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In these days of cinematic laziness, when big studios rely on big name actors, big production budgets (mostly involving computers), & big, steaming piles of re-used plots, one pities those who were not raised on smaller, intimate, & vastly more creative films. While many of these warrant artistic merit simply based on plot, acting, & resourceful film-making, gimmicky (but oh so fun) tactics were often used in the production & promotion of low-budget or less-than-stellar horror movies (& even a number of good ones) to make them more appealing . In 1981, John Waters’ use of “Odorama” (scratch & sniff cards labeled with numbers coinciding with scents depicted in the film) during the release of “Polyester” paid homage to this forgotten form of art & advertising, & while it may seem ridiculous today, in the 1950s & 60s, such devices were a vital part of the theatre-going experience, thanks to producer-director William Castle. With plastic skeletons rigged to fly overhead to startle audience members, insurance policies for those who might die of fright while watching the film, special glasses for optical effects (kind of like 3-D, I guess), & buzzers under the seats to give the audience a jolt now & again, Castle enticed movie-lovers, many of whom went as much for the thrill of what he might come up with next as they did to see the actual movie.
Though not a Castle film itself, 1958’s “Terror in the Haunted House” (http://www.badmovieplanet.com/3btheater/t/terrorinhauntedhouse.html - this review contains major spoilage) does hearken back to such a time, it being the first picture in Psycho-Rama, “a visual process so devastating that our government banned its use within a year of the movie’s release,” or so claims the box. “Subliminal skulls, snakes, & messages leap off the screen & into your brain - can your psyche take it?!”
More a suspenseful psychological thriller than an outright horror story (likely why the original title listed on the IMDB is “My World Dies Screaming”), the film opens with a woman’s softly-voiced narration guiding viewers into an old house which is very familiar to her, but which she has never visited. The camera wanders (a la first-person perspective) through the various halls & rooms, but when she comes to a stairwell leading up into the attic, the woman is compelled to stop, unable to venture any further, fearing some fatal, frightening, hidden truth awaits her should she ascend.
She screams, & awakens on a therapist’s couch. Her name is Sheila (Cathy O’Donnell), & the house appears to her in a recurring dream. Her shrink has made numerous attempts to hypnotise her & guide her into the attic to uncover what he believes is a repressed memory. But though she comes close, she has not yet been able to go up those stairs. An orphan who survived a bout with tuberculosis as a child, Sheila has been living in Switzerland since her youth. Having spent some time in a sanitarium, she is now planning to return to the US with her husband, Phillip (Gerald Mohr), with whom she shared a whirlwind romance, & about whom she knows very little.
A shady character if ever there were one, Phillip talks around subjects, twists statements & situations to his benefit, & keeps secrets from his wife. He takes her to a large house in Florida, & right from the start, you know something’s fishy, because Sheila lets out an ear-piercing howl - the house is the same one from her dreams! After much hesitation & a bit of pressure from her husband, Sheila goes in. She meets Jonah, the caretaker (John Qualen), whose dog growls at the couple & yet obeys Phillip when he commands it to sit. Jonah tells Sheila the house has been empty for 17 years. One by one, he says, the owners “went away”, but he’s kept it as it was because he’s waiting for them to come back.
Not surprisingly, Sheila, as she moves through the house, seems to know each step before she takes it. Even the name on the mailbox - Tierney - is the same as in her dream. Greatly unnerved, she convinces Phillip she needs to get out of there, but when they try to leave, they find their car has been sabotaged, the distributor cap removed. Phillip blames Jonah, but with night falling & the nearest town too far to walk to, they have no choice but to stay.
In conversing with Jonah, Sheila calls up a few childhood memories, one having to do with a boy she liked who carved their initials on a tree. They are hazy recollections, at best, but they plant a seed of doubt as to her original assertion that she has only been to the house in her dreams. That night, she hears a horrible scream, & sees a figure outside the window - even though she’s on the second floor! She goes looking for Phillip, who is nowhere to be found, until she’s chased back into her room by Jonah’s dog. There, she finds her husband, who says he was just out for a walk.
Jonah re-appears, so after reassuring his ever-nervous wife, Phillip goes to confront the caretaker. Sheila takes a gun from Phillip’s suitcase for protection...but also discovers the missing distributor cap. She leaves the room, & in the hall, a shadow moves over her (a stunning shot), & she goes through a nearby door, only to see that frightening stairwell leading up to the attic.
While Phillip insists that Sheila’s mounting fear & paranoia are simply a product of her fragile mind, she becomes more & more certain he has intentionally brought her to the house of her nightmares. This feeling is cemented with the introduction of Mark (William Ching), a man who claims to be the owner of the house, who insinuates that he not only shares a connection to Phillip, but knows something about Sheila that she doesn‘t. Of course, the burning question here is, what is the terrifying secret locked away in the attic that poor Sheila is unable to face?
“Terror In The Haunted House” isn’t really as bad a movie as some reviewers seem to think it is. It simply lacks the cinematic horror elements for which it has been marketed. Though a little slow at times, there are several twists to the story, so it never quite goes the way you might expect, which is a definite positive. The acting is good, particularly Gerald Mohr as Phillip (described in my notes as “a shifty cross between Humphrey Bogart & John Larroquette”). I was slightly disappointed in the conclusion, however, which I found a tad lackluster, given the fairly interesting (& lengthy) build-up. (The inclusion of some super-sappy moments didn’t help this, though they do fit the movie’s often melodramatic tone.) One scene in particular could have been upped a notch & a half, had it been done as a flashback.
