Terror in the Haunted House (aka My World Dies Screaming)

I've been a shrink for 15 years and I have yet to find one of those cool pinwheel thingies

(1958)

When Shelia was a little girl she was sent Switzerland after suffering an unknown trauma. As an adult she has been experiencing recurring nightmares about an ominous old house she does not recall ever seeing. When her newlywed husband announces that he purchased a country home in Florida Shelia is thrilled to be moving back to the states. Her jubilance turns to terror when they arrive at the house and, wait for it; it’s the house from her nightmares! Things go from bad to worse as they settle into their new abode. What happened in this house and how is it linked to Sheila’s past?

Audiences were informed that Terror in the Haunted House was filmed in "Psycho Rama", which attempted to use subliminal messaging to increase the level of terror including “hidden" instructions for when to "Scream Bloody Murder!"



Cool idea right? Wrong. Rather than titillate us with frightening imagery, we are treated to a series of intrusive (subliminal, my ass) images that look like something Jack Davis (Mad Magazine) drew at a lunch counter while waiting for his long overdue order.



Despite the title there is nothing “haunted” in the story. Instead we are given a very convoluted whodunit that only reveals whodidit in the last 5 minutes of the film. Seriously, the exposition will make your head spin. Still, it is surprisingly well crafted for a throwaway b-movie. The “Psycho Rama” subliminal messaging is completely ineffective and unnecessary and only serves as a distraction. Terror in the Haunted House is about as scary as Atari’s Haunted House game, which to this day I don’t understand how to play,



In one unintentionally hilarious scene, Sheila is in bed thrashing around in a cold sweat and when she springs out of bed and opens her bedroom door she sees this dude stumbling across the hallway and falling over the banister. I watched the scene three times and howled like a werewolf.