The Tuesday Top 10: Favorite Haunted House Movies

You know how there are those horror fans who will go on and on about how the best horror comes from what you don't see, and that psychological dread will always trump blood and guts? Yeah, I'm one of those guys. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with gore, but I'll take the gothic over the macabre any day of the week, and I've always been more Poe/Lovecraft than King/Barker.

And when it comes to subtle, psychological horror, the most effective movies have always involved ghosts--particularly the ultimate distillation of that particular subgenre: the haunted house movie. Because we're dealing with the supernatural in its most ethereal, mysterious and non-corporeal form, it's hard to pull off a good ghost story. There aren't always a lot of bells and whistles, but the payoff is always worth it.

Many of my all-time favorite horror films are in the tried-and-true haunted house category. They've thrilled me, chilled me, and made me think twice about sleeping with the lights off. Here are a few of the very best...

10. Ghost Story (1981)
Largely underrated chiller featuring future Borg Queen Alice Krige as the spirit of a hot young chippie terrorizing a group of septuagenarians who accidentally killed her back in the 1920s. While not technically a “Haunted House” tale since the activities transcend location, it hits many of the familiar tropes, and hits them well. It also features the great Fred Astaire in his final role—although sadly, he doesn’t dance. Based on the 1979 novel by Peter Straub.

9. Poltergeist (1982)
Easily one of the most financially successful horror flicks of all time, this one had the backing of Steven Spielberg, and a “summer blockbuster” feel. And although the spectacle and Spielberg touch do soften the scares just a bit, there’s enough creepiness and genuine terror in there (courtesy of director Tobe Hooper) to get the job done. I particularly enjoy how the movie really gets at some primal fears and exploits them to great effect (see: Clown Toy and Face Ripping Scene).

8. The Others (2001)
The good old-fashioned ghost story gets ushered into the 21st century with this Shyamalan-esque (back when that was a good thing) period piece. The look and feel are rich and foreboding, generating an atmosphere of creeping dread. Plus, you’re not entirely sure of the nature of what you’re seeing until the final reel—and even if you see it coming, it’s one hell of an ending. (See my illustrious son’s movie blog for his own review of the film!)

7. The Uninvited (1944)
For years, this film was mystifyingly unavailable on DVD—but thankfully that situation has recently changed. In many ways, this movie became the prototype for the classic haunted house film—a mansion on a cliff; a deep, dark secret; plenty of things that go bump in the night… Plus, it even spawned a great standard: “Stella By Starlight”! Beautiful, funny and frightening at the same time.

6. Beetlejuice (1987)
Back when Michael Keaton used to exist, he was known for some memorable roles—but this one might be his greatest (Flying Mouse Guy notwithstanding). Birthed from the addled mind of Tim Burton, this was really the flick that set the course for the young director’s career, and became one of the greatest horror comedies of all time. Worth it for seeing Dick Cavett dance to the Banana Boat song, and catching Alec Baldwin before he mutated into a different person.

5. House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Another one that stretches the definition of a haunted house film (I won’t spoil it for the newbies), but no list of this kind would be complete without it. Both producer William Castle and star Vincent Price are in top form here, and the result is one of the most rip-roaringly fun horror flicks of the Eisenhower era. I never get tired of the way this movie deconstructs the entire sub-genre with such glee. Plus, it happens to be my daughter Zombelina’s favorite movie (though she seems to be gravitating more toward Drag Me to Hell recently…)

4. The Woman in Black (2012)
Blasphemy to rank this one so highly? Mayhaps. However, I came away from it very, very impressed a few months ago, and found it to be one of the most effective mainstream horror films I’d seen in years—not to mention the best British horror film since the heyday of Hammer. A real gothic throwback, this movie restored my faith that a truly excellent haunted house film could still be made in the era of post-slasher torture porn.

3. The Changeling (1980)
A personal favorite of mine, and one the virtues of which I’ve been extolling for years. George C. Scott is superb (when is he not?) as a reclusive widower being stalked by the ghost of a murdered child. Perhaps it was because I first saw this at such a young age, but the sheer terror it inspired in me never truly left. One of the most restrained yet powerful horror films I have ever seen, and must-see viewing for any fan of ghost stories.

2. The Haunting (1963)
Speaking of restrained yet powerful, this stellar adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House. Robert Wise pulls off such a fine job that the experience of watching this film is almost like that of actually reading a really great haunted house story. There are moments in this film that have frightened me more than anything I’ve ever seen in any other horror film. The ultimate “pure” haunted house film. Plus, you get to see Richard Johnson pre-Zombi 2, before he got all sweaty and hairy.

