Plot:
The black screen erupts in screaming and groaning. The giant superimposed head of Watson Pritchart talks how the ghosts are
restless. The next giant head is Frederick Loren (Vincent Price, the rest of the movie will refer to him as Vincent…) tells us how he
rented the house of Haunted Hill for a haunted house party for his wife. He offered $10,000 to each of the guests provided they stay
the night.
Each of the guests is driven up to the house in a funeral car. Lance, the manly test pilot, is the first guest and needs money. Ruth,
gossip columnist, needs the money to pay her gambling debts. Watson, the first superimposed giant head, needs money, too. Dr. David
Trent, a psychiatrist studying hysteria, needs money, also. And, Nora, breadwinner for her whole family, works for one of Vincent’s
companies. The cars pull up to the house. They’re waiting until the door is opened.
Entering the dreary house, Watson is spooked, the ghosts will get them. None of the guests know each other or have ever met
Vincent. The door closes itself. Lance pushes Nora out of the way of the falling chandelier.
Upstairs, Vincent and his lovely but acidic wife, Annabelle, are having a discussion. She refuses to go down to the party, since
Vincent took it over and invited the guests. This is his idea of a psychological test. Vincent offers to give her a million dollars if he can
get a divorce. Too bad, he never heard of a prenuptial agreement. She refuses, wants all his money. She tried poisoning him
earlier. Annabelle stays in the bedroom as Vincent heads downstairs.
The wild-eyed Watson finds the knife that killed his brother. His brother and sister-in-law’s heads were never found. Dr. Trent thinks
Watson is in need of a Prozac big gulp. Lance is skeptical, too. Vincent arrives and greets his guests. Watson tries to convince him to
cancel the party before it’s too late. Vincent explains the rules. The caretakers leave at midnight and lock the house until 8:00 AM. The
house doesn’t have any power or telephones. And, if you leave, you won’t get the $10,000.
7 people have been killed in the house so far. Watson takes them on a tour of where the murders happened. On the ceiling is a
dried bloodstain, it lands on Ruth’s hand. Watson claims she’s been marked by the ghosts. They go to the cellar next. A previous owner
filled the wine vat built into the cellar floor with acid and threw his wife in it. Guess what? The vat is still filled with acid.
Lance and Nora stay behind exploring the cellar. They start to talk, both plan on staying the night. Looking around, Lance enters a
room and the door slams shut. Nora can’t get the door opened. She sees the creepy witch-ghost-woman and runs upstairs to tell everyone
what’s going on. Back in the cellar, the room Lance is in the door has opened. Apparently, he fell. Watson is still doing his creepy routine
for Ruth. Everyone heads upstairs.
Vincent is told by Nora about the ghost. Dr. Trent thinks Nora didn’t see anything.
Nick and Lance head back to the cellar. Lance is sure he saw something in the room. They discover that there is a missing
room. Lance is in a side room and, Nora is in another when she finds the witch-ghost-woman again. While Nora is screaming, the
ghost woman glides away. Lance rushes to her rescue but didn’t see the ghost leave. He teases her about the ghost and, Nora
storms away angry.
Upstairs, Nora meets Annabelle who shows her to her room for the night. Annabelle demands to know why Nora was picked for
the party. She tells Nora everyone is in danger and leaves.
She meets Lance, too. She asks him what’s going on. She asks for his help. Annabelle can play the helpless damsel part fairly
good. Lance is told that Vincent wants to kill her. She’s the 4th wife. The 1st mysteriously disappeared. 2nd and 3rd died of heart
attacks in their twenties. She heads back to her room.
Vincent comes back to his wife’s room. Some more catty comments ensue. Vincent orders her to go down to the party. He
leaves. He stops by Nora and then Lance’s rooms to tell them to go downstairs. Nora opens a suitcase and finds a severed head
inside it.
Severed head in a bag for killers on the run...
She runs from the room. A man grabs her but, she manages to break free. Downstairs, Nora wants to leave. The caretakers
appear. The caretaker’s blind wife is the ghost witch woman. They let a blind woman roam a cellar with a vat of acid in the
floor. People complain about we need more safety laws nowadays.
Annabelle arrives to enter the fray. While Vincent goes over the rules one last time, the caretakers leave early and lock
up. Everybody is staying until the next morning. Party favors are passed out to everyone, handguns in little coffins.
Everybody is good and liquored up and packing heat. Nora wants to show everyone the head in her suitcase. They follow her
to her room. But, the head is gone and Nora is hysterical. They all leave. Ruth will keep an eye for Nora. Dr. Trent thinks that Vincent
is disturbing Nora. Lance looks for Nora but finds the severed head. Watson claims the ghost s have her. They hear a scream.
See a woman hung fro the rafters. Lance and Dr. Trent let the body down. It’s Annabelle. Vincent sees the body for himself.
Lance finds Nora who wants to hide. Someone choked in her in her room. Nora thinks it was Vincent. Nora discovers that
Annabelle has died. Lance thinks that Vincent killed her. Knock on the door, Dr. Trent tells Lance they have a meeting. Lance
has Nora stay in his room with a gun.
Vincent sees Lance leave his room. He enters where Annabelle’s body is and forces Watson from the room.
At the meeting, Dr. Trent, Ruth, Lance, Watson, Vincent discuss things. There isn’t a way out of the house. Has everything that’s
happened been accidents? Annabelle was murdered. There wasn’t anything for her to climb up where her body was found. The only
person who would want Annabelle dead would be Vincent. They have to protect themselves until the morning. Everyone will stay in their
rooms until it’s time to leave. Watson rants how it still isn’t over.
Watson sits in his room with the gun pointed at the door. Dr. Trent is writing something when his doorknob starts turning. Ruth has
a gun on a nearby table. Blood drips on her hand again and, she wipes it off. Lance checks on Nora. She isn’t sure that it was Vincent
anymore. Lance is positive Vincent killed Annabelle. She asked for his help. Lance will try to get out of the house to contact the
police. Nora is staying behind. Lance finds a hidden passage.
Nora is waiting. Outside, a thunder storm rages. Suddenly a rope wraps itself around her feet. Annabelle is floating outside the
window. The rope unwraps itself from Nora’s feet. Nora is pretty hysterical from this and packing a pistol, too. She runs from the
room. Annabelle is hanging from the spot where she died. A hand tries to grab her, but, she escapes. We see the organ playing
itself. Nora runs away screaming.
Vincent sees Dr. Trent leave his room. They search the house. Vincent heads downstairs. Dr. Trent goes to the room where
Annabelle’s body is. She’s alive. The conniving minx…They planned for Nora to kill Vincent. Dr. Trent and Annabelle are a couple
and start swapping spit.
In the cellar, Nora is waiting…The lights flicker and Vincent arrives. Nora shoots Vincent. She runs away, screaming. Dr. Trent
opens the cover for the wine vat to dispose of Vincent’s body. The lights turn off. We hear a body fall into the vat of acid. Annabelle
heads to the cellar. The doors close. She looks in the wine-vat. A skeleton rises from the acid. She cannot open any of the doors. The
skeleton speaks in Vincent’s voice. She keeps backing away form the skeleton until falling into the vat of acid herself.
Vincent emerges from the shadows wearing some kind of control harness for the skeleton.
Ruth, Watson, and Nora find Lance. They see Vincent is alive. Nora’s gun had blanks in it. He reveals Annabelle and Dr. Trent
were trying to kill him. He will let the justice system decide if he did anything wrong and leaves. Watson tells that the house now has
9 ghosts. They’ve marked him and maybe you, too….End of movie…
