The Ghosts of Hanley House

The Ghosts of Hanley House is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Louise Sherrill.

The Ghosts of Hanley House
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLouise Sherrill
Written byLouise Sherrill (writer)
Produced byJoseph Durkin Jr. (producer)
StarringElsie Baker
Barbara Chase
Wilkie de Martel
Roberta Reeves
Cliff Scott
Leonard Shoemaker
CinematographyClaude Fullerton
Edited byFrances Durkin
Music byDavid C. Parsons
Production
company
Victoria Productions
Distributed bySinister Cinema (VHS)
Release date
  • 1968 (1968)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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A young man accepts a bet to stay in a house, with some friends, where several murders occurred. But the house may be haunted, or the original murderer may still be around.

Cast

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  • Elsie Baker as Lucy
  • Barbara Chase as Sheila
  • Roberta Reeves as Gabby

Production

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Release

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Home media

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The film was released for the first time on DVD by Alpha Video on March 23, 2004.[1][2]

Critical response

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The Ghosts of Hanley House was not reviewed by mainstream critics. Reviews that exist of the film have been mostly negative.

On his website Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings, Dave Sindelar criticized the film's acting and direction as abysmal, and also criticized the inconsistent sound and lighting, as well as the slow pacing.[3] Wes R. from Oh, the Horror! called the film "extremely bland", also writing, "A film like this would have been understandable in the 50s, but by 1968, you’d think that the filmmakers could’ve at least tried a little bit harder to make a halfway interesting and watchable film."[4] Steve Langton from The Spinning Image gave the film 1/10 stars, writing, "Louise Sherrill’s ‘regional’ horror film (...) is so inept it turns Edward D. Wood Jr into Stanley Kubrick. The acting, photography and lighting are wretched in the extreme, with talking heads gazing uneasily past the camera, uttering inane lines of dialogue while the plot lurches from the sublime to the painfully ridiculous, using visual references to The Haunting in search of any vestige of credibility."[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Ghost of Hanley House (1968) -". Allmovie.com. AllMovie. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  2. ^ "Amazon.com: Ghosts of Hanley House: Elsie Baker, Barbara Chase, Wilkie de Martel, Roberta Reeves, Cliff Scott, Leonard Shoemaker, Carl Grzybowski, Rubye Holmes, Frieda Kennedy-Jones, Len Luniewski, Jim Ward, Marc Bizard, Claude Fullerton, Louise Sherrill, Frances Durkin, Joseph Durkin Jr.: Movies & TV". Amazon.com. Amazon. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  3. ^ Sindelar, Dave (31 August 2017). "Ghosts of Hanley House (1968)". Fantastic Movie Musings.com. Dave Sindelar. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  4. ^ R., Wes. "Horror Reviews - Ghosts of Hanley House (1968)". Oh the Horror.com. Wes R. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  5. ^ Langton, Steve. "Ghosts of Hanley House Review (1968)". The Spinning Image.co.uk. Steve Langton. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
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