And the number one haunted house movie of all time…

1. The Shining (1980)
This film is so stylized and surreal (like almost all Kubrick’s work), that you almost forget what you’re watching at times: An absolutely incredible haunted house movie. In this case, the house is the Overlook Hotel—and the haunting is of a nature that is never fully explained, although we know it has something to do with Native American burial ground and some very long-staying guests from the 1920s. One of, if not the greatest horror film of all time, and a masterpiece that never loses a bit of its power. Stephen King may have hated it, but what does he know—he once attacked a car with a chainsaw. This is supernatural terror at its absolute zenith.

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Hammer Is Back--With The Woman in Black

Some years back in 2007, I got wind that the once-mighty Hammer Film Productions was returning to action after decades of dormancy. However, I was somewhat let down when I looked into the matter and found that their first release would be a thoroughly modern affair called Beyond the Rave, and that the newly revived studio was looking to break away from its classic period roots and focus on contemporary horror. Which is sort of like if the Hal Roach Studio was revived to make American Pie sequels.

And so, after a couple of such modern thrillers, and even involvement in the well-made yet wrong-headed American remake of Let the Right One In, imagine my thrill to find that Hammer was at last truly returning--that is, going back to what it does best: Producing atmospheric British period horror. In the grand tradition of the studio that gave us Horror of Dracula, The Gorgon, Paranoiac, The Hound of the Baskervilles and countless others comes James Watkins' The Woman in Black, starring Daniel "Don't Call Me Harry" Radcliffe.

Folks, *this* is the true return of Hammer. This is what we've been waiting for. And just like that, we have a film that will very likely be in the running for the best horror film of 2012. Who would've imagined that a well-made, carefully shot gothic haunted house film with minimal gore and largely psychological scares could ever get made in this day and age of torture porn, quick cuts, gratuitous grue and lame post-post-modern slasher nonsense? Having just seen it, I'd put The Woman in Black right up there with such classics of the subgenre as The Haunting and The Uninvited.

Last Tuesday evening, joined by the lovely Captain Cruella, I decided it was time to go and see this film that I heard so much about. I also made the possibly imprudent decision of taking along my little Vaultlings Zombelina and Skeleton Jack. Sure, they had school the next day, and spent most of the night scared witless in bed. But that's what comes with the territory when you're the spawn of the Vault Keeper, people. At their age, I was shivering in bed after seeing Hammer's Lust for a Vampire on WWOR Channel 9, so I suppose the whole affair lends a certain comforting air of continuity. Anyway, they got over it the next day, and we all had a hell of a time howling, shaking and yelping in our theater seats at every chilling moment.

Yes, there are jump scares, which I'm really not much of a fan of. It seems that is an inescapable de rigeur element of the modern-day fright flick, sadly. Nevertheless, jump scares aside, this is one bone-rattling, good-old-fashioned blood-curdling ghost chiller, and just what the horror genre needed right now. British-born Watkins, whose previous effort was the vastly different torture thriller Eden Lake, sure knows how to build terror and craft an atmosphere of growing dread. If you love a good ghost story and you're a little jaded at the inability of most horror pictures' to genuinely get under your skin, then this one is for you.

Based on a 1970s novel by Susan Hill which had previously been successfully turned into both a TV movie and a touring stage production, The Woman in Black tells the tale of a mysterious abandoned mansion on a tiny island off the coast of Britain, apparently haunted by a malicious female spirit which targets innocent children. Radcliffe does a solid job portraying the poor solicitor who is assigned the unenviable task of closing up the estate, all while slowly discovering the house's evil history and the nature of the supernatural presence within.

X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass screenwriter Jane Goldman takes a break from superheroes to give us a script that effectively holds the viewer's attention while not resorting to short-attention-span theater and silly gimmicks. It's a slow burn, but so worth the ride. There are not a lot of fireworks until we head toward the final act, but I was so engrossed watching everything carefully unfold that I didn't mind one bit. Imagine, shots that last more than five seconds! This is a welcome return to measured horror film-making.

Radcliffe does well in his first big-boy role, but the one who really steals the show here is the always-excellent Ciaran Hinds as the skeptical local who befriends Radcliffe but refuses to believe there is anything going bump in the night in that old dark house--despite the fact that the titular specter is possibly responsible for his own young son's demise. As all great actors do, Hinds makes the most of a simply written character to give us a textured, understated, anchor of a performance.

But just like most of the Hammer gems, the film's greatest power is derived from the way the actors are filmed and the surroundings in which they're placed. Gorgeously shot by the edgy Tim Maurice-Jones, the film makes the most of its setting, so that the Welsh landscape and most importantly the house become characters in themselves. And although the excessive use of digital filters can be a bit off-putting at first, in the end I felt it helped add to the otherworldliness--lending a cold, washed-out aura to the characters and their world. Not to mention that the actual Woman in Black herself is one truly frightening creation, and the crew at London effects house Union VFX deserves kudos for her creation and the many other scares they helped generate.


