House On Haunted Hill / The Devil Bat

Last Minute Sales & Specials

Double Feature contains "House On Haunted Hill" and "The Devil Bat." "House On Haunted Hill" - A perennial favorite of the "Shock Theatre" TV circuit, "House On Haunted Hill" stars Vincent Price as a sinister gent (you're surprised?) who owns a sinister mansion on a sinister hill. He offers several of his enemies $10,000 each - if they agree to spend the night in the crumbling old mansion. Price festively gives each of his guests a tiny coffin containing a handgun, then proceeds to set in motion any number of gadgets and devices designed to frighten the guests into using their weapons. Strange as it seems, old Vinnie isn't the real villain of the proceedings: the honor goes to his scheming wife Carol Ohmart and her lover Alan Marshall. Also on hand is eternal doom-sayer Elisha Cook Jr., who is given the film's famous line. When originally released in theatres, "House On Haunted Hill" was accompanied by one of those gimmicks so beloved of producer/director William Castle: the gimmick was "Emergo," and it involved a prop skeleton that "emerged" from the screen at a crucial moment to frighten the audience. "The Devil Bat" - Bela Lugosi is a chemist who plots an elaborate revenge scheme on his business partners, whom he feels have cheated him out of his share. To this end he develops a mutant bred of vicious, oversized bats and trains several of this breed to home in on a special chemical which he then blends with shaving lotion. Presenting gifts of lotion to his partners as a peace offering (and browbeating them into splashing it on themselves while in his presence), he subsequently unleashes his monstrous pets to tear them to pieces.