally good vampire novel. The script writers did take some liberties with the concluding scenes, but it is really for the best because the novel's conclusion would not have worked in this medium without the audience being given a much more penetrating look into the minds and motives of the characters involved. Some might find the movie creepy, but there is really nothing here that will disturb the timid viewer-the camera never actually shows any of the gruesome acts that tend to be committed by human beings against vampires and vice versa. Somber and depressing as it can be, The Last Man on Earth is the type of distinguished horror movie that should appeal in some way to just about everyone.

A nice surprise.......2005-05-09

I bought this for the movie that I remembered, House on Haunted Hill, which on watching again is a pretty cheezy piece of work. The other movie, Last Man on Earth, I had never heard of, and recognised only from the intro on the DVD which told me in so many words that it was based on I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I found I really liked this movie. In a sense, it's like many other 50's and 60's movies in that the bad guy(s) lose. That's the only resemblance, however. In the first part we see Vincent Price as the relentless vampire slayer. Others have commented that these don't seem like "real" vampires, but who knows what they would really be like anyway. We've seen too many Dracula remakes where the vampires are quick, agile, mean and clever. Who is to say they can't be slow, stupid, weak and evil? Anyway. In the second part, we are given the story of the beginning of the plague, which resmebles The Stand, only about 99.99999999% fatal. One survivor, to be exact. As the third part progresses, we start to see new possible candidates for the good guys (behaving just like we do in the old Dracula movies). Finally we see Price for what he has become, a legendary creature of terror, in a total reversal from the vampire as the shadowy creature in all the other stories. You have to see it. This is a great piece of work for all it's faults.

A great value for Vincent Price fans on a budget.......2005-04-02

This "House on Haunted Hill"/"Last Man on Earth" double feature is one of the better buys on the public-domain DVD market. The prints of both films are passable (it's an exaggeration to claim these are "digitally remastered"), and certainly of better quality than the TV prints that have been circulating for years. Both films, of course, feature the late legend Vincent Price and while neither film could be considered his best work there's plenty here Price fans will enjoy.

Vincent Price may have built his career around low-budget horror films, but he was a movie star in the truest sense of the word. His very presence helped to elevate an average film to something memorable. While some find his mannerisms and demeanor campy, I find the glee with which he portrayed the disturbed and obsessed very refreshing. "House on Haunted Hill" bears a strong similarity to any number of forgettable faux-haunted house movies, and "Last Man on Earth"'s plot is a second rate Twilight Zone adventure. But Price's performances make both of these not only worthwhile but memorable. "The Last Man on Earth," in particular, features an excellent turn by Price.

If you're a Price fan who could care less about extras and aren't too fussy about sound or picture quality, snatch up this DVD while they last.

A Strictly "Subjective" Assessment.......2003-04-05

I first saw this film in my mid-teens, when I had no critical faculties whatsoever. In those days, Bergman and Fellini would have bored hell out of me (Fellini still does), and "Citizen Kane" would have left me cold. And many of the films I used to love as a child now strike me as boring. But for some reason, "Last Man on Earth" continues to plunge me into a state of pleasurable gloom, and I keep returning to it every other week like some sort of drug, or one of those amulets cinematic hypnotists dangle before their victims while coaxing them toward some nefarious climax.

I won't attempt an "objective" review of this film, since I'm far too familiar with it, so my impressions are visceral rather than analytic. Also, I long ago ceased to care about the plot (which is amply detailed in many of the other reviews included here). The acting? Here, too, I'm too close to it to make a reliable assessment. I'd have to say that Vincent Price is only slightly hammy in his role as a weary vampire-hunter, and in one scene, where he's vocally mourning the loss of his wife, "Virge," he lapses into some rather embarrassing self-consciousness. The only other aspect of the film that annoys me ---- from an adult vantage point, that is ---- is the atrocious dubbing of the Italian actors, and the ridiculous exhortations of the vampires as they surround the protagonist's house, trying to lure him outside.

Otherwise, "Last Man" still strikes me as one of the best examples of atmospheric film-making in the history of the genre, and it is on this level that I can wholly immerse myself in its special qualities. It does not really resemble any other film ever made ------ much like the international collaboration, "Daughters of Darkness" in that respect. It does not even resemble "Night of the Living Dead," though it clearly influenced that film thematically. It has that sleazy, low-budget quality that most true horror fans love, but other than that it is sui generis.

Part of the power of the film, I believe, is that it concentrates largely on the situation of a totally isolated character, surrounded by alien beings with whom he has no chance of communicating. The fact that he loses both his wife and a close friend to this "enemy camp" only adds to his sense of despair (not to mention a stray dog which he briefly befriends before discovering that it, too, has succumbed to the "vampire germ").

The music score, while not in the class of Bernard Herrmann or Maurice Jarre, is nevertheless wonderfully appropriate for the film, and assists the production with just the right touch of eeriness. Parts of it spill over into excess, perhaps, but it's the right kind of excess.

Description

Horror. Suspense. Thrills. From the company launched by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler HOUSE OF WAX First the whacks, then the wax. Road-tripping collegians step into a backwater town's eerie tourist trap. Chad Michael Murray, Jared Padalecki and Paris Hilton. GOTHIKA A Dark Castle original! At Woodward Penitentiary for Women, someone - or something - is very twisted. And very deadly. Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz and Robert Downey Jr. GHOST SHIP Salvagers trained for anything imaginable face the unimaginable - an adrift cruise ship hexed by a seafaring collector of souls. Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne and Isaiah Washington. THIRTEEN GHOSTS Is their dream home a living nightmare? A family moves into a spectacular home they inherited... but there may be no way out. Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz and Matthew Lillard. HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL One night in the house, one million bucks, no questions asked. The offer is easy to accept. Just try to survive long enough to collect! Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen and Taye Diggs.