And although we're talking slow build here, it all pays off in a haunted extravaganza at the very end, which finds our protagonist trapped alone in the house, face-to-face with the evil that lurks there. This is a kind of horror that we rarely see in the cinema anymore, and to be honest, even some of the great Hammer efforts of days gone by lacked the budget to pull this kind of stuff off as well. The hair danced on the back of my neck, a knot took shape in my stomach, and I'm not ashamed to say at one point I clutched my ten-year-old daughter and uttered a mild blasphemy that caused her to spiral into a serious fit of the giggles. In short, the movie did its job.

For fans of classic horror who also enjoy the contemporary stuff and sit and wait for those really special ones to come along, this is one of those. The Woman in Black is a genuinely creepy, well-written, evocatively shot horror film. It kept my kids up through the night, and don't be surprised if it does the same to you. I'm proud to say that about five years after the actual studio revived itself--at long last, Hammer Films is truly back.

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Are You Ready to Believe Us? Investigating the Haunted Sterling Opera House with Above the Realm Paranormal! (Part 2)

If you haven't yet been caught up on our adventures in the Sterling Opera House, please feel free to click here first for the tale of how Captain Cruella and myself came to explore one of Connecticut's most notoriously haunted locations!

After giving the main hall of the Opera House a thorough going-over, it was time for Above the Realm Paranormal investigators (from left to right, above) Troy Leong, Rich DeCarlo and Dan Rivera to take us underground into the bowels of the archaic structure, where a full police precinct and political offices once existed. Odd that such things would be housed below a theater, but we were informed that it was pretty normal during the turn of the 20th century for buildings to serve such completely dual purposes.


After continuing to snap photos like the one above, featuring bizarre energy configurations and inexplicable orbs/streaks of light, we figured we were ready for anything. We had even gotten to the point of directly goading the alleged spirits to show themselves, singing songs they might have recognized. Try to imagine the two of us on stage launching into renditions of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "Cheek to Cheek", and you have an idea of how strange the situation was fast becoming.


Once we made our way downstairs, we found ourselves in almost total darkness, with just some streaks of light from the upper floors and the illumination of our cell phones and pocket flashlights to guide us. There was something far more sinister about these dingy offices filled with lead paint chips; the feeling that far worse things had gone on here. All of the warm feelings associated with the Opera House and its rich history were absent here. This was some scary stuff.


After scouting out the offices and precinct, it only got spookier. That's because the next stop on this twisted tour was the holding cells. Yes, this was something straight out of an episode of Ghost Hunters or Fear. A little mini prison that looked almost medieval, although it was probably only a mere 100-150 years old. Below is one of the shots we took of the interior of one of these cells, and it's important to note that the flash from my camera was the only light illuminating this space. Of course, we felt it necessary to take the obligatory pictures of ourselves behind the bars. Come on, you know you would've too. Although I will admit it took some serious coaxing from the Captain and ATR boys to get me inside one of those cells...


It was then that things got truly interesting. Up until this point, we had been dealing with weird flashes of light in photos and nearly inaudible sounds. What happened next is something I have a hard time really wrapping my head around, even now. You can judge me a looney by what I'm about to describe, or you can give me the benefit of the doubt. Either way, I'm telling it as I remember it.


The above photo shows me inside the police officer's locker room, just as I was about to make my way to the stairs that led back up to the theater. Keep in mind once again that the flash of the camera was the only light here. As I illuminated my keychain flashlight to help me see better, I turned the corner to step on to the stairs. At that moment, I was suddenly struck with a feeling of great unease, as if something was terribly wrong. It was hard to describe, kind of like a tightening in my midsection, accompanied by a wave of anxiety.

Just then, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye, on the right hand side of the stairs, at the top, facing down at me. A shadow, yet not a shadow. It was a dark, opaque shape, I suppose some might call it an apparition, moving slowly toward me down the stairs, edging around the corner and becoming more visible. Now, I would have been perfectly willing to believe this was just my shadow, except for the fact that it was moving, and I was not. There was also the issue of my flashlight shining right at it, which tends to make shadow, you know, disappear and stuff.

Yet there it was. The anxiety within me reached a fever pitch, and I'm not ashamed to admit I started quickly backing away from the stairs (OK, maybe a little ashamed.) "What's wrong?" asked Cruella. "Just keep moving...I'll tell you later!" I gasped as we made our way back into the hallway. I let the guys know what I'd seen, and they headed into the room I had just left.

"You don't run," they reprimanded, "You investigate!"

"No," I politely informed them. "You investigate. I run."

Yet when they mounted the stairs, whatever I had seen was predictable gone. Fortunately, they had already seen enough in the Opera House in the past to believe me. After a little more exploration topside, we chatted a bit more about the Opera House's history and what I had seen. We thanked ATR for providing us with a private tour, and left the building to ponder the nature of what had just happened.

