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1959’s “House on Haunted Hill” returns to nearly 500 theaters on October 28
posted by
CSWalczak
on
October 18, 2010 at 7:38 am
CENTENNIAL, CO — It won’t be in “Emergo!,” but “House on Haunted Hill” starring Vincent Price will be back on the big screen for one night only on October 28 in 487 theaters nationwide. This will be a HD telecast presented by NCM Fathom Events, featuring Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett (of Mystery Science 3000) who will give the film their notorious RiffTrax treatment. The telecast will be beamed live from the historic Belcourt Theater in Nashville (tape delayed in Paciic time zone).
There is more here and tickets are available at the Fathom Website.
Comments (15)
I want to see it on 35mm film not on big screen tv.
I am with you Ken.Film Guys,Film.With Cue marks and a bit of dirt on the print.
Normally, I would have to agree with you guys, but I have seen the preview trailer for this event, and if that is any real indication, this going to be a riot – especially for those of us who are fans of MST3K.
Only one way to see that movie, in a movie palace on a big screen in 35mm presented with Emergo. I mean come on, how much fun was that when it was first released.
The new multiplex owners just care about candy money. They have no showmanship. You won’t find AMC or the others having ‘Emergo’ put in for a 35mm showing of ‘House On Haunted Hill’ on Oct 31. Lets bring back ‘The Tingler’ in 35mm with the color section and have Regal & Cinemark Theatres wire up the seats to shock the new people that have no idea what will hit them and turn up the power on the seats. Bring in fake nurses to help the yelling kids and probably some shocked adults. It’s time for a new ‘William Castle’ type person to work with the studios and theatre owners. Bring in something that can’t be done in their home theatres. This new video live showing looks like fun but not like the true original theatre experience.
Hear, Hear!
Terry,Right on!!!!
You said it Terry!!
“…wire up the seats to shock the new people that have no idea what will hit them…”
Did they really do that during the original “Tingler” release showings? Forget about that today, the theaters' insurers wouldn’t allow it.
They didn’t wire them with electricity – they mounted metal buzzers to selected seats that caused them to vibrate and rattle when activated during the climax of the picture.
I have an original lobby standee ad for this film, it’s a tombstone that says “Here lies the body of Grimby Quill. He went to see House on Haunted Hill” From the Lockport Schine theater.
I rather see “House on Haunted Hill” in newly restored 35MM print,the way it was meant to be seen!
DFC:
About “The Tingler”………
William Castle was a genius for every gimmick he pulled to lure audiences in and scared the smoke out of them. The same gimmicks were implied to a lot of films from William Castle.
“13 Ghosts”(also directed by Castle)had a gimmick to it as well…since the film was in black and white with the spirits shown in full color,something never heard of in 1960 when this film was released.
I have a question to ask. Many of these gimmick films played at the RKO Golden Gate and the Paramount Theatres in San Francisco CA. Who did all the installation work to put in ‘Emergo’ in ‘House’ and wire the seats for these other films as they even played in many of the neighborhood houses also with the same gimmick the large downtown theatres had. Did the studio provide a full ‘Gimmick Kit’ and did the local theatre owner do the work or the studios come in and set up the things for the run of the picture at each cinema and then take It down or move to another theatre? Does anyone still have the set up for ‘House On Haunted Hill’ with the overhead wire ect? And in the ‘Tingler’ was there a cue track on the print to turn on the seat shock buzz motors or did the projection people just pull a switch to turn on the effect at the correct time? To bad I was way to young to see these in person in a large downtown theatre with thousands of people screaming.
This web blog, apparently written by the skeleton that appears in the film, View link refers to an “Emergo Installation Manual” and there is a picture of what looks like a news release about it. My guess is that the gimmicks were set up by using kits distributed to theaters. Allied Artists, the distributor of “House on Haunted Hill,” was hardly a big or wealthy outfit and it is hard for me to believe that they sent out technicians to install this or any other Castle innovation. Perhaps there were regional meetings set up for theater operators to explain how to set the gimmick up.
You might want to contact the Film Forum in New York; they recently ran “House on Haunted Hill” with a recreation of the “Emergo!” effect, so it is quite likely that some one there unearthed instructions for the set up.