BOOO!!! Hey there fellow weirdos. Thanks for stopping by Dead End Horror and checking out my final movie review for haunted house week!! You thought I went old school on you yesterday with a flick from the early 70's?? Today I'll be practically shoving old school down your throats (you know you like it) with a movie from the late 1950's. The movie I'm talking about is, “House on Haunted Hill.”
Sound familiar? Of course it does because there was another movie of the same title that came out in 1999. But we aren't talking about that one today. And besides, it's a remake of the one I'll be reviewing today. “House on Haunted Hill” was released on February 17, 1959 and was written by Robb White and directed by William Castle. And of course it stars the man, the myth, the legend...Vincent Price.
Vincent Price stars in this B horror film as an eccentric millionaire named Frederick Loren . Frederick and his fourth wife Annabelle have invited five people to a haunted house for a "haunted house" party. The rules are that the house will be locked down at midnight and no one can leave. And anyone who makes it through the night alive will be given $10,00. Shortly after the five invited guests arrive, strange things start happening and they are trapped inside with ghosts, murderers and other terrors.
Mr. Loren appears shortly after and explains the rules of the party and gives everyone a .45 caliber pistol for their own protection. Mrs. Loren hints to the guests that her husband is psychotic and this causes the guests to be extremely suspicious of Mr. Loren, especially Nora Manning. Nora becomes paranoid and is convinced that Mr. Loren is trying to kill her when she sees mysterious ghouls throughout the house, including the ghost of Loren's wife Annabelle who had presumably hung herself after being forced to attend the party.
He is fully convinced that the house is truly haunted and believes that the ghosts have the power to kill anyone in the house that they wish. After the supposed suicide of Annabelle, everyone is suspicious of everyone else and they all decide to go to their rooms with their pistols and stay there until morning. It is then that Dr. Trent goes into the room where Annabelle's body was laid on a bed. He tells her that it's almost over and they reveal the plan they've had all along to frighten Nora so badly that she would be spooked enough to shoot Mr. Loren. Dr. Trent tells Annabelle when she hears the gunshot to come into the basement.
The lights come back on and both men disappear. After hearing the gunshot, Annabelle enters the basement to confirm that her husband is dead and her and Dr. Trent's plan worked. All of the doors start slamming shut and a skeleton appears out of the acid, accompanied by Frederick's voice telling her that at last she's got everything he has, but she won't live to enjoy it. The skeleton approaches Annabelle and she recoils in terror and as she does she trips and falls into the vat of acid.
Frederick Loren steps out of the shadows with a contraption he was using to control the skeleton and in absolute triumph he watches Annabelle disintegrate. The other guests rush into the basement to find that Loren is alive. He tells Nora that her gun was loaded with blanks and that.....
I wasn't scared...no sir...horror movies rarely scare me, but this one did creep me out just a little. Vincent Price is amazing...seriously. Zane turned me on to him and I'm so glad he did. There is just something about him (I mean Vincent Price, not Zane...although...ehh we'll get into that some other time).
Although I will say I probably like the remake better...I know!! I can't help it y'all!! I'm a new school girl and while I appreciate the oldies, I'm all for the new stuff. There's more blood, guts, death...I love it!
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| Sasha Slaughter |
YEP-YEP-YEP-YEP-YEP! Let’s do this motherfucker! Zombie Zane here with you once again from the glass furnace otherwise known as the seven six one oh seven. What’s poppin’ slimes? After a nice little break from the world of horror, Sasha and I are back this week with a whole new topic. This week we’re talking about Vincent Price films. In fact, the rest of this month will be dedicated to old school horror. So if you like old school horror, this will be awesome! If you don’t, well, we’ll try and do something better next month.
As I was saying, this week we decided to watch a couple Vincent Price films. I watched, ‘RETURN OF THE FLY’ and Sasha watched ‘LAST MAN ON EARTH.’ Both are great old-school horror movies. I mean they star Vincent Price, what else can you ask for? I’ve had enough foreplay, what about you? Shall I get to the good stuff and tell you what I thought about ‘RETURN OF THE FLY?’ Okay, here’s my take on the 1959 classic.
Ok. ‘RETURN OF THE FLY’ is a sequel to the 1958 classic, ‘The Fly.’ The film was directed by a dude named Edward Bemds and it stars Vincent Price and Brett Halsey. It runs just about 80mins and is black and white. The film also inspired another sequel (CURSE OF THE FLY-1965) which I’ve seen as well and is really not that bad. No Vincent Price in that one though so it loses some cool points. Now you know the particulars, how ‘bout we get to the plot, yes?
The plot basically breaks down as follows: Phillipe Delambre is the son of the doctor from the first movie. And as you may or may not know, in the first film, it ended badly for the poor doctor. So this film is all about his son (Delambre) trying to continue the experiment to vindicate his father’s work. Which, if you saw the first film, is no easy task. So while Phillipe is trying to continue his father’s work, his uncle, Francois (played by Price) refuses to help out. I mean he knows what went wrong the last time and he figures fuck it, why risk it. So you kinda have a little bit of a family drama to go along with all the teleportation and whatnot. So despite having no help from his uncle, Phillipe presses on causing several deaths and ultimately becoming a half man-half fly creature. Like father like son.
