Mari Mari, Back From Illness, Watches 1959’s House on Haunted Hill and Rates It 3.5

PHASE CONNECT — Mari Mari returned to streaming after a stretch of illness with a watchalong of House on Haunted Hill, the 1959 horror film, which she watched live with viewers on YouTube and Twitch for about two hours. She chose a public-domain title so the archive would not be muted, and scored the film 3.5 out of five from audience polls at the end.

She opened by saying she had recovered enough to do a movie after surviving several coughs and colds, and that she had mostly idled in MapleStory while unwell. She said she picked the film after misreading a list of public-domain movies that ran from worst to best, and had been recommended it for Halloween. Before it started, she urged viewers to see Wildwood, a new stop-motion film from the studio behind Coraline and based on her favorite childhood book, and played a fan-made animation built from her own voice on a birthday stream. It made her realize, she said, that she really does sound like that, and chat answered with compliments on her voice.

“Every good homeowner should have a vat of acid somewhere.” — Mari Mari, on the film’s basement acid pit

The film follows a millionaire, played by Vincent Price, who offers a group of guests $10,000 each to stay the night in a house with a murderous history. Mari Mari talked through it as it played: she marveled at the score, wondered aloud whether acid pits like the one in the basement were ever real, and joked about the laugh-track debates the dialogue set off. Chat joined in on the scares, calling the sudden appearance of an old woman an “old people jumpscare.”

The final stretch brought a skeleton rising from the acid vat and a twist that left the host alive. The ending came abruptly, and Mari Mari said she wished the film had shown more of the aftermath, including the trial and whether the guests were paid. She wondered whether the house had been haunted at all, but said she thought the movie was good for the most part. Chat’s reaction was to complain that old movies have the worst endings, and the stream drew 14 Super Chats.

She then ran a star-rating poll on both platforms. Most YouTube viewers voted three and most Twitch viewers voted four, so she settled on 3.5 and posted a Letterboxd review. Looking for a next pick, she checked whether Jason and the Argonauts was in the public domain and found conflicting information, joking that she would watch The Wizard of Oz with viewers in three years. She also said a box-opening stream that had been planned was moved to the following Thursday, the 29th. She raided Amy on YouTube and Pippa on Twitch, and said she would be back the next day at around 7 p.m.