Haunted house movies

[Oh!Carol Christmasson]

Mary Quant.

She was bitching about the wardrobe?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

She was bitching about the wardrobe?

Maybe she didn't like her own designs.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Here's 1986's DARK MANSIONS starring Joan Fontaine, produced by Aaron Spelling, directed by Jerry London, filmed at Greystone-Doheny, and written by FALCON CREST's Robert McCullough, with an excessive score by Ken Harrison (which sounds a lot like COLBYS' and late-DYNASTY's compositions) which McCullough thought had a lot to do with mediocre audience testing results for the pilot:

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Is the original CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) a haunted house movie? Well, the entire pavilion seems to be haunted.

Directed by Herk Harvey, Candace Hilligoss is in a seemingly fatal accident when her car goes off the side of a bridge. Her carmates all drown, but she wanders up onto a sand bar, mysteriously alive. She drives across Kansas and promptly loses her new organist job when she veers from the hymnal in favor of some dancing demon selections more appropriate for a church of satan. Her lecherous boarding housemate wants a piece, but she's not giving it up, despite being chased by a goblin through most of the picture.

Eventually she winds up back at that pavilion she finds so entrancing (although it's actually in Utah).

There, a party awaits her, and she's the guest of honor.

Filmed in that twilight zone of the early-'60s where creepy is effortless, the shoe-string budget only served to enhance the effect... It's the end of the world, bitches..!

 

[darkshadows38]

i dunno if it is, honestly i liked the remakes of Haunted House i think it's called? and the remake of 13 ghosts was pretty good too, not among my favorite films but not bad either,

i'm not one that loves remakes at all but at times they do get it right, house on haunted hill the (1999) film i really loved. in fact 9 times out of 10 you will get me saying how much i hate remakes but than The Maltese Falcon (1941) version is a remake as it had been done 2 times before so they can get it right at times, it's just rare when they do that's all. and most of them do in fact suck but thankfully not all of them

with Carnival of Souls for example the original is a decent movie where it's watchable at least for me, but the remake WOW is that one awful that one is painfully bad. has anyone seen that one? and if not make sure you get a keg and than watch it you will enjoy it more if you do it that way

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

1958's low-budget THE SCREAMING SKULL, with an illustrious 3.7 rating on IMDb.

Incredibly pristine print, creepy in that effortless, end-of-the-world way from the late-'50s/early-'60s. Not much plotline.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Is the original CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) a haunted house movie? Well, the entire pavilion seems to be haunted.

Directed by Herk Harvey, Candace Hilligoss is in a seemingly fatal accident when her car goes off the side of a bridge. Her carmates all drown, but she wanders up onto a sand bar, mysteriously alive. She drives across Kansas and promptly loses her new organist job when she veers from the hymnal in favor of some dancing demon selections more appropriate for a church of satan. Her lecherous boarding housemate wants a piece, but she's not giving it up, despite being chased by a goblin through most of the picture.

Eventually she winds up back at that pavilion she finds so entrancing (although it's actually in Utah).

There, a party awaits her, and she's the guest of honor.

Filmed in that twilight zone of the early-'60s where creepy is effortless, the shoe-string budget only served to enhance the effect... It's the end of the world, bitches..!

Oh, here it is!:

 

[Oh!Carol Christmasson]

Oh, here it is!:

Oh, I watched it!

It looks as if it's filmed by aliens, watching people.
This movie sometimes focuses on the mondane stuff and that really works in a gothic setting. No special effects required.

 

[Crimson]

I haven't seen either in ages, but both THE HAUNTING (1963) and THE INNOCENTS (1961) scared the bejesus out of me the first time I watched them; foolishly, in both cases, alone and at night. Not in a jump-out-of-my-seat kind of fright, but a lingering uneasiness that made me want to sleep with the hallway light on. (THE SHINING has that effect on me every single time I watch it.) THE INNOCENTS is also, incidentally, the only film I ever enjoyed Deborah Kerr in; she always seemed like an uptight schoolmarm, so the role finally fit.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) is silly schlock; the kind of haunted house the Three Stooges should be running around in. I'm rather fond of the remake, however (1999); a nifty little horror film, although its ending devolves into a phantasmagoria of bad FX. I've seen THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973), but it didn't leave much of an impression other than being inferior to the book. Curiously, I liked that book more than Shirley Jackson's although my reaction to the film versions were reversed. I watched THE CHANGELING (1980) based on the recommendations of a former member here, and found it awfully effective except, perhaps, for the very end.

Of much newer vintage, but I particularly like both of THE CONJURING films; both do an excellent job of bridging modern frights with classic, eerie atmosphere.

 

[thomaswak]

Not a movie, but the mini anthology series "The Haunting Of Hill House" was pretty good imo. Very, very good...

 

[Oh!Carol Christmasson]

Filmed in that twilight zone of the early-'60s where creepy is effortless, the shoe-string budget only served to enhance the effect

I think my favourite kind of horror is the one that has the right amount of additional emotions (sadness, despair) rather than just being frightening.
That's why CARRIE always works for me - it's not only the supernatural and death scenes, but also the hatred and guilt inside the White's house, and not all horror movie makers manage to create that kind of atmosphere.
The female lead in CARNIVAL OF SOULS is not a lovely damsel in distress, and I think they made the right decision because it kinda makes you wonder whether she deserves it or not, which makes it a less straightforward experience.
CARNIVAL also doesn't have a strong sense of POV, we're not looking with the character but at the character - which is exactly what gives it that "alien" feel (imo).
I'm not saying that this kind of "distance" between the viewer and that what happens on screen works for every horror movie but in this case it helps increasing that otherwordly atmosphere.

