House on Haunted Hill

One of the best films directed by horror-movie maestro William Castle, 1958's House on Haunted Hill gives Vincent Price one of his very best roles as the owner of a modernistic mansion perched atop a forbidding hill (by this time, Price already sensed that his destiny was linked with that of low-budget fright films, and he invested his performances with a cheeky but subtle humor that gave perceptive viewers an added treat). After offering several of his enemies $10,000 each to spend the night in the house, he impishly distributes to his skeptical guests tiny coffins containing handguns—and then begins activating numerous, bizarre contraptions designed to frighten his boarders into using their weapons. It's all done tongue-in-cheek, and for theatrical showings Castle implemented every shock device used by shudder-film specialists at the time, and introduced a new one in “Emergo,” an illuminated skeleton that seemed to burst from the screen and glide over the heads of audiences (needless to say, that particular effect is lost on DVD). What makes this effort a little more unpredictable than its low-budget brethren is that Price's character isn't the deep-dyed villain he seems: the movie's real malefactors are his scheming, unfaithful wife (Carol Ohmart) and her lover (Alan Marshal). Silly, unpretentious fun throughout, the film closes with a famous curtain line delivered deadpan by character actor Elisha Cook Jr.—“They're coming for me now…and then they'll come for you!”—a perfect ending to a delightful little popcorn movie. Presented in both the original black-and-white and a colorized version, the disc also includes a nyuk-nyuk commentary track by Mystery Science Theater 3000's Mike Nelson. Recommended. (E. Hulse)