On all hallow's eve when the moon is full and there's a slight chill in the air something wicked begins to happen. The undead hunt the living and ghosts return from the afterlife to haunt those most vulnerable. On this Halloween we dare you to turn down the lights and tune in to WLRN's creature double feature, House on Haunted Hill and Night of the Living Dead. WARNING: DO NOT WATCH ALONE!
9pm HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) - Mystery/Cult Classic starring Vincent Price.
Rich oddball Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) has a proposal for five guests at a possibly haunted mansion: Show up, survive a night filled with scares and receive $10,000 each. The guest of honor is Loren's estranged wife, Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), who, with her secret lover, Dr. Trent (Alan Marshal), has concocted her own scheme to scare Loren's associate, Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig), into shooting the potentially crazy millionaire. But more spooks and shocks throw a wrench into the plan.
TRIVIA:
- The $10,000 offered to each of the guests in 1959 would be equal to about $83,450 in 2017.
- The large grosses for this film were noticed by Alfred Hitchcock and led him to create his own low budget horror film, Psycho (1960).
10pm NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) Horror/Cult Classic starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman.
There is panic throughout the nation as the dead suddenly come back to life. The film follows a group of characters who barricade themselves in an old farmhouse in an attempt to remain safe from these bloodthirsty, flesh-eating monsters.
TRIVIA:
This is one of the most successful independent movies ever made. Made for $114,000 (equivalent to $798,000 in 2017), it grossed approximately $30 million (equivalent to $210 million in 2017) - over 263 times its budget.
- When the zombies are eating the bodies in the burnt-out truck they were actually eating roast ham covered in chocolate sauce. The filmmakers joked that it was so nausea inducing that it was almost a waste of time putting the makeup on the zombies as they ended up looking pale and sick anyway.
