Without further ado, let’s just get into it.

I have a deep appreciation for House on Haunted Hill (1959) and the 1999 remake. Part of my appreciation for Halloween as a season is the level of camp, and knowing about the production of House on Haunted Hill and the career of William Castle, camp abounds. Hell, the movie has Vincent Price in it.

The thing that always strikes me most about the film is that the ghosts don’t really matter all that much, which is admittedly strange for a haunted house movie. Instead, the best drama and the bulk of the story is driven by maybe one of the most toxic marriages in film. The most shocking events of the attempted murder of Frederick (Vincent Price) by Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) and David’s (Alan Marshal) have little to nothing to do with ghosts. In fact, Nora (Carolyn Craig) is the only person who has any supernatural encounters and those could be played off entirely as nerves.

The ghosts do not matter to the film in that the plot plays out through circumstance and Nora’s encounters only serve to distract from the core drama of Annabelle, David, and Frederick operating behind the scenes. Events would have played out the same whether or not Nora had her encounters given the tensions between the love triangle in question. Or maybe the reason Nora was invited to Frederick’s party scheme is he knew that she had a nervous disposition.

The film suggests that Frederick did not know the full extent of Annabelle and David’s scheme, only figuring it out through observation following Annabelle’s supposed suicide. From there, Frederick loads blanks into Nora’s gun, recognizing the scheme was to push her into shooting him. While part of this could be the result of David, as a medical professional, quickly orchestrating a scheme upon recognizing her nervousness, I am pretty convinced Nora was a plant by Frederick, the host who seems to be far more prepared for the evening than he lets on, even at the end.

Arranging a skeletal marionette gag, at least to me, requires far more foresight than a vague notion that someone was meant to shoot Frederick that night. My guess is that Frederick probably knew more of what the scheme was and decided to “help” David and Annabelle to better achieve the result he wanted.

With all that said, couples therapy is still a hell of a lot cheaper than a murderous mansion party.

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