The Legend of Hell House
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Movie Reviews of The Legend of Hell House
Movie Review: "Welcome to my house . . . The answer is here, I promise you."
Summary: 4 Stars
On the back of Richard Matheson's novel, there is the following quote from Stephen King: "Hell House is the scariest haunted house novel ever written. It looms over the rest like the way the mountains looms over the foothills." Yeah, I agree. This novel is very scary and well-done. As a matter of fact, Matheson came up with an unbelievably clever and well-thought out backstory and "solution" to exactly what is behind the haunting of Hell House. Unfortunately for me, I saw the movie version on TV as a small kid during the seventies so I never got to read the book first without knowing the secret, or the solution, to the haunting of Hell House. So read the book first before you see this movie, if possible. (By the way, this solution to Hell House was used in part by Stephen King in his novel 'Salem's Lot to explain the power of the Marsten House. Check out that book too.)
Now the movie. I think I remember Matheson saying that his novel Hell House was very much influenced by Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. And you see the same premise: there is a legendary haunted house and four people end up going to investigate it. However, Matheson's novel is much more sinister because we are told how the last two previous attempts to investigate Hell House--"the Mount Everest of haunted houses"--ended in deaths and serious permanent injuries for virtually all involved.
Richard Matheson said he wasn't totally satisfied about how this movie turned out. This is ironic because it was him who also wrote the screenplay adaptation for this movie. (As you might know, in addition to his works of prose, Matheson made a name for himself and supported himself by writing tons of screenplays for TV and the big screen.) Matheson was disappointed that he had to tone down the sexual content of his book. In this movie, the sexual content is toned down, or is implied, but I don't think it has any effect on the quality of the movie.
For the most part, Matheson's script adaptation of his own novel is pretty good. Indeed, I just watched the movie yet again and I thought that one particular scene involving the character of Florence made more sense in how it was portrayed in the movie than how it happened in the novel. However, Matheson did make a huge mistake in how he handled the backstory of Hell House in the movie. In the book, he has Ben Fischer give an account of how Belasco lived in his life in his mansion. However, in the movie, Fischer gives a rather skimpy account of what happened. They could have had Fischer recount what was said in the book virtually verbatim and it wouldn't have really added to the length of the movie that much. And including this information in the movie would have made the movie even scarier because it explains why the house has such a well-deserved infamous reputation that makes the scientist Barrett call it "the Mount Everest of haunted houses".
I thought the casting for this movie was excellent-so much so that whenever I read the novel, I imagine the actors in the movie when I recreate the novel in my mind. The setting for the book was originally in Maine with American characters, but for the movie they changed the setting to somewhere in Britain, and they employed all British actors, with the absolutely stunning Gayle Hunnicut, a native born Texan, being the lone American. However, Hunnicut does such a great British accent that you'd never guess she wasn't British. However, I would argue that changing the movie's setting to Britain made sense since-and I'm really not trying to be a wiseguy, especially since I love the novel so much-Matheson had his American characters in his novel at times speaking like they were British! In any case, the beautiful Pamela Franklin as Florence Tanner, Roddy McDowall as Benjamin Franklin Fischer, and Clive Revill as Dr. Lionel Barrett all do great jobs portraying their respective characters. They portrayed their characters just as I imagined them while reading the book. By the way, look for Michael Gough to make a cool appearance. You might know him better as the actor who played Batman's butler in the 1989 movie.
Different people have commented on how it's obvious that there wasn't a huge budget for this movie. Yeah, I agree, but it doesn't really take away from the quality of the movie. When Barrett goes to talk to old man Deutsch at the beginning of the film, it looks like they shot this sequence at some sort of enormous museum in Britain rather than at an actual British mansion. I read that Matheson based Belasco's infamous mansion "Hell House" on the Hearst mansion in California. However, it looks like most of the scenes inside the house were shot on a sound stage, which meant that certain scenes could not be shot as described in the movie such as those that took place in the theater, or more importantly, in the pool and steam room, and the infamous 'Bastard Bog" tarn outside the mansion. They get around this by shooting these scenes in different locations, but after reading the novel, it's too bad that they couldn't have shot this movie at the actual Hearst Mansion or something comparable rather on a sound stage. I would love to see it get remade some day this way. It's too bad they couldn't have done so originally with this terrific cast.
By the way, in some ways this is a rather cheap DVD release. I mean, all they include in the extras section related to the movie is the original movie trailer. They could have at least interviewed the surviving actors and director for the DVD release. Also, the print of the film that they made the DVD copy off of has an obvious flaw in the picture and sound for the first few seconds. Sloppy, people! Really, really sloppy! It's too bad that they didn't get somebody who actually gave a damn who would have taken the time with this DVD release to have made it as good as it could have been in terms of extras, print and soundtrack quality, like they tend to do with other older movies. Apparently Matheson's movie Duel got better treatment when it was released on DVD.
All in all, this is a good adaptation of Matheson's great haunted house novel. At the very least, this is worth checking out if you enjoy intelligent horror. Four and a half stars.
Movie Review: Touch me...or I'll find somebody who will!
Summary: 5 Stars
A GREAT LITTLE HAUNTED HOUSE THRILLER THAT WAS PROBABLY RODDY'S BEST ACTING FEAT! GOOD AND CREEPY, BUT A LITTLE HARD TO UNDERSTAND, IT'S WELL WORTH SITTING THROUGH WITH POPCORN!Best scene....the snapping ectoplasmMovie Review: SO YOU WANT TO BE CREEPED OUT?
Summary: 5 Stars
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
Movie Review: Great Haunted House Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Forget special effects, this is a classic that did not need animation or Pixar special effects, the mood is set with the story, photography and music. This is THE best haunted house film I have seen, they surely do not make them like this anymore. Movie Review: "I don't know you people. Why are you here?"
Summary: 5 Stars
A chilling haunted house movie set in the "Mt. Everest" of Haunted Houses. Roddy McDowell is a psychic who the house once tried to destroy who is back again in Belasco House to face demons, both inner and outer. 4 Ghost Hunters inhabit a haunted house and find the truth about the evil that haunts the house. Very subtle and frightening. The atmosphere in this movie is unparelled. The only weakness to the story is the reason for the haunting, which is revealed at the end. The famous black cat attack has been parodied in Scary Movie 2 (juxtaposed with homages to Raging Bull and the Matrix.)