Hillbillys in a Haunted House

Lore & Background

The film follows a pair of country singers and their band traveling to Nashville, Tennessee. Their car breaks down, forcing them to stop overnight at an abandoned house that turns out to be haunted. Unbeknownst to them, the house is occupied by a ring of international spies seeking a top-secret formula for rocket fuel. The spies operate under the cover of the haunted house, which includes a gorilla lurking in the basement. The film never reveals for whom the spies are working.

Reader's Guide

Hillbillys in a Haunted House is notable as a sequel to The Las Vegas Hillbillys, with Joi Lansing replacing Mamie Van Doren in the role of Boots Malone. Directed by Jean Yarbrough, the film represents a blend of musical, horror, and comedy genres typical of low-budget 1960s cinema. Its home media releases, including a DVD in 2000 and a re-release in 2007 as part of a Hillbilly Comedy Collection, have kept it accessible. The film also gained a later audience through RiffTrax, a comedic commentary service. While not critically acclaimed, it remains a curiosity for fans of campy genre films and country music.

Did You Know?

• The film is a sequel to The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966).
• The film features a gorilla lurking in the basement of the haunted house.
• It was released on DVD by VCI Video on March 14, 2000.

Production & Franchise Context

Hillbillys in a Haunted House arrived in 1967 as a direct sequel to The Las Vegas Hillbillys, the previous year's entry in a low-budget comedy franchise. Jean Yarbrough took the director's chair, guiding a musical horror comedy that blended country music with supernatural thrills in a distinctly B-movie fashion. The film's most notable casting shift came in the role of "Boots Malone," which Joi Lansing assumed after Mamie Van Doren had originated the character in the 1966 predecessor. Ferlin Husky co-starred alongside Lansing, bringing his country-singer persona to the screen. The combination of musical numbers, horror-comedy tropes, and the hillbilly comedy tradition placed the film squarely within the lineage of American B-movies of the era, and it is catalogued among the American films of 1967.

Plot & Genre Mashup

The narrative follows a pair of country singers traveling with their band toward Nashville, Tennessee, when their vehicle suffers a breakdown that forces them to shelter overnight in an abandoned house. What they discover is far more unsettling than a dilapidated dwelling: the property serves as the operational base for a ring of international spies. These agents are hunting a top-secret formula for rocket fuel, though the film never discloses which nation or organization they ultimately serve. To maintain their cover, the spies stage elaborate haunted-house spectacles, complete with a gorilla lurking in the basement to spook any unsuspecting intruders. The result is a genre collision that marries country-music road-trip storytelling with spy-thriller intrigue and supernatural horror comedy, all filtered through the irreverent lens of hillbilly humor.

Cast & Creative Personnel

At the heart of the production are Ferlin Husky and Joi Lansing, whose on-screen pairing anchors the musical comedy. Lansing's casting as "Boots Malone" marked a significant departure from the 1966 original, where Mamie Van Doren had embodied the role. This swap reshaped the dynamic of the franchise's central duo while preserving the hillbilly-comedy spirit audiences had come to expect. Behind the camera, Jean Yarbrough helmed the project, bringing a career's worth of experience to this blend of musical, horror, and comedy elements. The film's structure as a musical horror comedy required a cast capable of performing songs within the narrative, a demand that Husky and Lansing met by leveraging their country-music backgrounds. The credits reflect a lean, B-movie production ethos, with the ensemble working within the constraints typical of low-budget American cinema of the late 1960s.

Legacy & Home Media Life

Long after its initial theatrical run, Hillbillys in a Haunted House found new audiences through home video releases. VCI Video first brought the film to DVD on March 14, 2000, making it accessible to collectors and fans of classic B-movies. A second wave of availability came on May 29, 2007, when VCI reissued the title alongside The Las Vegas Hillbillys as part of a four-film Hillbilly Comedy Collection, bundling the franchise's key entries for dedicated viewers. The film also gained a second life through RiffTrax, the comedy commentary service, which released its own version featuring real-time jokes and observations, further cementing the movie's status as a cult curiosity. Its presence on IMDb and the RiffTrax YouTube channel ensures that new generations of viewers can discover this 1967 oddity, keeping the hillbilly comedy tradition alive in the digital age.