Don't Believe the Hype

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This Buster Keaton comedy isn't really a 'funny' film. If you are thinking of funny, as in "hahahahahahahahaha, I cannot stop laughing" funny, then you're out of luck. The repetitive slapstick in this 21-minute long feature is mostly just silly, acrobatic fun--not something that you'd chuckle at. I certainly didn't. But any fan of these old cinema pictures will find this something worthwhile.The movie starts out with Keaton arriving at the bank for his workday. However, since he's Keaton, everything goes wrong. He gets his hands in glue and messes up all the dollar bills, creating any number of mishaps with his mistake. Meanwhile, the bank president and his counterfeiters are filling the bank with counterfeit money, and using an abandoned house as a hideout. All these events and people come together eventually--resulting in a series of mishaps inside the house.I haven't seen many Buster Keaton films, but I've figured out his slapstick is normally very repetitive. That's the case here. Pretty much once we get to the house, Keaton has a bunch of encounters with 'ghosts' and 'skeletons' and stuff. All he does is run around the house for like, the rest of the movie. The thing is thoroughly entertaining but isn't funny--that's why if you're looking for a nice juicy comedy, look somewhere else. And if you're not, this one remains an entertaining and fun film, even if it lacks laugh-out-loud humor. Yeah, call me an idiot for saying Keaton isn't funny--but this kind of slapstick, while entertaining certainly, doesn't get me laughing. Oh well, it's still lots of fun anyway.

I have to give Buster (more) props: carrying on a single gag through many different encounters and many different characters and keeping the looks of confusion and chaos fresh the entire time is very hard to do, but he does it here, and admirably. Anyone who's seen this and Benny and Joon will recognize that little flick Keaton does with his arm was mimicked so incredibly perfectly by Depp that it's difficult to separate the two images as distinct.But about this, that is, this short, it's typical Keaton fun-fest: machinery, badguys, booby traps, and hilarity, all intersperced with really clever titles. However, this one's plot didn't really flow as well as most of the stuff I've seen of his. I'm still rather unclear as to how Keaton's character ended up in the house in the first place. That said, the surreal moment with the skeletons building the living man made it all very worth it. Watch that shot, it's amazing.--PolarisDiB

Since the haunted house is only 1/3 of the movie, the title of the movie should have been The Bank Teller which Buster Keaton portrayed. Most of the movie takes place in the bank which Keaton operated and was later accused of robbing. Or, the movie should have been called Sticky Situation since the biggest laughs of the movie came when Keaton gets glue all over him and the money from the bank. Although the movie's climax is the haunted house, much of the physical comedy happens way before the movie's closing. An interesting look into heaven and hell as Keaton imagines dying and riding the stairway and slide to heaven and then hell. A good Keaton classic, The Haunted House has several moments that are funny and very enjoyable.

A clumsy bank employee, the bank manager and his daughter, some bank robbers, some police and the Daredevil Theatrical Troupe, who've just been booed off stage during their production of Faust, all collide in a Haunted House which the bank robbers use as their hideout.So many priceless moments, some good laugh-out-louders, and 100% great fun. Another really great short comedy from Buster Keaton.Highlights: as usual, the ending! Buster running past camera, looking directly into it, the whole glue sequence, the self-referential theatrical production and more i can't remember right now... Not that i've ever seen a Keaton movie i didn't like, but i recommend this one too!