I had been a major skeptic before, but I'd be a fool not to be thoroughly shaken in that stance after the Sterling Opera House. Maybe, just maybe, things that go bump in the night are not simply the stuff of horror flicks. Maybe sometimes...things really do go bump in the night...





















For more information about Above the Realm Paranormal, check out their website, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter!

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Are You Ready to Believe Us? Investigating the Haunted Sterling Opera House with Above the Realm Paranormal! (Part 1)

Just to be perfectly clear, I've never been much of a disciple of the supernatural. Fascinating topic, to be sure, and one that I've done a lot of voracious reading about--but always as a full-on skeptic, first and foremost. I was interested in it as subject matter, but never put much stock in it as based in reality. To put it bluntly, I have not believed in ghosts since I was a small child, and have always explained away supposedly supernatural phenomena as, at best, owing to some form of extra-sensory perception of past events, or at worst, simple charlatanry.

And so it was with great interest, and yet a safe and secure sense of disbelief, that I entered the infamous Sterling Opera House in Derby, Connecticut on Monday night. The opportunity had come our way thanks to an encounter with the boys of Above the Realm Paranormal--a local ghost investigation group--over the weekend at the "Derby Day" annual street festival. Proving that it always pays to print up shiny business cards, Captain Cruella and I were invited to take a private tour--an opportunity we leapt at faster than Ray Stantz going down a firehouse pole.


What transpired was an evening which, quite frankly and not to sound too melodramatic, has given me a lot to think about. Because, dear Vault dwellers, I cannot help but believe that there is indeed something going on in that place which I cannot fully explain. You may sneer, and you may deride, but we saw what we saw, and we heard what we heard. There is a presence or presences within the Sterling Opera House. I can't really tell you what they are with certainty, but there is something there. And this is coming from someone who has never "sensed" anything like this anywhere else before.


One bunch of folks who would certainly have no problem telling you what's going on in the Opera House, from their point of view, would be the crew from ATR. Based out of Derby, with an office that is indeed an old defunct firehouse (no joke), these ghost hunters have made the Opera House one of their pet projects, charting its interior meticulously, and claiming to have made contact with the spirits that allegedly reside within. We were met Monday night by ATR investigators Rich DeCarlo and Dan Rivera, and the team's Winston Zeddemore, case manager Troy Leong, who were gracious enough to show us around and share their findings with us.

Functioning as one of the Naugatuck Valley's premiere entertainment venues from 1889 through 1945, the Sterling Opera House has seen quite a bit of history, and as a fan of the "golden age" of American entertainment, I was just as much interested in it for this reason as for the paranormal stuff. It was designed by one of the designers of Carnegie Hall, constructed at roughly the same time, and featured everything from concerts and plays to vaudeville and early motion pictures. Here I was, on a stage upon which once had trod the likes of Enrico Caruso, Bing Crosby, John L. Sullivan, Red Skelton, John Philip Sousa, Amelia Earhart and Harry Houdini (at one point looking up from under the stage at a trap door custom made for the master illusionist himself). For me, the memories of those legendary performers haunted the place just as much as any suspected apparition.


Needless to say, the Captain and I soon began snapping away with our trusty Blackberries. While under the stage in the dressing area, I took the shot above of a room that was in total darkness, illuminated only by the light of the flash. This was when things started to get a bit eerie. If you look close, you'll see a small white orb, in addition to other floating white particles--which, I can assure you, were not visible to my naked eye. You may chalk it up to the light playing photographic tricks, but not only did this keep happening with many of the photos we took, but our guides were quick to show us how many times others had picked up possible spirit presences in the form of small white orbs.


Suddenly taking things a bit more seriously than I had, I started to really pay close attention to everything being said and shown. As we stood on the stage, Dan, Rich and Troy called out to the spirit of a small boy named Andy whom they claim to have contacted and interacted with on several occasions (in fact, they've even strewn toys all over the place for him to play with). And as we waited in total silence, I'll be damned if we didn't all hear the very faint voice of a little boy. The same voice ATR has recorded on the site in the past, such as this time:

Andy asks for his ball...


Letting her spirit of adventure get the better of her, the Captain wandered off on her own to the upper balconies, exploring some areas where spirits had been photographed in the past. She soon returned, white even by her standards, and looking, if you'll forgive the expression, as if she'd seen a ghost. Dan played several EVRs (electronic voice recordings) for us, taken during previous visits to the opera house, and discussed the ongoing plans to conduct an extensive restoration of the building to a functioning entertainment venue once again. This struck me as a bit of sad prospect, as it would entail pretty much gutting the place.


