Post by novastar6 on Jan 25, 2021 17:39:19 GMT
I'm bringing this one up here since a lot of similar movies don't really fall under the horror genre, more along mystery.
I love House on Haunted Hill, I watched it all the time as a kid, literally wore the tape out, when eBay came along, found another VHS copy, watched it about to ruin too, then it came out on DVD, haven't worn any out but I own several copies. I don't know exactly what it is that always drew me to it but I just LOVE that movie, and I like the remake.
On Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, Dennis Paoli, writer of "Re-Animator", said it defined one of the structures of what became the slasher films. It's an interesting way to look at it, but it's also similar to previous films and stories like And Then There Were None. And then you find out there's a movie that's ATTWN before there was ATTWN, The Ninth Guest, from the 1930s, the sound's a bit lacking on it but it's a very entertaining movie.
But there's something that sets these kinds of movies apart from House on Haunted Hill. In these other movies, a group of people are invited to a house that's cut off from everyone else, with the intent that the host is actually hiding among the guests and plans to kill the others off one by one for previous crimes they've committed either real or in accordance with the killer's own moral compass. In House on Haunted Hill, we know immediately who the host is, and we have an idea why he invited the people he did. Murder's still on the menu but the plan isn't to pick the guests off one by one. Another thing that separates it, the prize. In HOHH, the guests are offered $10,000 if they live through the night, that was not an aspect of the other movies, in those, the 'guests' were invited to a party or on some means of business or some other ruse, never a flat out cash prize to stay the night.
But so aside from movies like The Ninth Guest and And Then There Were None, what are some other movies you think share similarities with House on Haunted Hill?
