Director: William J. Hole Jr.
Year: 1959
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Ghosts; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Attempting to gather funds for their club, a group of teenage hotrodders trying to hold a Halloween-themed dance party in a remote mansion finds the location has been haunted by a series of strange ghosts and spirits, forcing them to find a way to keep the party going.
Review:
This here was quite the disappointing horror effort overall. One of the film's biggest issues is the fact that so many of the elements that appeal to the teenagers of the time are just utterly bland and boring. The main focus here is on the exploits of the club and how the reporters' interviews with the group members really are for the first half of the film, as listening to them talk about cars, engage in insipid dancing scenes, or go through their rivalry with the other delinquent group just makes this go by so slowly. On top of that, the scenes of the girls' slumber party include the exhaustive musical numbers sung throughout their numerous dance parties, which not only eat up time here but also highlight the other big flaw in this one, which is the incessant need for the youth culture appeal that really doesn't make this one all that interesting.
This focus on the youth culture rather than bringing on the horror really lowers the interest of the film as well as causes the last big problem in bringing on such an excruciating first half for the film that it takes nearly fifty minutes before they even arrive at the house which doesn't leave much time to really exploit the horror stylings which is due to these elements have attempting to appeal to that mindset. That also turns into the reasoning why this one ends as abruptly as it does, since this takes place in the middle of the party, and letting the band play on seems like the higher priority, all at the expense of the horror. These here are what really hold this one back, even with a few rather decent positives.
One of the better features here is the solid car-racing on display, which offers some great action with the solid opening race to get this one going off nicely and the rather fun, if cheesy, car antics throughout the latter half, which is rather nice at keeping this one rather enjoyable. The other really big plus here is the film's cheesy and somewhat fun last half in the house itself, as the antics with the haunted house tropes of cackling creatures and revolving doors that let the creatures loose to torment the group are chilling in concept yet still rather comedic scare tactics that continues on into the party as the creatures crash the dance and get involved in rather silly manners. It may not appeal to all out there, but it is something to like with this one.
Overview: */5
Troubling if somewhat decent teen-driven genre effort, this one is decent enough for this style of genre entry, but gets brought down quite heavily by the series of troubling factors on display that it gets brought down heavily due to it. Those with an interest or tolerance for this approach will have a lot to like here, while most others out there might want to heed extreme caution with this one.
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