As we proceeded throughout the main room of the Opera House, it was undeniable that there was some kind of presence with us. We all felt it at different times. A general sense of dread. It felt very unusual to me, a feeling I've never quite felt before. I even started to feel a bit disoriented from it. And every now and then, I'd feel a chill run down my back or arm, which I was politely informed was one of the spirits making contact with me.

As we sat in the upper balcony, the Captain reached up to snap some blind shots of the interior of the projection booth. Here's what she captured. Check out the two pictures below: They are of the same exact doorway, taken mere seconds apart. In the first one, nothing. And yet in the second, there it is--another one of those pesky orbs bobbing around. As I said, photographic anomalies are always possible, but this just kept happening. If not a ghost, then what the hell can it be? Some kind of electromagnetic phenomenon, perhaps? Who knows?





















By this point, we were thoroughly spooked. And yet, the fun was only beginning. All we had seen was the main performance space. We hadn't even ventured underground yet, to the prison below the theater. That would come next. And that's where I would have my most disturbing experience of the night by far...

To Be Continued...

For more information about Above the Realm Paranormal, check out their website, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter!

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The Lucky 13: Week Ten: Ghosts, Haunted Houses and Psychic Phenomena

Folks, I can't say I know this to be actual fact, but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say that the paranormal--i.e. ghosts--probably makes up the oldest of all horror sub-genres, going all the way back to horror's origins in literature and folklore. Fear is based primarily on what we don't understand and don't know, and so that one great unknowable, death and what comes after, has provided us with some of the most primal sources of pure terror.

The paranormal has been fodder for so many classics. Who doesn't love a good ghost story, after all? There's something about them that feels like the very essence of what horror is all about at its core. And so it's with great pride that both Brutal as Hell and The Vault of Horror bring you our favorite films tackling this otherwordly subject matter...

B-Sol on The Shining

Stanley Kubrick's cinematic jewel is a work of absolute genius from top to bottom. This is a film so rich in texture and flawless in execution that I find it a rewarding experience to watch every single time. More than a horror movie, this film is a work of art.

It's brilliantly shot, thanks in part to cinematographer John Alcott, who had previously worked with Kubrick on A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon (and, incidentally, shot Terror Train right after this). With a sense of light and color that achieves a level of perfection few films ever do. The scene with Jack and Grady in the men's room is a thing of beauty, that can be watched with the sound off and you still wouldn't be able to take your eyes off it. Its a classic example of the Kubrick style.

The imagery is pure Kubrick, presenting the viewer with visuals that stay in the brain long after the movie is over. The barely glimpsed shot of the hacked-up Grady twins; the old lady in the bathtub; that creepy dude in the bear suit--this is surreal, nightmarish horror at its very best.



Cinema Suicide's Bryan White on The Sentinel

Haunted house movies aren't what they used to be. Pardon me while I play the grumpy old man here, but Hollywood and the contemporary audience don't seem to have the time anymore for a deliberately paced ghost story anymore. Everyone wants to see the apparitions right off the bat. They want special effects and lots of them. These days you couldn't possibly get away with making a movie like The Sentinel. It's a movie that takes too long to get to the stuff that people identify as scary, and that's too bad because The Sentinel is freakin' terrifying!

Christina Raines plays a fashion model on the edge who takes up residence in a Brooklyn townhouse. If she wasn't already on the edge of collapse from a crazy work schedule, her neighbors are a bunch of weirdos and when she mentions them to the real estate agent who hooked her up with the place, the woman insists that the only other occupant of the building is an ancient priest who spends his days and nights sitting in the window at the top of the building. I'm tempted to spoil the whole plot here but therein lies the fun. The revelation as to why it's called The Sentinel is fantastic, and what an ending!

The Sentinel, for some reason, is a horror movie that lives below the boards. The '70s was full of horror that capitalized on the Catholic fear generated by The Exorcist. For some reason, everyone in America seemed spooked by the threat of evil spirits and it took Hollywood no time to capitalize on this trend. For this reason, a lot of the movies to follow in the wake of The Exorcist seem like exploitation movies, and The Sentinel was victim to this generalization. It has an absolutely killer cast, with Burgess Meredith playing the ring leader of a band of completely deranged New Yorkers. You also get a quick dose of Christopher Walken in an early role, if he's your bag.

The Sentinel zeroes in on the sort of abstract horror that tends to get under my skin. People behave strangely, as if it's the most normal thing in the world and that I'm the weird one for being the outsider to their strange games. There are also a couple of great jump scares, which no haunted house movie should be without. It owes a lot to H.P. Lovecraft's short story, The Music of Erich Zann, which is a favorite of mine. Haunted house movies aren't supposed to be the sort of thing that repels you with explicit imagery, it's all about implication and only the best haunted house horrors do this right. Chief among them is The Sentinel.



