A couple (Sid Caesar and Vera Miles) and their teenage son (Barry Gordon) rent a haunted New England seaside house, and their summer vacation turns into a ghost-hunt.
The film starts out with a sailor marrying an ugly woman for money. When they show her, there are gull noises and she tries (poorly) to make herself look like a catch. This sets the tone of the film... silly, somewhat dated humor. William Castle has done some good work with humor (such as "Zotz"), and he is working with some good names here... but it never fully takes off.
Castle has also done good work with ghosts ("House on Haunted Hill", "13 Ghosts") but here does not seem to really know what to do with them. They are not scary, but not really funny either. They are just there. Which makes the plot not have much of an arc (it is hard to resolve a problem without much of a problem). Maybe I should give it another chance, but I think I can see why this is not one of Castle's better-known works.
Do not confuse this for a horror film (many have). Despite drawing its title from Matthew 26:41 and therefore a good basis for a satanic tale, it certainly is not.
The film starts out with a sailor marrying an ugly woman for money. When they show her, there are gull noises and she tries (poorly) to make herself look like a catch. This sets the tone of the film... silly, somewhat dated humor. William Castle has done some good work with humor (such as "Zotz"), and he is working with some good names here... but it never fully takes off.
Castle has also done good work with ghosts ("House on Haunted Hill", "13 Ghosts") but here does not seem to really know what to do with them. They are not scary, but not really funny either. They are just there. Which makes the plot not have much of an arc (it is hard to resolve a problem without much of a problem). Maybe I should give it another chance, but I think I can see why this is not one of Castle's better-known works.
Do not confuse this for a horror film (many have). Despite drawing its title from Matthew 26:41 and therefore a good basis for a satanic tale, it certainly is not.