William Castle schlock horror classic finally comes to Blu-ray

By Jim Bray
December 2, 2025

Just in time to miss Halloween comes one of the great guilty pleasure horror movies, from the mind of one of the greatest showmen in Hollywood history.

It's House on Haunted Hill, the 1959 scream fest (whether they're screams of fright or giggles I'll leave up to you) that saw some theatres dragging a model skeleton across the top of the auditorium to up the fright (or delight) oomph to an outrageous high.

It's also a movie that appears to have been quite an inspiration for at least one spoof many years later: Neil Simon's Murder by Death. Murder by Death was a deliberate comedy, however, while House on Haunted Hill at least pretends to be a scary movie – and it even has some decent chills for 1959.

Here's how the film is described on the box of this new Blu-ray from Film Masters: "A millionaire offers ten thousand dollars to five people if they agree to stay overnight in a large, spooky, rented house. When you consider that the millionaire is Vincent Price, and the film is directed by Schlock master William Castle, you can bet the five guests are in for a long, bumpy night. This "super shocker of the century" was a smash hit upon its 1959 release."

I really wanted to see this when I got the news that Film Masters – who have released several other such perhaps minor classics from decades ago – because I'd never seen it, and since Castle's follow up (The Tingler) is one of my favourite guilty pleasures. I'd also seen the remake of Haunted Hill and enjoyed it.

Vincent Price plays millionaire Frederick Loren who has decided to throw a party (with his wife, kind of) for a few select guests. The venue is, not surprisingly, the house on Haunted Hill, where in the past some unsolved murders had taken place.

Naturally, weird things happen including people disappearing, people freaking out, you get the drill. Between skeletons, disembodied heads, and general mayhem and angst, it's scare night at the haunted mansion. Which, really, is how it should be. After all, what's the use of having a haunted house if it isn't haunted? That, to channel The Simpsons, would be the most blatant case of false advertising since The Neverending Story.

In the end, we do find out what's been going for the whole 75-minute running time and it isn't really what the movie has tried leading us to believe. And that's also as it should be.

It's a lot of fun and I'm glad I finally had a chance to see it. Bring on more such titles, Film Masters! Please.

Note: AV Entertainment is the sponsor of the review copies from Film Masters now, and the films can be purchased here.

Besides Vincent Price, Haunted Hill stars Elisha Cook, Jr. along with Richard Long, Julie Mitchum (Robert's daughter), Leona Anderson, Carolyn Craig, Alan Marshal and Carol Ohmart. And you get to learn a lot about the cast and their respective careers on the very interesting commentary track that accompanies the movie.

The Blu-ray isn't the best example of the species. The black and white picture, which is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, is good but not great. Blacks are okay and detail is as well, but it seems that the film hasn't received a high-tech restoration and/or remastering. And it may not have been worth the expense. But it's okay.

Ditto for the monaural audio, which is presented in DTS-HD MA two channel mono (is that an oxymoron?). Your audio system isn't going to need a vacation after playing this particular flick, but for a movie that only cost $200,000USD to make back then, it's not too bad.

There aren't a lot of bonus features with this movie, but what you do get is very good. First up is a running commentary track by a guy named Heath Holland, who apparently hosts the Cereal at Midnight blog where he looks at many such films. He knows his stuff here, at least, and I found his commentary quite fascinating. He deals not only with the cast, as mentioned above, but also the lovely cinematography, the history of William Castle, and lots more, including the history of the house they used as Hill House for the exterior shots (the interiors were done on sound stages).

A bonus is that you have two ways to sample the commentary. You can run the audio as you would normally or, via the setup menu, you can run the transcript. That's how I used it, watching the movie with its original soundtrack running and Holland's opus in the captioning. It worked well, though as with such choices I found myself doing as much reading as I did watching.

Fortunately, since this is a physical disc, you can watch it again the other way. Or watch it once with captions and once (or however many times you want) without.

The other extra is a fine, albeit quite short, essay inside the box. It's written by Jason A. Ney, who has done lots of this type of thing, and I found it quite interesting.

Okay, House on Haunted Hill probably will never be added to the AFI's list of the best movies, but it's a lot of fun and even packs a few thrills along the way. And that makes it okay in my book.