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Only three weeks to go in The Lucky 13! I'd like to thank my contributors, who have thus far helped make this little endeavor what it is--your efforts are greatly appreciated. Now head over to Brutal as Hell to see what Marc Patterson and his crew have come up with. And if you're interested in taking part in the future, just give Marc or myself a holler.

Week 1: Grindhouse & Exploitation
Week 2: Creature Features & Monster Movies
Week 3: Demons, Witches & The Devil
Week 4: Gore!
Week 5: Horror Comedies
Week 6: Vampires
Week 7: Psychological Horror
Week 8: Werewolves
Week 9: Serial Killers

Join us next week, when we finally hit upon that one sub-genre so many of you have been waiting for. That's right, it's zombie time!

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Zombelina Reviews The Uninvited (1944)...

Want more Zombelina? Check out her kid's lit. review blog,
Book Town...

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TRAILER TRASH: Ghosts Edition!

* Special thanks to Zombelina for this week's Trailer Trash theme!

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Retro Review: The House by the Cemetery

"Anne? Mommy says you're not dead... Is that true?"

Let me make this perfectly clear. I LOVE Lucio Fulci. Not everyone does. This is an argument that can never be won one way or another. Some love him, some hate him. Over the years, he's become one of my all-time favorite horror directors. It's been said that his films resemble nothing so much as "fever dreams" or nightmares, and I find this to be very true. Especially in a film like this, which may very well be my favorite of his.

Only Zombi 2 equals The House by the Cemetery among Fulci's body of work, in my opinion, and it is my personal favorite amongst his revered "Lovecraftian" trilogy. It may be because it's the most conventional, linear and plot-oriented of the three, I don't know. I just get a major kick out of seeing Fulci take on the tried-and-true haunted house subgenre, and adding his gore-soaked fingerprint to it. As I've written before, this is his take-off on The Shining.

First off, the thing that grabs me is what may be the finest of all the scores for Fulci's films, and that's saying quite a bit. This one comes not from Fabio Frizzi, Fulci's usual collaborator, but rather Walter Rizzati.

The lovely Catriona MacColl returns yet again in this final installment of the trilogy, playing Lucy Boyle, wife of Dr. Norman Boyle, and mother of young Bob (odd name for a little boy, no?) Just as in the other two films (City of the Living Dead and The Beyond), MacColl is something of an anchor for the film, with her excellent performance conveying so much of the horror.

And what a monster we have in Dr. Freudstein (great name!!), the bizarre, ghoulish undead denizen of the Boyle's creepy-as-hell basement. A deranged scientist who has somehow managed to prolong his life indefinitely by consuming the blood of the living, he is a truly dread-inspiring creation. We experience all the terror and slowly building panic of the Boyle family, and little Bob in particular, as we learn the truth of what evil resides in this new home they are trying to settle into.

Despite this being supposedly the most linear of the trilogy, it certainly has its fair share of surreal Fulci-ness. There's the prolonged scene in the kitchen with the vampire bat. The freaky housekeeper mopping up blood, and not even being questioned by her employer as to how the blood got there. And that ending, which makes about as much sense as any of the other endings to Fulci's films. But I think what most people misunderstand about Fulci is that these are not signs of poor filmmaking--rather, this was Fulci's exact intention, to throw you off your guard and create this not-quite-right version of reality.

As with any Fulci flick, the gore is here on full display. Few brought the grue like Senior Fulci, and this movie is no exception: necks spouting blood, maggot-filled wounds, throats ripped out, and the usual eye trauma is all here for you weirdos to enjoy. And for some reason, I care more about the victims this time around than in most of Fulci's other movies, which makes it all the more difficult to sit through.

I'm always a sucker for a horror flick that puts children in peril--this will always elicit a visceral terror response from me. And in this respect, The House by the Cemetery pushes all the right buttons. Although reviled by some Fulci fans, little Giovanni Frezza in the role of Bob is the perfect cherubic target for the demonic horrors of Freudstein, and he does well portraying a child for whom the irrational fears of nearly every child are actually real.

I will say this with regards to Bob, and this goes for the entire movie--at least the American print. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there is no American version in Italian with English subtitles, which would've been my preference. And so, the only version I've seen is the one dubbed in English. More specifically, dubbed very badly into English. So bad, that it does occasionally take something away from the film, particularly in the case of the grown woman they chose to record Frezza's lines. I really wish this wasn't the way I experienced the film, but even through the bad dubbing, the movie's excellence shines through. I urge you to be patient with this one major flaw.

One of the most underrated of the films of Lucio Fulci, The House by the Cemetery is well worth discovering for any fan of haunted house films, gore flicks, or Italian horror.

* Thanks once again to the lovely Marilyn Merlot for this week's Retro Review suggestion!

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The Real Ghostbusters... No, Not the Cartoon. The Actual Real Ghostbusters...

