RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill (1958) has the trio taking on one of the most classic horror stories of all time. And what would a 1950's horror movie be without Vincent Price himself? In this tale, Price invites several strangers to a haunted house. At daybreak, $50,000 will be split up amongst the survivors. Okay, this sounds a bit cliche, but it wasn't at the time and quite frankly, this could be one of the earliest uses of this plot device, at least in movies.
Anyway, what follows is a series of deaths, supposedly brought on by ghosts, hauntings and jump scares, and who, if any, survive the night is a mystery until the very end. This movie has had a recent remake in 1999. And while The Haunting, released the same year, has a similar plot, it is actually a remake of the 1963 movie The Haunting, with both the 1963 movie and this 1958 one being based on the same novel, The House on Haunted Hill. Either way, this story is fairly prominent in the minds of horror fans over the ages, but even the most hardcore fans can't get around the hokey nature of this film, and that's why the RiffTrax people's decision to make fun of this film just seems right.
The added commentary will talk about everything from the wardrobe, the house, the horrible jump scares that just look bad and the stupid decisions the characters make. Like I said, fans of classic MST3K work will love this DVD. What it doesn't offer is any additional special features, but if that is what you are looking for, then you should go find a more mainstream copy of the DVD and simply download the RiffTrax audio commentary from their website. At $9.95, this isn't all that bad of a deal, especially since you can watch the movie without the comedic-commentary as well.