As for the subliminals, you can occasionally make out the shape of a head or a pair of eyes, even a word or two, but beyond that, it’s basically just a series of blips that make you blink a few times & would probably drive you completely nuts if they went on through the entire movie. Luckily, they don’t (they mostly appear in the beginning & near the end of the film). Apparently, Rhino Video, who released “Terror In The Haunted House”, re-mastered the original messages, adding their own slogan to the mix (“Rent Rhino Videos Every Day”), but you can at least give them marks for effort if you think of Psycho-Rama primarily as a throw-back to a bygone era. Besides, however distracting those quick flashes of faces & phrases may be, so long as the mention of them on the box is enough to spark your interest in the film, they’ve served their purpose.
Though not a Castle film itself, 1958’s “Terror in the Haunted House” (http://www.badmovieplanet.com/3btheater/t/terrorinhauntedhouse.html - this review contains major spoilage) does hearken back to such a time, it being the first picture in Psycho-Rama, “a visual process so devastating that our government banned its use within a year of the movie’s release,” or so claims the box. “Subliminal skulls, snakes, & messages leap off the screen & into your brain - can your psyche take it?!”
More a suspenseful psychological thriller than an outright horror story (likely why the original title listed on the IMDB is “My World Dies Screaming”), the film opens with a woman’s softly-voiced narration guiding viewers into an old house which is very familiar to her, but which she has never visited. The camera wanders (a la first-person perspective) through the various halls & rooms, but when she comes to a stairwell leading up into the attic, the woman is compelled to stop, unable to venture any further, fearing some fatal, frightening, hidden truth awaits her should she ascend.
She screams, & awakens on a therapist’s couch. Her name is Sheila (Cathy O’Donnell), & the house appears to her in a recurring dream. Her shrink has made numerous attempts to hypnotise her & guide her into the attic to uncover what he believes is a repressed memory. But though she comes close, she has not yet been able to go up those stairs. An orphan who survived a bout with tuberculosis as a child, Sheila has been living in Switzerland since her youth. Having spent some time in a sanitarium, she is now planning to return to the US with her husband, Phillip (Gerald Mohr), with whom she shared a whirlwind romance, & about whom she knows very little.
A shady character if ever there were one, Phillip talks around subjects, twists statements & situations to his benefit, & keeps secrets from his wife. He takes her to a large house in Florida, & right from the start, you know something’s fishy, because Sheila lets out an ear-piercing howl - the house is the same one from her dreams! After much hesitation & a bit of pressure from her husband, Sheila goes in. She meets Jonah, the caretaker (John Qualen), whose dog growls at the couple & yet obeys Phillip when he commands it to sit. Jonah tells Sheila the house has been empty for 17 years. One by one, he says, the owners “went away”, but he’s kept it as it was because he’s waiting for them to come back.
Not surprisingly, Sheila, as she moves through the house, seems to know each step before she takes it. Even the name on the mailbox - Tierney - is the same as in her dream. Greatly unnerved, she convinces Phillip she needs to get out of there, but when they try to leave, they find their car has been sabotaged, the distributor cap removed. Phillip blames Jonah, but with night falling & the nearest town too far to walk to, they have no choice but to stay.
In conversing with Jonah, Sheila calls up a few childhood memories, one having to do with a boy she liked who carved their initials on a tree. They are hazy recollections, at best, but they plant a seed of doubt as to her original assertion that she has only been to the house in her dreams. That night, she hears a horrible scream, & sees a figure outside the window - even though she’s on the second floor! She goes looking for Phillip, who is nowhere to be found, until she’s chased back into her room by Jonah’s dog. There, she finds her husband, who says he was just out for a walk.
Jonah re-appears, so after reassuring his ever-nervous wife, Phillip goes to confront the caretaker. Sheila takes a gun from Phillip’s suitcase for protection...but also discovers the missing distributor cap. She leaves the room, & in the hall, a shadow moves over her (a stunning shot), & she goes through a nearby door, only to see that frightening stairwell leading up to the attic.
While Phillip insists that Sheila’s mounting fear & paranoia are simply a product of her fragile mind, she becomes more & more certain he has intentionally brought her to the house of her nightmares. This feeling is cemented with the introduction of Mark (William Ching), a man who claims to be the owner of the house, who insinuates that he not only shares a connection to Phillip, but knows something about Sheila that she doesn‘t. Of course, the burning question here is, what is the terrifying secret locked away in the attic that poor Sheila is unable to face?
“Terror In The Haunted House” isn’t really as bad a movie as some reviewers seem to think it is. It simply lacks the cinematic horror elements for which it has been marketed. Though a little slow at times, there are several twists to the story, so it never quite goes the way you might expect, which is a definite positive. The acting is good, particularly Gerald Mohr as Phillip (described in my notes as “a shifty cross between Humphrey Bogart & John Larroquette”). I was slightly disappointed in the conclusion, however, which I found a tad lackluster, given the fairly interesting (& lengthy) build-up. (The inclusion of some super-sappy moments didn’t help this, though they do fit the movie’s often melodramatic tone.) One scene in particular could have been upped a notch & a half, had it been done as a flashback.
As for the subliminals, you can occasionally make out the shape of a head or a pair of eyes, even a word or two, but beyond that, it’s basically just a series of blips that make you blink a few times & would probably drive you completely nuts if they went on through the entire movie. Luckily, they don’t (they mostly appear in the beginning & near the end of the film). Apparently, Rhino Video, who released “Terror In The Haunted House”, re-mastered the original messages, adding their own slogan to the mix (“Rent Rhino Videos Every Day”), but you can at least give them marks for effort if you think of Psycho-Rama primarily as a throw-back to a bygone era. Besides, however distracting those quick flashes of faces & phrases may be, so long as the mention of them on the box is enough to spark your interest in the film, they’ve served their purpose.