[As promised, this evening I bring you something just a little different for the Vault. It's a report from a real-life Ghost Hunter. In this case, the person in question is my old high school buddy Jay Stroming, who now has one of the coolest side gigs in the world. I'll let him explain...]

Ok, first, a quick disclaimer: this blog entry will not be about the horror genre. But it will definitely be related. You see, I’m a ghost hunter. Like those guys on TV (sorry, hard not to make a “Ghostbusters” joke here). If you’ve ever seen “Ghost Hunters” on the SyFy Channel, or any of the other similar shows on other networks, then you know what I do, in a nutshell. Brian is an old friend of mine going back to high school days, and I was honored that he asked me to do a post on my ghost hunting activities for The Vault of Horror. The impetus for his invitation was a recent investigation we conducted at a fire house here on Staten Island, New York, just two weeks ago.

I’ve been with EPIC, the Eastern Paranormal Investigation Center, for a little over three years now, and in fact, I am one of the co-founders, with Arthur Matos. In that time we’ve added two additional members, James Bricks and Laura Pennace, who in addition to investigating, do a tremendous job at historical research, which is key to our group’s philosophy. We’re a very scientifically-minded group, meaning we don’t rely on psychics or mediums, but rather sophisticated electronic equipment, such as infra-red cameras, EMF meters, motion sensors, and so on. We are out to find recordable evidence of the paranormal, whether it be video, audio, readings captured on meters, or ideally, a combination of those things.

In these three years, we’ve investigated a number of locations, mostly residential homes, but we do get the occasional business or high-profile client who wants us to come in and validate what they may be experiencing. About a month ago, we were contacted by Richmond Engine Company No. 1, a volunteer fire house servicing historic Richmond Town and the surrounding areas, here on Staten Island. While we’ve been lucky to never have had to doubt the sincerity of any of our clients in the past, claims of the paranormal seem to carry extra weight when coming from cops or firefighters. These are pragmatic problem-solvers and rescuers who need to deal with tangible facts and deal with life or death decisions on a day to day basis. They are not usually the types to get scared by things that go bump in the night.

The firefighters at Engine Company No. 1, whose names have been withheld for perhaps obvious reasons, were very sincere in their claims of the paranormal. It is a volunteer house, with all the firefighters living nearby and on-call around the clock. They don’t all reside there, as in a traditional fire house, but there are many nights where one or more of them will spend the night. The house itself was built in 1905, in response to public outcry after a girl was killed in a fire because none of the other houses could respond quickly enough. Nobody is known to have died in the building, and only one firefighter in the house’s history has died on the job, and that was out on a call, not in the building itself. Still, firefighters here reported hearing lots of footsteps coming from upstairs when nobody else is in the building; voices being heard; doors being slammed or banged; feelings of being watched; and a dark, shadowy apparition that appears at the top of the stairs.

We conducted our investigation on July 24th, 2009. The investigation began with some quick interviews with the firefighters stationed at the house, followed by a tour of the building. It consisted of a large garage area, which housed the fire truck, a kitchen, and a conference room area with a small restroom and some closets. The second floor contained the stairway, a small hallway, and then the living quarters, which was essentially a large room with a dining room table, some couches and a recliner, a number of display cases with pictures and vintage equipment, and a TV. We then set up our equipment and prepared for a long evening of investigating. We usually set up a safe room, which is a room where we can monitor our equipment, and it is usually the room with the least amount of paranormal activity. In this case we used the conference room.

Throughout an investigation, we rotate in teams of two, with two team members investigating a room, and the other two back in the safe room monitoring the equipment. We conduct EMF sweeps, to see what the Electro-Magnetic Field readings of the room are, to get a baseline. We take lots of pictures, both digital and 35mm. We always have a camcorder running, to document our investigation for later review. And we conduct EVP sessions (electronic voice phenomenon), where we ask questions to the supposed entity in the location, and reviewing our audio recorders later to see if we captured any voices. Investigations generally run from 6-8 hours, starting our recorders at 9 or 10, and running until 3 or 4am. Once we’re done, we break down the equipment and go home. Evidence review can take up to two weeks. If we set up 8 video cameras, and run each one for 8 hours, that’s a total of 48 hours of video to look through. Not to mention hours and hours of audio to listen to.

For this investigation, we focused mainly on the upstairs living quarters and the stairway, as that’s where the bulk of the activity was reported. During the course of investigations, we sometimes have what we call personal experiences. These are things we can’t document, such as if we see something but a camera is not focused on it at the time. During this investigation, we didn’t really have any personal experiences. We did have a brief period of the feeling of being watched in the upstairs quarters, but it didn’t last. The room definitely had a spooky vibe at first, but it didn’t last. Again, it’s only a personal feeling, so we don’t consider it as evidence. Psychological or parapsychological, who knows? One of our EMF meters was reacting a bit strangely during our EVP session, almost as if in response to some of our questions, and we can’t explain why it did this. As I write this, there is perhaps an hour or two left of evidence that we need to review, but so far, we have found nothing out of the ordinary.

