Ghosts of Hanley House (1968)

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This film won't be for everyone, but I found it to be extremely effective in building tension and being eerie and unsettling. I was frankly a bit frightened at some parts, and I felt that the film did an excellent job of keeping me in its grip of mystery throughout.Aside from a very few elements I felt might have been more effective if done differently, I think this is one of the best and most undeservedly overlooked films that I've ever seen. Certainly the acting isn't all stellar by everyone involved, but it's solid enough and especially considering the small cast are enough to carry the film for its running time. There's a ring of distinct realism about the feel of the film, which is one of the reasons why I liked it so much: it's easy to believe that things happened this way, and no-one was particularly overwrought in their performance.Definitely check this out if you like tense, creepy, genuinely scary stories of haunting. It's a familiar story, of people spending a night in a supposedly haunted house, who doubt there is anything to it at first, but they begin to reconsider as the night goes on. I wasn't expecting to be as engaged -- or as unsettled -- as I was by this film. Superb.

Five people are spending the night in a haunted house. Things get dicey when some of them start turning up decapitated.Odd film that I had never heard of before watching it on Cult O Rama on my Roku. Filled with unknowns who had very limited film exposure before or after.One of the actresses was married to Timothy Leary!Another made a few soft core porns after this film.The director acting in 2 films but never directed again.I'm always fascinated about how these movies get made and why the people involved have such a limited career. The movie is the typical ghost house fare and don't expect great acting. The sound is horrible. Tinny and echoing. Slow exposition. And be prepared for the car key questioning. It seems to go on for 20 minutes!They all get drunk and play cards and then the record player comes out. Plenty of laffing for no reason and dancing. Then there is what I guess is a wolf only it sure sounds human. Oh, and the black widow spider episode! Hysterical.It's not a very good film, so maybe I answered my own question about why these people had limited careers. The biggest problem with this film is that it just keeps going with nothing really happening.

Five people stay over night in Hanley House, a supposed Haunted Mansion that has been left sitting unoccupied since the Hanley's abruptly up and left years before, leaving all of their things behind. Good little horror film that was the sort of thing to play on the bottom of a drive-in multiple feature this is a movie that seems to have been about five to ten years out of date from when it was released-Its black and white and low on gore and monsters meaning it had nothing on the films that say Roger Corman was turning out, nor does it have the shock value of Night of the Living Dead. Clearly made on the cheap the film still manages to create some tension with its use of shadows and dry ice. The cast is game if uneven and all over the place. Its worth a look if you're in the mood for a retro-drive in night or want something more akin to the Haunting then something more graphic.

Five people decide to spend a whole evening at Hanley House, a creepy rundown abode with a notorious local reputation for being haunted. Pretty soon weird things begin to happen: Strange noises can be heard emanating from the basement, cars won't start, and otherworldly voices speak to a mental medium from the other dimension. Will our brave quintet survive the night and still be alive come dawn? Competently directed in a plain, straightforward manner by Louise Sherrill (who also wrote the tight, compelling script), with stark, grainy black and white cinematography by Claude Fullerton, acceptable acting from a game no-name cast, a spare, wonky, droning score by David C. Parsons, a suitably spooky atmosphere, and a groovy-rockin' R&B instrumental tune occasionally blasting away on the soundtrack, this fright feature makes for fun viewing. The dusty, desolate backwoods Texas setting adds some tasty regional flavor to the proceedings while the plot has a few nice twists and turns in it. While admittedly slow and talky in spots, the movie thankfully does improve and become more increasingly eerie and unsettling as it goes along. Fans of overlooked low-budget independent horror fare are advised to seek this one out.