- A millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large, spooky, rented house overnight with him and his wife.
- Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his 4th wife, Annabelle, have invited 5 people to the house on Haunted Hill for a "Haunted House" party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.—Tony Mayer <tones120c@aol.com>
- Wealthy Frederick Loren and his wife Annabelle Loren - she the fourth Mrs. Loren, the first three who died mysterious deaths - have rented the purportedly haunted family home of Watson Pritchard, who claims seven family members were murdered there, to host a haunted house party. While Annabelle is acting as the reluctant front, the party is being organized by Frederick, including coming up with the guest list comprised solely of five people he has never met, but who know of him only through reputation. The hook for them to attend is that he will give a total of $50,000 equally to the surviving members of the party, the stipulation, which they are not aware of until their arrival, being that they will be locked in the house for twelve hours with no way out, including no means of communication to the outside world, until the return of the caretakers at the end of those twelve hours. While some state professional reasons for attending, all five, openly or secretly, are being lured primarily by the money, which each does need. The five seemingly willing invitees, who also do not know each other, are: Watson Pritchard himself, who truly believes that the ghosts of his murdered family members haunt the house, and who are there to bring others to their side of the dead; test pilot Lance Schroeder; columnist Ruth Bridges; psychiatrist Dr. David Trent; and secretary Nora Manning, who actually works for one of the Loren companies. The question then becomes why Frederick and/or Annabelle are organizing this party; in other words: what their end goal is, including why these five.—Huggo
- Millionaire playboy Fredrick Loren hosts a party for his 4th wife Annabelle Loren at the "House On Haunted Hill," a house that has seen seven murders. Fredrick invites 5 guests: Lance Schroeder, a pilot, Ruth Bridges, a journalist, Watson Prichard, the owner of The House On Haunted Hill, Nora Manning, a worker for one of Fredrick Loren's companies, and David Trent, a psychiatrist. Fredrick will offer each of them $10,000 to spend a night in The House On Haunted Hill. They all want the money. At midnight, the caretakers lock to doors, and the terror begins.—Reiss Ferlance.
- A millionaire, Fredrick Loren, invites five strangers to a party in the House On Haunted Hill. The house has a past of brutal murders. Mr. Loren's fourth wife, Annabelle, warns the guests that her husband is insane and plans something that night. That's when everyone begins to suspect something's going on with Mr. Loren. At midnight the doors are locked and there's no way to get out. Then, when a game of murder begins and no one knows who's doing what, there's no way to call for help because there's no electricity, no phones, and no way to get out.—Anonymous
- Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) is an eccentric millionaire who has rented a Gothic stone house on a hill overlooking Los Angeles for a "haunted house" party that his fourth wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) had decided to throw. Over the opening credits, five people arrive at the house being driving in "funeral cars". They are: test pilot Lance Schroeder (Richard Long), magazine columnist Ruth Bridges (Julie Mitchum), psychiatrist Dr. David Trent (Alan Marshal), the house owner Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr.), and secretary/typist Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig). Except for the owner and for Dr. Trent (who wants to investigate the supernatural), they were all chosen because they wanted/needed the $10,000 that Loren was offering to anyone who could stay one night in the house. Add these five to Frederick and Annabelle Loren, and there are seven people in all -- three women and four men. Of course, some of them had underlying motives, too.
During the gathering in the parlor, Watson Pritchard claims that seven people, three women and four men, including Watson Pritchard's brother, have been murdered in the house. Parts of the bodies were found all over the house, but the heads have never been found. Pritchard himself spent a night in the house and was found almost dead the next morning. He claims that the heads can be heard at night whispering to each other.
Fredrick Loren enters who introduces himself and claims that he invited them to spend one night the house, with the stipulation that the power will be out and all doors will be locked at midnight, allowing no accessible escape. Anyone who stays in the house for the entire night, given that they are still alive, will each receive $10,000.
He explains the rules of the party and gives each of the guests a .45 caliber pistol for protection. Loren's wife tries to warn the guests that her husband is psychotic, causing them to be very suspicious of him, especially Nora Manning, who becomes convinced that he's trying to kill her when she keeps seeing mysterious ghouls, including the ghost of Annabelle, who had hanged herself after being forced to attend the party.
After being driven into a fit of hysteria by the ghosts haunting her, Nora shoots Mr. Loren, assuming he is going to kill her. Dr. Trent, another guest, tries to get rid of the body by pushing it into acid, but the lights go out, and when they come back on, both of the men are gone.
Annabelle emerges, having faked her death with the help of Dr. Trent, and having apparently tricked Nora into killing Loren. Suddenly, a skeleton emerges from the acid accompanied by the voice of Loren. The specter approaches Annabelle as she recoils in terror. In this panic, the screaming Annabelle accidentally backs into the acid herself. The real Mr. Loren walks out of the shadow, holding the contraption that he was using to control the skeleton of Dr. Trent. In his triumph, he watches Annabelle disintegrate.
"Good night, Doctor. Good night, Annabelle," Frederick Loren says to himself. "The crime you planned was indeed perfect, only the victim is alive and the murderers are not. It's a pity you didn't know when you started your game of murder that I was playing, too." Loren turns himself over to the other guests, informing them that Nora's gun was loaded with blanks and that Trent and Annabelle were conspiring to kill him.
In the final scene, Prichard looks into the acid vat and says, with a terrified expression on his face, "Now there are nine. There will be more...many more. They're coming for me now. And then they'll come for you."
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content