House on Haunted Hill

Question: (Spoiler alert) If Annabelle and Dr. Trent simply wanted to murder Frederick, what was the point of Dr. Trent attempting to dispose of Frederick's body in the acid? Why the elaborate scheme to have him accidentally killed by someone else if they were going to destroy his body in acid anyway? They could have simply hit him over the head and dumped him in the pit.

Question: If Frederick picked the party members himself, without his wife's input, how did Dr. Trent (spoiler alert, his wife's lover) manage to get Frederick to pick him?

Chosen answer: Frederick knew that Trent was his wife's lover. That's why Trent was invited. The party was supposed to be an opportunity for Frederick to take revenge.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Two questions. 1. Since Frederick knew that Annabelle was cheating on him with David, why didn't Frederick just file for a divorce? 2. Since Frederick's plan was to murder Annabelle and David, then why invite the others? Why not just take Annabelle to the house, kill her and then invite David and do the same thing? If nobody else had been at the house, he could have got away with it especially since the acid would have left no trace of Annabelle or David.

Answer: Because then there wouldn't be a movie. It's called "suspension of disbelief", where we accept that movie characters often make decisions that, in real life, they would not. This only becomes a problem if it negatively affects the believability of the story within the universe of the film. If the entire plot depends on a questionable/unrealistic choice, then the filmmakers really have no choice but to lean into it and hope the audience goes along for the ride.

Question: In the scene where Mrs Loren appears at the window of Nora's room. Since Mrs Loren and the doctor are faking Mrs. Loren's death and apparition, how did they manage to make the rope go round her feet? Also how did Mrs Loren glide in and out?

Leprechaun

Chosen answer: As far as the "gliding in and out", Mrs Loren presumably uses the same body harness she used to fake her hanging. As to the rope... the film is deliberately ambiguous on whether or not the ghosts are real, as evinced by the drunk's last line in the movie; the rope trick is probably supposed to reflect this ambiguity despite being Mrs Loren's trickery.

Question: Adding to similar questions, how is it that neither Annabelle or Dr. Trent are not surprised Trent was invited by Frederick? They would have to know Frederick is aware of their plan to kill him. Why do they go through the whole movie as if this isn't a problem? (01:11:40)

DrLoomis1978

Answer: They didn't know for sure he knew, if he did know, Annabelle thought she knew all of Vincent's tricks to out smart him.

Continuity mistake: When Annabelle gives Frederick her gun, he places it in the mini-coffin and closes the coffin. However, in one of the next shots, we see that all coffins are open.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It's not "in one of the next shots" it's actually many shots later, so anyone could have touched that mini coffin for any reason during the time off-screen. After Frederick closes the top of the mini coffin, it cuts to the scene upstairs with Nora and the missing severed head. Then a considerable period of time has passed until we see the mini coffins again, when Lance walks into that room and sees Pritchard with the knife.

Super Grover

More mistakes in House on Haunted Hill

Frederick Loren: This is Lance Schroeder, a test pilot. He's no doubt a brave man, but don't you think you can be much braver if you're paid for it? And I happen to know that Lance needs the ten thousand I'm giving, if he's brave enough to stay all night.

More quotes from House on Haunted Hill

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