The real Loren then emerges from the shadows, holding the contraption that he used to manipulate the skeleton. As the animated spectre approaches, Annabelle recoils and screams in horror, accidentally falling into the acid herself. Suddenly, a skeleton rises from the acid accompanied by Loren's disembodied voice. Hearing the gunshot, Annabelle rushes down to the basement to confirm that her husband is dead, but finds the room empty.

Trent slips in and tries to get rid of Loren's body by pushing it into a vat of acid there (which had been used by a previous resident named Norton to kill his own wife), but the lights go out, and the sounds of a struggle and splash are heard. After being driven into a fit of hysteria by the repeated frights she has experienced during the night, Nora, seeing Loren walking toward her in the basement with a gun in his hand, does indeed shoot him. Trent, faked her death in an attempt to frighten Nora so badly that she will be compelled to shoot Loren.

It is eventually revealed that Annabelle, in league with her lover, Dr. Schroeder is attacked in a basement room, but is convinced his attacker was real, and tries to calm Nora's fears. He is convinced that the house is genuinely haunted by the ghosts of those killed there in the past, including his own brother, and that those ghosts have the power to 'come for' (kill) anyone in the house. Nora becomes convinced that he's trying to kill her when she keeps seeing frightening apparitions, including the ghost of Annabelle, who had apparently hanged herself some time during the night.Īlmost as frightened as Nora is Watson Pritchard. Forced to attend the party, Loren's wife tries to warn the guests that her husband is psychotic, causing them to be very suspicious of him. Pritchard disapproves of Loren's use of the house for his 'party,' making it unclear how Loren acquired access to the house in the first place.Īrriving late at night in separate funeral cars with a hearse leading the procession, Loren's guests are told the rules of the party, and each is given a.

David Trent (Alan Marshal) who specializes in hysteria, Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig), who works for one of Loren's companies, and the house's owner Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook). The five guests are test pilot Lance Schroeder (Richard Long), newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges (Julie Mitchum), psychiatrist Dr. Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) invites five people to a 'party' he is throwing for his fourth wife, Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), in an allegedly haunted house he has rented, promising to give them each $10,000 with the stipulation that they must stay the entire night in the house after the doors are locked at midnight.

House on haunted hill trailer