There is a thin line between art and crap. When it comes to movies especially, which side of that line something falls on is largely a matter of individual perception. One person's trash is another's treasure, as must be obvious to anyone who scans the wide range of reviews and comments available on this site. Any given movie provokes a wide range of opinion. The experience of watching a film is one of the most subjective things I can think of. I see that the others who have critiqued this particular film before me enjoyed it and to their high ratings I must add my own 5 stars. I really enjoy this movie! It balances right on the crap/art line, without ever slipping too far to either side. It is wildly improbable, has plot holes galore, and yet manages to be genuinely atmospheric throughout and outright scary at times. I am referring specifically here to the 1958 version of this film. The 1999 remake is a horse of a different color...a very VERY bad film--no offense intended to those who might have enjoyed it. This is only my opinion. Remember what I said about subjectivity.--which has nothing to do with this one. The plot is basic: Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) offers a diverse group of people with bizzare 1950's film names like Lance Schroeder (Richard Long) and Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cooke Jr.)--bet you can tell which one is the macho-type hero, can't you?--a million dollars apiece if they will spend the night in a haunted mansion. Of course, they all get locked in, with no way out until the solid steel doors and heavily barred windows are unlocked by the returning caretakers in the morning. Loren and his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) are not on the best of terms, and when she is found after midnight hanging by her neck... The movie offers all the conventions you would expect: Loud thunderstorms, creaking doors, floating apparitions and severed heads, and it uses them effectively. The mansion itself is creepy as hell, and the black and white photography is used to good advantage here. Particularly eerie is the tour of the house the gathering is given by Pritchard, a weasely little alcoholic who is a relative of the mansion's owners. He is a firm believer in the evil spirits who supposedly haunt the house, and as he describes each murder that has taken place there, it is hard to doubt him. This movie has the distinction of being one of the first which really established Vincent Price solidly as a horror star . He had done a few things more or less within the genre prior to it, but it was this film and it's follow-up The Tingler (1959), both directed by William Castle (Arguably one of the most inventive people to emerge in the field of horror film, certainly one of the most commercial.)which set him on the career path he would follow for roughly the next 32 years. If you like this movie, you'll probably want to check out some or all of Castle's other films, too. Each is enjoyable in it's own way, and if you are into this kind of movie, you won't come away from any of them disappointed. But seek out the originals...beware the remakes, two so far: House On Haunted Hill (1999) and Thirteen Ghosts (2001). Whatever their perceived strengths or weaknesses, they are not true to the originals. Macabre House on Haunted Hill (1958) The Tingler Thirteen Ghosts (1960) Mr. Sardonicus Homicidal Straitjacket I Saw What You Did Rosemary's Baby (Producer only) Shanks Bug 