Many times when we think of ghosts and hauntings, we think of horror movies, and Hollywood special effects. “Poltergeist,” “The Exorcist,” and other movies like that tend to portray the paranormal in what I call the “all Hell breaking lose” way. Nothing is really subtle. Voices are loud. Big, heavy objects move on their own. Apparitions appear at will, scaring people left and right. The ghosts are powerful and in control and terrifying. In real life, ghost hunting is not that spectacular. Most times, we spend the entire night sitting in a dark room, sitting still and being quiet. Heaters or air conditioning units are turned off, so it’s often uncomfortable. We drink lots of coffee and eat lots of candy to stay awake. We don’t have proton packs, and we don’t need them. Usually, the most interesting things are found during evidence review, and even then, you are talking about perhaps hearing a spoken word, maybe two, that you can’t account for, in 12 or 16 hours of audio you must listen to, or a single odd light that doesn’t belong and only lasts for 3 seconds, in 48 hours of video review.

We don’t get paid a dime to do any of this, and in fact we spend lots of our own money in order to be able to do this. So it’s not like the movies, even though I love “Poltergeist” and “The Exorcist” and “The Haunting” (the original, not the awful Liam Neeson version). But it’s still a lot of fun, and when we do catch that little piece of evidence that we can’t find a rational explanation for, it’s as thrilling as any of the best horror movies you’ll ever see. A full report on our investigation will be up shortly on our website, www.epicparanormal.com

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Retro Review: House on Haunted Hill (1959)

"Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?"

From time to time here in the Vault, I've advocated for the importance of "having fun" with horror movies. Very often in our post-modern age, horror can become a dreary affair brimming with overly earnest angst aimed squarely at angry 20-something males whose sense of irony has been surgically removed. That's all well and good, but I also need a steady diet of fun, brainless, silly horror movies. Especially if they still manage to serve up some tasty frights along the way. And the original House on Haunted Hill is just such a picture.

Take William Castle, head schlock-meister of the Atomic Age, and add Vincent Price, the finest horror ham to ever intone a baritone cackle, and you have this rollercoaster ride of a movie. This is Price in his heyday as the king of the macabre, playing the role of Frederick Loren, a mysterious figure who offers $10,000 to a group of hapless individuals if they can stay the night in the titular house, a place dripping with the menace of past misdeeds. Is it really haunted? Or is it all part of Loren's mad scheme?

Along with one of the finest horror movie posters ever produced, this film benefits from never removing its tongue from its cheek. We are not meant to take it all very seriously, but rather, as with most Castle productions, we are supposed to have one hell of a hoot with it. Ideally, I imagine this would best be achieved watching it on the big screen--which, sad to say, I've never had the opportunity to do. Hopefully one day...

Carol Ohmart--who would also star a decade later in the cult classic Spider Baby--appears here alongside Price as Loren's bitter wife Annabelle. These two have some of the most delicious dialogue in the film, including a priceless (sorry) exchange that includes the unforgettable line at the top of this post. Robb White, who also wrote the scripts for Castle classics The Tingler and 13 Ghosts, is to be commended for a sharp and witty screenplay that greatly adds to the camp value.

Yes, much of the effects are cheesy--with the floating skeleton being particularly notorious in the annals of horror movie history. But I defy anyone to tell me that they didn't lose ten years of their life when that crazy old crone pops up behind the girl. You know the scene I'm talking about... For my money, the mother of all jump scares!

There is no doubt that this was one of the most influential fright flicks of its era. It raked in a ton of cash, and helped reinvigorate the more gothic-flavored horror film after a decade of giant-radioactive-monster movies. It's even been said that this was the movie that inspired Alfred Hitchcock to make his first bona fide horror movie--Psycho.

As I've said, this is Vincent Price perfectly hitting his stride as the master of on-screen creepiness. It had been some years since House of Wax put him on the map, and his collaborations with Castle would later lead to a legendary partnership with Roger Corman in the 1960s. To see him thoroughly relishing his role in Haunted Hill--as he always seemed to do--is to see a true legend at work. It's easy to see why this was the time frame in which he became the go-to guy for studios looking to class up their horror pictures.

The first of Castle's horror efforts, House on Haunted Hill was also arguably his best (with the obvious exception of Rosemary's Baby, which he only produced and did not direct). Grab it, get some friends together, nuke up some popcorn, and get ready to thrill, giggle and shudder. William Castle perfected the concept of horror-movie-as-funhouse, and this one is the greatest example.

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