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The Legend of Hell House

The Legend of Hell House

List Price: $9.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My Kind Of Horror
Review: If you love movies like The Haunting(original), The Changeling, or The Innocents; then you'll love this movie. When I first saw it, I thought it was a continuation of the original Haunting. I was so glad to see that it came out on DVD. I've been looking for a copy of it for some time (and it's even hard to find to rent!). This movie is definitely one of the great Haunted House style movies. This movie gives my wife chills and we both need to watch something a little "fluffy" to get it out of our minds before bed. I can't wait till the Changeling and the original Haunting comes out on DVD. This is a must have movie in the collection of those that like movies in this vain. For me it's not so much the horror and scare (even though that's a thrill) it's the origins of why these things happen that intrigues me. Finding out why the hauntings go on, or what happened in the past to cause this.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Beware, Horror Fans
Review: If you're looking for a really scary movie, don't buy this movie. It takes a great premise and goes nowhere with it. There are a few chills, but they're all dissipated by the poor direction, writing, and cast. Nothing makes sense, and when it does, it just seems stupid. Poor Roddy McDowell is stuck in a role no one could play believably, and that goes for the whole cast, all of whom appear to be sleep walking. Horror fans, don't be fooled. This is not a scary movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SO YOU WANT TO BE CREEPED OUT?
Review: When I originally saw this movie back in the 70's, it started
me on a quest to find the Mt.Everest of haunted house stories.
I never did because nothing has even come close to beating
"Hell House". From the moment the movie opens you are drawn in by the feeling that you are being watched yourself. Every time I watch this film I always feel a bit uneasy. The look and feel of the film is fantastic. BUY THIS MOVIE and READ THE BOOK by
Richard Matheson

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This One Really Works!
Review: I am giving this 5 stars because this is a Haunted House movie that really delivers some fine hair-raising chills and creeps and jump-from-your-seat shocks. Any budgetary lack is more than made up for by a good cast, fine performances, a truly different slant with a nice twist to the heart of the story and really inventive and clever direction by John Hough.

A rational scientist, his unstable wife, and two mediums/sensitives are to stay in a mansion with an unsavory reputation and apparent ghostly phenomena. The older male medium (Roddy McDowall) is the sole survivor of a previous group expedition that ended in disaster, madness and death. The scientist believes there is a natural explanation for the energies within the house and has invented a machine to expel them. And then the fun begins.

There are some wonderful things accomplished here, without a huge budget, by purely inventive direction and sincere performances. Good use of sound, wind & shadows, and great stuff like an unseen body writhing under sheets and so on. Leads to a bang-up finale that is a wallop and a really neat neat resolution of the mysteries. THANK GOD they didn't have CG to make everything literal. This is about suggestion and camera angles, and music and sound. Good stuff.

I can't remember who recommended this to me, but when I first saw it in the theatre I was completely surprised by how good it was and that it was pretty much unknown. A real sleeper!

I have read a lot of Mattheson but haven't read this book (a matter I will correct) so cannot compare the two, but wouldn't want to anyway. Books are books, and movies are movies, and this one works fine as a movie.

If you like overlooked, older, often smaller budgeted ghost movies that really deliver intelligence & chills see The Changeling, the original The Haunting, The Innocents and The Other.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Welcome to Hell House
Review: Released the same year as "The Exorcist," it's perhaps not too surprising that "The Legend of Hell House" fell into obscurity. Not surprising -- but most unfortunate. Unfortunate because "The Legend of Hell House" is a great film. Based on the Richard Matheson masterpiece, "The Legend of Hell House" is an exercise in atmosphere. The entire film, as well as the novel, reeks of corruption. Memorable sets, good performances and a great minimal score highlight this creepy little film. But it's John Hough's direction that proves to be the most effective, as it stimulates our fear of the unseen. Any lack of character depth in Richard Matheson's screenplay is balanced out by the film's structure: tight and intelligent. Indeed, as decent ghost stories are few and far between ("The Changeling" and the recent "The Others" come to mind as the better ones), "The Legend of Hell House" continues to resonate.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A fair translation of the book.
Review: This is a very decent haunted house movie. The frights however don't quite compare to those found in the original novel, which is arguably the greatest haunted house story ever written. Part of the problem was the time at which this movie was made--special effects weren't advanced enough and the depths of depravity which earned the Belasco house its nickname couldn't really be depicted. The main danger in this house seems to be poorly installed light fixtures. Yet the film does deliver a few good scares, with fine performances, weird wide-angle shots, and--most fortunately--a screenplay by Richard Matheson himself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Haunted House Movie
Review: Richard Matheson turns his novel Hell house into a great movie, keeping a lot of necessary plot developments while removing some of the unnecessary sexual content. Great movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: very creepy!
Review: this is a classic ghost story film. it's english-from the 70's the basic plot is.....hell house is a large old country house in the english countryside. it once belonged to an insane perverted millionaire named belasco. it's reputed to be haunted and last time an expedition entered only one person walked out alive. now a new group of people-a scientist,his wife and 2 mediums,one of which was the sole survivor of the previous expedition must enter the house and try to discover the root of the evil. this film doesn't give much in the way of gore but instead manages to conjure up an incredibly creepy atmosphere with a genuine sense of dread due to the excellent direction and acting. watch this in the dark and it will scare you witless-very much in the same way the woman in black and the original version of the haunting did. buy it now and treat yourself to a proper horror film!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hell House is one of the all-time best haunted houses
Review: "The Legend of Hell House" presents one of the best cinematic encounters between science and the supernatural, which should not be surprising given the script is by Richard Matheson based on his novel. The "Hell House" is the Belasco Mansion, whose owner was a sadistic cult leader whose disciples killed a couple of dozen people in the 1920s. In the present an eccentric millionaire hires a team of investigators to spend a week in the mansion to prove scientifically that there is something after death. Leading the little band is Dr. Curtis Barrett (Clive Revill), the unbeliever who is sure he will find rational explanations for everything. Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) is a medium, who believes the ghost of Emeric Belasco is controlling several spirits in the house. Rounding out the group are Barrett's wife Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt) and another medium, Ben Fisher (Roddy McDowall), the only survivor of the last investigation of the Hell House. The house eagerly seeks out its next set of victims: Barrett has to contend with poltergeist attacks, Ann is sleepwalking, and Florence makes contact with something claiming to be Emeric's son. As the attacks escalate, Barrett constructs a machine designed to bring peace to the house, but the laws of physics mean little to those who are already dead.

The obvious comparison is between "The Legend of Hell House" and "The Haunting" (based on Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House"). My avowed preference is for Matheson's work, where the ghosts are much more than psychological constructs of tortured souls, as much fun as that obviously can be, although certainly "The Legend of Hell House" does not engage in the extreme images presented either in the original novel or by another film released in 1973, "The Exorcist." However, this movie also features excellent ensemble acting, with Pamela Fisher (who played young Flora in "The Innocents" a decade earlier), particularly note worthy as the focal point of the house's attacks. This film is one of the best haunted house movies that can still disturb audiences who are willing to let the greatest horrors be those they create in their own minds.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hell House is a truly frightening film
Review: The Legend of Hell House succeeds where the book by Richard Matheson ultimately fails. Roddy McDowall and the rest of the cast deliver great performances in this sinister tale involving a scientist (and unbeliever) trying to cleanse an infamous haunted mansion. The film is greatly frightening because you, the viewer, get to draw your own conclusions (and use your imagination) rather than have everything spelled out for you. Yes, the ending is ambiguous (it is much clearer in the book) but watch it again and you'll start to comprehend the intracies of the spooky thrillfest that is Hell house.


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