Customer Reviews:

Dark and dismal.......2006-11-12

t would be hard to find a collection of horror movies that is as completely worthless as the "Dark Castle Horror Collection." Every movie here is an atrocious compost heap of "boo" scares and verbal drivel, until the best thing you can do is switch on some Vincent Price movies. The best thing here is an impaled Paris Hilton.

Six nubile twentysomethings are en route to a basebell game when (surprise surprise) they break down. To make matters worse, their car is sabotaged by a mysterious figure in the woods. So a few manage to get into town... only to find that some sort of dementoid is running the "House of Wax," and they are going to be the next attraction.

"Gothika" is one of those blots on Halle Berry's resume: She plays a criminal psychologist at a women's prison, and to make things a bit more convenient, she's married to her boss. But her world takes a horrifying turn when she has a car accident, and wakes to find herself an inmate at the prison -- accused of murdering her hubby. And she's seeing ghosts to boot.

"Ghost Ship" makes trouble for a salvage crew, when they find an Italian ocean liner that has been wandering the seas since the 1960s. Something horrifying (and very bloody) happened there when the liner vanished, and when the salvage crew claims the boat, they are slowly picked off by supernatural forces. From the liner, of course.

"Thirteen Ghosts" haunt Cyrus Kriticos's house, which has been left to his grieving nephew Arthur (Tony Shalhoub) and his family. Of course, they decide to head inside -- only to discover that the tormented souls are very real. And worse, they're trapped in a house that is a "machine" to open the very gates of hell. Saw that coming.

"House on Haunted Hill" cinematically rapes the original cult classic. An oddball millionaire (Geoffrey Rush) invites several people to an old lunatic asylum, which is said to be haunted -- if they make it through the night, they will each receive a million dollars. But then the ghosts of the asylum start rising and killing the people there -- assuming that they don't kill each other first.

Horror movies are struggling at the moment, since moviemakers don't have the slightest idea how to creep people out. And so we end up with dreck like these miserable gorefests -- pile on the blood, guts and cheesy cliches, and hope that people actually care enough to watch to the end. It's hard to imagine that anyone would.

"Gothika" ends up being one of the few with an actual plot, albeit a ridiculous one. The other movies are just variations of the typical "locked in a haunted house" storyline, with the requisite mutilated bodies and CGI ghosts. None of them have much atmosphere at all, and the goofy-looking ghosts may inspire laughter instead of fear.

There are a few decent actors in these messes, such as Berry, Robert Downey Jr., and the ever-lovable Shalhoub. Unfortunately, most of the actors are forgettable and bland, and are only called on to shriek out incredibly silly lines ("The house doesn't care what's fair, who lives or dies. Know why? Cause it's a f**king HOUSE!"). "House of Wax" also has the dubious honor of having socialite Paris Hilton in it, though admittedly her death scene is kind of fun.

Poorly-written, badly-acted, and aimed straight down to the bottom, the "Dark Castle Horror Collection" is a perfect example of what NOT to watch on a spooky, stormy night.

Elvira's Horror Classics: House on Haunted Hill/Night of the Living Dead

Average customer rating:

a howling good time with Elvira!

Elvira's Horror Classics: House on Haunted Hill/Night of the Living Dead
Starring: House on Haunted Hill , and Night of the Living Dead
Manufacturer: Time Life Records
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

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Horror | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Elvira's Haunted Hills
Elvira's Box of Horrors
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
Elvira's Movie Macabre: Count Dracula's Great Love / Frankenstein's Castle Of Freaks (Double Feature)
Elvira's Movie Macabre: Legacy Of Blood / The Devil's Wedding Night (Double Feature)

ASIN: B0002JP428
Release Date: 2004-09-28

Description

Hello Darling, Elvira here...you basic ghoul next door. Don't look now, but Time-Life and I are bringing you a Halloween treat-Elvira's Box of Horrors-a clas-sick collection of the all-time greatest horror movies ever released.

2 Movie Set
House on Haunted Hill
Night of the Living Dead

Customer Reviews:

a howling good time with Elvira!.......2007-05-12

Enjoy two of the all-time great Z-grade horror gems, hosted by the one and only Elvira!

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD ushered in a new wave of zombie movies. Directed by George A. Romero, the story concerns a group of ragtag survivors from an apocalyptic zombie invasion. Poor Barbra (Judith O'Dea) is driven to madness as she watches her brother being mauled to death. Judith O'Dea's kooky performance is one of the main fan highlights; the overall standard of acting is quite average (ie: it's very hard to tell the difference between zombies and the regular people). This merely adds to the feeling of the film. Top trash!

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, starring Vincent Price, is the more stylish movie of the two featured on this disc. Price is a hoot playing the deranged millionaire who challenges a group of nitwits to last the night in a haunted house. Prime turns from classic scream queens Carolyn Craig and Carol Ohmart, plus some memorable special effects from William Castle make this a must-see. Plastic skeletons, old hags on conveyor belts, fun times...

Elvira is an absolute scream as she hosts these films, occasionally popping up during the films to cast a wry comment on the action (and no doubt to wake up those to have started to nod off). Viewers also have the option to watch the films without the Elvira bits. These films are always good value, and with the legendary Elvira, they are better than ever!

(Single-sided, dual layer disc)

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Tattoo a Love Story

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Sunset Strip (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Brian's Song/Rudy 2-Pack

Carve Her Name With Pride