As a fan of old black and white “B” horror movies, I’ve always loved “House on Haunted Hill.” It’s pretty lame by today’s blood & gore standards, but I saw it as a kid and found it scarey. I have quite a few DVD’s of this movie, bought for a mere $1 during Halloween. That said, I’m also a fan of the good-ole MST3K nitwits, and this was my first Rifftrax rental. Don’t expect the MST3K stuff like skits, shadows of the guys watching the movie, or even an introduction! The movie starts and the guys immediately riff in the background. You simply just HEAR, but never see them! When the movie ends, they sign off. I thought the riffing was good, especially for the two lame-brained leads who (of course) always place themselves in danger. “Lance” is always just one step away from the next concussion. They barely touch Vincent Price, but he’s such a good actor and one of my favorites, so that’s okay with me. I’m happy to hear the guys, even if I can’t see them. That’s probably why the Rifftrax DVD’s are more affordable.
This is a nice high-quality DVD of House on Haunted Hill. It was touch spartan; there’s no subtitles of either the movie or the riffing, there’s no MST3K-style video introduction (which would have been nice; would it have been hard to put a five minute pre-movie warmup, using whatever set came to hand), there’s no shadows on the screen (which I’ve seen done with just subtitles, on the Ghostbusters DVD, IIRC), and there’s not even a coming/available advertisement. There’s just the movie, and two soundtracks, one with and one without riffing.
As for the meat of the material, House on Haunted Hill is a fairly classic old movie and moderately riffable. I’d place the riffs here about average for an MST3K and there was enough classic horror movie shtics and movie-specific jokes to make it worth my while.
But it is a good classic horror movie, and well worth your time watching it unMST3Ked before ruining all the surprises in the comedic mode. If you’ve got the DVD and haven’t seen the movie, take the time to watch the original first.