While not as great for me as "House on Haunted Hill" and "The Tingler," this one still manages to be light-hearted ghostly fun. I particularly like that most of the movie is told from a child's-eye-view (and this seems to help one ignore some of the apparent logical inconsistencies), and that the kid loves ghosts – which most of the intended audience no doubt identified with. Unlike a lot of similar thrillers of the time, there is no doubt left in the audience's mind at the end that there are, in fact, ghosts in the house, although the living appear to be nearly as bloodthirsty and at least some of the shocks are portrayed as fake (figuring out which is which is part of the fun). Margaret Hamilton was clearly beyond worrying about being typecast, and seems to have quite enjoyed being "the witch" as well.
