HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958) ** William Castle's spook flicks aren't ever very scary, but the gimmicks were noteworthy, kind of. Like in this one, at the very moment, an illuminated skeleton suddenly appeared high over the heads of the audience. Of course, you can't get that effect from a video, and so it's just one of those historical things that you'll have to replicate on your own. Vincent Price never manages to rise much above a pedestrian cast, but it's probably enough to sustain your attention if you're attracted to it in the first place. Vulgar rich people lording it up over their more deserving guests, like a gossip columnist. Man, it must have been a different world then, when the paparazzi actually received personal invitations...more evidence of evolution, I think.
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