Woodyanders Review of Ghosts of Hanley House

Ghosts of Hanley House (1968)

A nifty and enjoyably spooky regional horror obscurity

[8/10 · 10 March 2008]

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.