Horror Movie Series: Part 3
A sneak peek at my seasonally decorated movie viewing spot
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The House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Laura’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
The House on Haunted Hill is a black and white film starring horror movie legend Vincent Price. This film is in the public domain, meaning the copyright is expired or waived, so you can watch this movie for free online! Funny story: I pulled this movie up on Youtube and went into the kitchen to get a snack. Unbeknownst to me, the movie started automatically. It turns out that the opening seconds are accompanied by a bloodcurdling scream. Needless to say, I jumped about 10 feet and scared myself before the movie even began.
The Analysis:
The movie asks an age old question: what are people willing to do for money? Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren (Price) and his fourth wife, Annabelle, rent out a haunted house for a party. They invite their guests with the promise of $10,000 for anyone who remains in the house from midnight to 8 o’clock the next morning. The Lorens also give out loaded guns to their guests as party favors (um, what?). The five invited guests are strangers and barely even know their hosts. Yet they are all desperate for money, even the owner of the house, who claims he nearly died last time he spent the night there.
The guests arrive and begin exploring the house, with the owner telling them about the murders that happened there, including the murder of his own brother. While he certainly believes that the house is haunted, the other guests seem doubtful at first. After blood drips from the ceiling and someone is locked in a room and attacked, it is unclear if these scary moments are the acts of ghosts or the paranoid minds of the guests. After the door to the outside becomes locked just before midnight, all of the guests have no choice but to stay at the party until dawn.
Darkness and shadows work to build suspense in this movie, along with an eerie wailing and impending background music that keep the spooky feeling alive. I mean listen, some of the frights are dulled by the restraints of 1950s “special effects”. Yet building suspense and a few jump scares never fail to frighten. The real star of the show is the tension that builds among the guests after it becomes apparent that someone has been murdered. As the night proceeds, they become fearful of both the ghosts and each other. A couple of plot inconsistencies are easily brushed aside by the solid acting and the delightfully creepy atmosphere. This movie has the perfect spooky feeling without all the gore of more modern horror films. I suggest this movie for a cozy fright night at home, especially during October (or a thunderstorm).
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Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Laura’s Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
This 1968 horror film directed by George Romero was selected in 1999 by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry and has become a cult classic, especially among film critics. It is ALSO in the public domain so you can watch for free online!
The Analysis:
While walking through a cemetery with his sister, Johnny jokes, “They’re coming to get you Barbara!” Boy, was he right. Much to his surprise, a slow moving man lunges at Barbara and after Johnny intervenes, a struggle ensues. Barbara is forced to run for safety and finds an abandoned farmhouse in the nick of time. Several zombie-like people approach the house slowly but menacingly. A man named Ben enters the house and begins boarding it up, while a shocked Barbara looks on. As more people come together to seek shelter in the house, tensions rise about survival strategies against the growing number of ghouls outside. When an escape attempt goes south, the true savagery of the undead people outside is revealed.
Despite its low budget, this movie was important and influential for the horror genre. It introduced the idea of zombies as undead, flesh-eating cannibals. Many movies and TV shows have used this as the basis for zombie characters. The movie also broke barriers with a black man in a leading role. Finally, the movie was shocking for its time due to the explicit gore shown on screen. While reasonably tame compared to today’s standards, seeing intestines and other body parts on the screen was unheard of at the time.
While creepy and tense, this movie is flawed. First, the combination of black and white film, retro styles, and poor film quality makes the movie feel a bit dated. I also found there to be a lack of dialogue and natural communication between characters, especially towards the beginning of the film. Finally, the plot feels like an idea that hasn’t been fully fleshed out and developed. You can tell that the movie became more relevant and important than it knew it could be. Night of the Living Dead is an important film for the genre of horror and while I don’t need a rewatch, I do recommend everyone seeing it at least once.
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