TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1958)
(a.k.a. MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING)
Article #273 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-14-2001
Posting date: 4-29-2002

A woman has awful dreams about an old house. She marries a man she meets after a whirlwind romance, and when he takes her home, it turns out to be the house she dreamed about.

Filmed in a process called Psychorama, in which subliminal images are flashed on the screen to create an atmosphere of dread, this is one of those movies that is supposed to be really scary and ends up being really annoying. In some ways, it reminds me of GASLIGHT; it’s one of those movies in which the lead female character is required to be in a perpetual state of fear and dread throughout the entire movie, and quite frankly, I’ve never liked those types of movies; rather than scaring me, they leave me feeling tired and impatient. This problem is only compounded by having almost all the characters behave suspiciously all the time, irrespective of whether they have a reason to act that way or not. In fact, this movie is so obvious about trying to scare you, and attempts to do so without a modicum of wit, that it inspires boredom rather than terror; all in all, this is one of the most boring movies I’ve seen. You’ll have more fun trying to stop the movie whenever the subliminal pictures flash up so you can get a good look at them.