I didn't see any. Elisha Cook keeps alluding to them, but he seems to be the sot Vincent accuses him of being, because although there are clearly murders, there are no apparent ghosts.
But by the end of the movie, we're still supposed to believe in them.
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Did anybody see any?
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Non-sequiturs are delicious.
Not exactly, but there is one thing that cannot be explained away as being any of the pranks set up by Annabelle and David. The blood dripping from the ceiling, they never mentioned it in their plans and there is no way they could plan out that it would drip ONLY on Ruth Bridges' hand, on BOTH floors of the house.
shareI can only think that those ghosts were all in Elisha Cook's head. His character is really unstable. Great manic and frightened comic performance by Elisha Cook Jr.
shareHis character is even more unstable in the original script, where whole pages in a row were scribbled out, dialogue never spoken, scenes never shot, I'm kind of glad they did but on the other hand it would've explained a lot more. I ALWAYS wanted to know WHAT happened that first night he spent at the house, the script explains, NOT what I would've expected. It also further explains ABOUT those blood stains, originally it wasn't just a puddle on the ceiling, it was whole spatters all over the ceiling, the walls, the floor, and he explained you could wash it, paint it, treat it with chemicals, it always came back, THAT'S what he meant by 'They've marked you' AND also what he meant by 'I hope it doesn't come back', THAT was why Ruth was supposed to be panicking at the second bloodstain on her hand because originally there was NO second puddle in the ceiling in her room.
shareI would like to see that abandoned script as well. The film is all fits and starts. Nothing is explained as you say. 'House On Haunted Hill is great entertainment if the viewer can let all the inconsistencies it has, just wash over them.
shareIt's for sale on Amazon for about $20, called a Screamplay. I think they're made to order or something because my copy has a printed date on it just a few days before I bought it.
shareI think it's rather like the end of "The Innocents" where the question of whether or not there were actually ghosts is left to the viewer to decide. The house could actually be haunted, but this particular night the most frightening things present were certain scheming guests with murderous intent. It could also be that, despite it's reputation, the ghosts only existed in the head of Watson Prichard. I remember as a kid being annoyed that we didn't see any real ghosts, but now I appreciate the decision to make the question of their reality ambiguous. A year later, of course, Castle would dispense with ambiguity and gave us a house full of real ghosts in the fun thriller "13 Ghosts".
shareAlthough I'm not arguing that we should see ghosts necessarily (as you say, not seeing them in THE INNOCENTS and 1963's THE HAUNTING worked just fine, the viewer never knowing for sure whether the ghosts were real or whether they were an delusion).
But in the HOHH dialogue, there is also no real discussion of ghosts, either. Elisha Cook says there were ghosts, and that they killed people, but his comments are brief, provide no backstory whatsoever, and the modern murders are seemingly pretty concrete.
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LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA
The glider behind the woman in the cellar was a ghost. They step into an empty room.... The girl turns around and all the sudden that woman is there.
Troyaltrollwalker(Darth Spino)
She's one of the caretakers, who evidently was in on it with Annabel and David.
shareYeah supposedly. But think about what I just said. They enter an empty room and somehow she ends up behind them;). I love this movie because it's so debatable.
Troyaltrollwalker(Darth Spino)
Mrs Slides always makes me think of my mama.
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LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA
They should've done more with the ghosts so the ending would be ambiguous. Maybe kill off some others too. The ending was really abrupt and disappointing.
shareThat's the gimmick. It's supposedly in the back story if you believe in ghosts. You wonder if Elisha Cook's character is hysterical, but I think what happened in the house before would be the ghosts. As owner, he knows the house is around 100 years old and several people died there mysteriously over the years.
ETA: How do you explain the rope and Mrs. Loren outside the house?
I had the urge to rewatch this tonight. I agree about the rope and about Annabelle floating outside the window. Given that as soon as Nora ran out of the room screaming she also saw Annabelle hanging in the hallway, either the rope and floating were genuine paranormal experiences, or they were hallucinations brought on by Nora's fragile mental state.
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