Hillbillys in a Haunted House - VCI Entertainment (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1967
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Writer: Duke Yelton
Cast: Ferlin Husky, Joi Lansing, Don Bowman, John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., Linda Ho, Basil Rathbone

Release Date: August 13th, 2024
Approximate Running Time: 86 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: G
Sound: LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $24.95

"Two Country & Western singers and their manager are en route to the Nashville Jamboree but become tired and stop to rest in an abandoned mansion. Little do they know, but the basement of the old house is headquarters for the evil Madame Wong and her entourage of foreign spies. Strange things begin to happen almost immediately and they suspect the place is haunted. However, our three heroes decide to spend the night anyway to escape an upcoming storm. Soon, (a song or two later) they settle down to get some shut-eye. But during the night the spies kidnap our female singer. Now things really get exciting as the hillbillys help capture the bad guys and foil a diabolical plan to steal a secret formula for rocket propellant. Now they're off to Nashville, not very rested, but happy and content to participate in the more normal pleasures of entertaining the audience of the giant Nashville Jamboree." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4/5

Hillbillys in a Haunted House comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 22.2 GB

Feature: 20.2 GB

The source looks great; cleaned up, free of any source damage. Flesh tones look healthy, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity and black levels are strong, and compression is very good. That said, this one of VCI’s stronger transfers, there does not appear to be any egregious digital noise reduction.

Audio: 4/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English with removable English SDH. The audio is in great shape, dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and range-wise, this track sounds very good.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a photo gallery with music from the film playing in the background (poster/lobby cards/stills), a theatrical trailer for Las Vegas Hillbillys (1 minute 20 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), and an audio commentary with Robert Kelly.

Included with this release is a DVD that has the same content as the Blu-ray included as part of this combo release.

Summary:

Jean Yarbrough directed Hillbillys in a Haunted House. He is also known for directing The Devil Bat, House of Horrors, She-Wolf of London, The Brute Man, and The Creeper. Hillbillys in a Haunted House is a sequel to Las Vegas Hillbillys.

Two country western singers and their manager traveling to Nashville stay the night in a haunted house.

Things that go bump into the night and other frights are two things that one expects when watching a haunted house film, not random musical numbers. What's the point of having a haunted house film without these two things? In fact, I would not even call Hillbillys in a Haunted House a horror film; it is a musical with some moments of humor.

Though the narrative clocks in at 86 minutes in length, when you remove all of the musical numbers, it is about the length of a TV sitcom. That said, the narrative just slogs along, and an anticlimactic finale makes what has just unfolded even more frustrating. After the finale’s big reveal, there is a 10-plus-minute sequence where singers and bands perform.

One positive thing that you can say about Hillbillys in a Haunted House is that it has an eclectic cast of recognizable faces from classic horror cinema of the 1930s and 40s. Though Ferlin Husky is that lead, most viewers will be drawn by names like John Carradine (House of Frankenstein), Lon Chaney Jr. (Wolf Man -1941), and Basil Rathbone (Tower of London -1939); that said, no one is going to be wowed by any of the performances. The most entertaining performance is Don Bowman’s portrayal of Jeepers, the cowardly manager.

From a production standpoint, it is clear that Hillbillys in a Haunted House is working on a shoestring budget. The premise feels like a discarded episode of Scooby Doo, in which there are no real surprises along the way. Ultimately, Hillbillys in a Haunted House is a film that deserves its reputation as one of cinema’s worst films.

Hillbillys in a Haunted House gets a good release from VCI Entertainment that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and an informative audio commentary.

Written by Michael Den Boer