When the Horror Movie Came Off the Screen In 1953, audiences were not merely buying a ticket to a Vincent Price horror movie. They were buying the chance to have the movie invade the theater. Objects flew toward their faces. A paddle-ball man sent his ball directly at the audience. Can-can dancers kicked toward the […]
William Castle Theater Gimmicks and the Man Who Turned Theaters Into Haunted Houses William Castle was not trying to make great art. He was trying to fill seats. He did both, in his own particular way, and the results were unlike anything Hollywood had seen before or has quite managed since. Castle was a producer […]
The Night the Monster Left the Screen It is 1959. You are sitting in a neighborhood movie theater. The seats smell like popcorn and cigarettes. The screen is enormous. The lights went down forty minutes ago. House on Haunted Hill is reaching its climax. Something terrible is happening on screen. A skeleton rises from a […]
Motel Hell Roadside Horror: A Twisted American Motel Nightmare A lonely neon sign glows beside a quiet rural highway, promising clean rooms and a friendly welcome to any driver tired enough to stop. That sign belongs to Motel Hello, a small roadside business run by Farmer Vincent Smith and his sister Ida. Vincent is famous […]
The Funhouse Traveling Carnival: A Nightmare After the Midway Closed The last customers drift toward the parking lot as the midway lights begin switching off one string at a time. Ride operators kill their motors. Barkers stop calling out to the crowd. For a few hours, a place built entirely around noise, music, and movement […]