One of the cheap special effects used in this movie is speeding up some of the sequences, like when she was moving furniture and closing the curtains and whatnot, filmed from the other side of the window, we only see the fast moving shadows, and it's a creepy kind of hysteria.
But even if it isn't a creepy movie then it's still a very beautiful movie - and the picture quality is simply amazing, especially for a YouTube upload.

I should also mention Sidney Berger who plays the horny/hostile neighbour - according to imdb he's only done two "Carnival Of Souls" movies, and that itself is also a little unsettling.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I think my favourite kind of horror is the one that has the right amount of additional emotions (sadness, despair) rather than just being frightening.

As I've often said: if you don't have the sad then you don't have the scary.

 

[Oh!Carol Christmasson]

William Castle's HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) has all of the right elements to make up a nifty haunted house movie, and yet none of them at all.

I just watched some parts of it on YT, and it clearly shows why the remake trumps the original: the set design.
The original wants to look like the haunted house on haunted hill, with all its euro-gothic and cobwebs (because Vincent Price was in it?).
It doesn't match the neo-modern look of the factory-like exterior of the mansion. I just cannot believe that anyone who buys or rebuilds this house would give the inside a 19th century look.
In the remake it looks rich but weird, it's how I would expect someone to use the unusual structure.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[Sarah]

Apparently they are making another Haunted Mansion movie!!!!

‘Haunted Mansion’ Movie in the Works With Writer Katie Dippold (Exclusive)

Disney is developing a new Haunted Mansion feature with Katie Dippold, who wrote <em>The Heat</em> and <em>Ghostbusters</em>, penning the script.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[Richard Channing]

THE INNOCENTS (1961) From that same era, Jack Clayton directs Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" scripted by Truman Capote. Another repressed spinster (Deborah Kerr) goes to serve as governess to two spooky children in a huge British mansion.

The story seems to involve too doomed and unhealthy, departed lovers inhabiting the souls of the kids.

There is a lot of contention out there as to which film is better, THE HAUNTING or THE INNOCENTS. For me, THE HAUNTING has the edge. Because despite how many brilliantly-realized macabre vignettes and montages you'll find in THE INNOCENTS (and Freddie Francis' deep focus B&W photography is breathtaking, although the DVD is unforgivably washed out), the narrative in THE HAUNTING holds together better.

I also have a complaint about the leading lady in THE INNOCENTS. Kerr considered this to be her favorite role, and I found her to be an intelligent person, but I also find her to be a bit too shrill and "actressy" in THE INNOCENTS and it distracts from the movie. (Yes, Harris is shrill, too, in THE HAUNTING, but that always strikes me as being more character-appropriate somehow; I suppose Kerr's character is supposed to be equally neurotic, too, but I always find myself blaming the performer in her case, not the role).

I just watched this tonight. There's a good quality version of it on Youtube. What an experience. Absolutely dripping in atmosphere and beautifully lit, it's so gorgeous. And genuinely unnerving. It's dark and sinister themes are the kind that stay with you long after the credits have rolled. Really a masterpiece,

Funnily enough I felt exactly the same way about Deborah Kerr's performance and also found her to be shrill and histrionic. The children, however, were fantastic.

I had a strange experience watching as I'd had already seen The Nightcomers with Stephanie Beacham and Marlon Brando, but had no idea it had anything to do with this film and didn't know it was a prequel. So as the story of Quint and Miss Jessel unfolded I knew it was familiar to me but wasn't sure how. I knew I'd seen it play out somewhere else but it took me a while to figure out where.

I watched this great little doc about the making of The Innocents right after.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Funnily enough I felt exactly the same way about Deborah Kerr's performance and also found her to be shrill and histrionic

That's just Kerr --- much too actress-y. As if she's on stage. And yet this was her favorite role.... As I've said, Julie Harris was shrill, too, but that fit the character.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Well, now that I've seen THE GHOST OF SIERRA DE COBRE (1965), it's very heavily atmospheric, with a sometimes startling sound track. It looks and feels more like a cross between an early DARK SHADOWS episode and a B&W instalment of NIGHT GALLERY than it does TWILIGHT ZONE (it was intended to be a TZ-type series had CBS chosen to pick up the pilot). It also kept reminding me a bit of Seth Holt's Hammer film TASTE OF FEAR (1961).

I can see how kids in the '60s found TGOSDC so intensely spooky. It is.

Dame Judith Anderson is on hand to provide the Scorpio Rising creepy factor (although didn't anybody tell Judy that being billed with your title isn't protocol??) Of course, she and perpetually brittle Diane Baker are the stars of this thing. Don't miss Martin Landau's endearing seaside duck walk in the first reel.

Oh, look, Popmatters just did a little review of it today:

https://www.popmatters.com/ghost-of...no-2613941069.html?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5

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Perhaps this should be posted on the "Hag Horrors" thread since Judith Anderson figures heavily in this one.

There are two versions -- the TV version and the one expanded for theatrical release (which is a bit changed). I'll post both, for as long as they last.. It was once deemed "too scary" for American television, and it disappeared for years, co-star Martin Landau rumored to have the only copy -- and in fact it wasn't until he died that the movie surfaced and went to DVD.

THE GHOST OF SIERRA DE COBRE (1965):

TV version:

 

[Alexis]

Oops it was Taste of Evil, with Barbara Parkins. I couldn't get into it.

Yes, the first half really drags, but the second part is fabulous camp.

I went back and watched this a few nights ago and actually really enjoyed it and managed to finish it this time. You are right the second half is better and it's wonderfully campy. Stanwyck's character turns out to be a really evil twisted bitch.

 

[darkshadows38]

that one i haven't seen well not yet anyways