So there ya have it. The plot. Now usually I break the movie down a lil further by giving you some important stats. Now this film really didn’t have any of those numbers. Except for a body count and that number is 2 so there ya go. But no nudity, no foul language, no gore. But that isn’t to say this movie is a plie of shit. Quite the opposite. It’s a damn good film. In fact, I give it a solid 3.5 out of 5. Which is totally rare considering it’s a sequel. And let’s face it, most sequels are piles of fuck.
Well, there ya have it. My take on ‘RETURN OF THE FLY.’ Be sure and check out Sasha’s stuff as well. She’s doing a review on the film ‘LAST MAN ON EARTH’ also starring Vincent Price. Until nest time, take care, stay a-scared and I am out.
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In 1965 a plague started in Europe and was slowly making it's way to the states. Fast forward 3 years later and Dr. Robert Morgan is the only human being left in the world...or so he thinks. He's got some company at night though, blood thirsty vampires intent on killing him. He tries daily to reach someone, anyone on the radio, but to no avail. He spends his days replacing the garlic he hangs on the door of his home to keep the vampires away. He also replaces the mirrors he hangs on the doors, because he knows the vampires are repelled by their own reflection.
He also spends his days trying to stay alive and trying to find the vampires that stalk him at night. He goes into town daily and searches every street and every building, looking for sleeping vampires to stake in the heart and then burn. He watches home movies at night of his wife and daughter, laughing at first, and then crying. He begins to have a flashback of what happened before the plague hit his town. He and his wife were having a birthday party for their daughter Kathy when his good friend Benjamin brings a newspaper clipping to Roberts attention. It says that the plague is coming from Europe and spreading quickly, but Robert doesn't believe it. He and fellow scientists at the Mercer Institute of Chemical Research are trying to figure out what is causing the infection.
Soon after, he discovers that both his wife and daughter are sick. Before leaving for work, he finds that his daughter is blind, a symptom of infection. He warns his wife not to tell anyone because if they are infected, they'll be taken away. He comes home to find a truck and men in masks putting what looks like a body in the back of a truck and driving away. He goes into his house and his wife said she called a doctor and they came and took their daughter and are going to burn her body. They burn the bodies of those who are infected, so the infection cannot spread. Later he hears his wife screaming that she can't see, he runs into the bedroom and shes dead. He buries his wife in a seculded area because he doesn't want her body to be burned. He returns home and moments later he hears someone whispering "Let me in". He opens the door and his wife is standing there.The vampires outside are destroying his car which snaps him out of his flashback.
While he was downtown getting a new car, he sees a dog and follows it, trying to see where it came from, hoping there are others alive. He sees vampires lying dead on the ground, with iron stakes in them. He realizes he's not alone and wonders where the others are hiding. He goes home and hears the dog outside of his door. He brings the dog in but quickly realizes that it is infected when he tests its blood. He stakes the dog in the heart and buries it. As he finishes, he sees a woman approaching him, she sees him and runs away. He chases her and convinces her that he is not infected. She agrees to go back with him to be safe.
Robert takes Ruth back to his house but is paranoid that she is infected. He puts garlic infront of her and it makes her sick, so he's convinced that shes infected. She tries to tell him that she hasn't eaten in days and everything makes her sick. He asked to test her blood to see if she was infected and she refuses. He reveals to Ruth that while in Panama he was bitten by a bat that was infected, but the infection was weakened and because of that, he thinks he's immune to the virus. She goes into a room and is getting ready to inject herself with something when Robert walks in. She tells him that the shot keeps her from turning into a vampire and that shes infected but the shot prevents her from turning.
Robert finds out that there are more people like Ruth. They are in a large group and want to start their own society. She tells him that he is seen as a monster by these people because he's been killing the infected, who are still alive and happen to be loved ones of her group. She then tells him that she was sent there to spy on him and to keep him from leaving because her group wants to kill him. He leaves the room and she passes out. She wakes and finds Robert taking an IV from her arm. He was transferring his blood into her, to try cure her of the infection because he is immune. The transfusion works and shes cured.
He goes to test her blood again to make sure, and comes back to find her outside being bitten by his good friend Benjamin, who is now a vampire. The people from Ruths group come to kill him and he runs. He ends up at the church and is trying to hide. More people from the group are filing into the church as the rest are looking for Dr.Morgan. He eventually makes his way to the front of the church and begins to tell the group that they are mutations and as he does, he gets an iron stake right through his heart.
Booo!! He died!! This was the first time I've ever seen this movie, as it was recommended by my partner in crime, Zombie Zane. Good choice! I liked it. It is definitley old school but it was good. Not a lot in the special effects department, but it was the 60's soooo!! Vincent Price is an amazing actor and really made the movie interesting. Some of it was kind of amusing, but then again I'm not really used to classics. I'm more of a modern horror movie kind of person, but I'm definitley starting to like the oldies. Overall I'd give this movie a 3 out of 5. It kept me interested, the acting was good, Vincent Price's voice kept my attention throughout the movie, the vampires were ok (At least there was none of that sparkle in the sun shit) and plot was good also. Yay!! As usual, don't forget to check back next week for new stuff here at Dead End Horror!! Thanks, we definitley appreciate it!
