The Legend of Hell House

Product Details

In sits there, shrouded in mist and mystery, a nesting place for living evil and terror from the dead. It's Hell House. Roddy McDowall heads the cast of this exciting chiller about four psychic investigators and the dark, brooding mansion they themselves call "the Mt. Everest of haunted houses." It's already destroyed one team of researchers. Now this brave quartet ventures in for another try at unraveling its secret. But before they succeed, they must suffer through madness, murder and everything else the spirits that dwell here have in store for them. Yet learning the truth just might drive them all insane. An ingeniously-devised ghost story, THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE will thrill and delight veteran horror fans from the first creaking door to the very last slithering shadow.

• ISBN13: 0024543013846
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Four people enter the Belasco Mansion, the so-called "Everest of haunted houses," hired by a dying millionaire to investigate the possibility of life after death. Physicist Clive Revill leads the quartet, which includes his wife Gayle Hunnicut and two mediums. Pamela Franklin, young and impulsive, immediately makes contact with what she perceives as a tortured spirit, while Roddy McDowall, the only survivor from the previous investigation 20 years ago, closes himself off completely, deathly afraid of the malevolent forces that crushed his former comrades in body and spirit. Science fiction and horror legend Richard Matheson, responsible for penning such horror classics as The Devil Rides Out and Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum, brings a literate sensibility and a refreshing seriousness to the haunted-house genre with this adaptation of his novel Hell House. Director John Hough follows Matheson's lead with a moody but sober approach, balancing the physical threats of objects lethally leaping to life with the slow, subtle possession of the characters by a truly evil spirit. Parts of the script feel like so much scientific mumbo jumbo, with characters discussing the finer points of supernatural manifestation and ectoplasmic activity, but Hough's deliberate direction gives it the necessary solemnity to take it all seriously. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews ::

Eh. - Horror movie holic - St. Louis, MO
Ok, so judging by the other reviews, I'm thinking the cheese stands alone here, but I did not care for this film at all. I think perhaps my expectations were just too high, but I was pretty disappointed.

First off, one of my all time favorite movies is the original version of The Haunting (1963), and there were far too many elements copied here. The sets, the sound effects, script, even the scene were the woman is running around the house confused was almost identical to Julie Harris' running through hill house scene. Even the name "Hell House" isn't very imaginative. Seemed too unoriginal for my taste.

Second, other elements of the plot seemed just plain ridiculous. A reverser? Seriously? C'mon. It just got silly at several parts. I'm all for a tongue and cheek horror that doesn't take itself too seriously and essentially knows how to laugh at itself like Murder by Death, but not when it gets silly and tries to pass it off as serious. Maybe I misinterpreted, but it tried too hard. Completely humorless.

There was no scare factor for me. There were just a couple of minor "boo" moments of startle, but nothing truly scary. There were so many imitation Haunting elements, I wish I'd saved my money and just watched that. Way overrated.