I have a huge soft spot for William Malone’s House On Haunted Hill, the remake of the William Castle’s movie from 1959.

And that’s because it’s a great remake despite being an okay movie, which might sounds a bit contradictory, but makes perfect sense if you give it a little thought.

Malone’s movie takes all the interesting things from the original movie, a mad mogul trapped in a loveless marriage, a (supposedly) haunted house and six people summoned to a party in the aforementioned house.

It’s a great formula for a horror film and had it meddled with it it would have likely ruined the movie.

Though House On Haunted Hill does change things–otherwise what would be the point of a remake–it the most awesome way: The house on Haunted Hill is actually haunted!

If you’ve see the original film, you’ve likely noticed the despite rumors there being no ghosts to be found (all the hijinks were due the ongoing feud Between Vincent Price and his latest wife) yet in the remake the ghosts were very, very real.

When you combine it with scenery-chewing performances by Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen you have a movie that can’t fail to horrify.