Legend of Hell House

 

 

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When it comes to horror movies, less is more -- the less you show, the more scares you have. And "The Legend of Hell House" is an excellent example of that, with the scares being filtered through eerie acting, weird poultergeisty occurrences, and horrible tales of the past. The downside: it all falls apart (literally) at the ending.

A weird old millionaire hires physicist Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) to prove the existence of life after death, by sending him to "the one place where it has yet to be refuted" (which doesn't make logical sense since you cannot confirm or deny that, but who watches horror for logic?).

The place in question is the Belasco House, once owned by a vast sadistic pervert who had orgies and massacres and so on at the house. Along with his wife Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt), Barrett brings mental medium Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) and physical medium Ben Fischer (Roddy McDowall), but he's convinced that he can use a machine to flush the negative electromagnetic energy out of the house.

Of course, it's not that easy -- Florence becomes close to the erratic ghost of the owner's dead son, while Fischer is struggling with memories of a ghastly expedition to the same house that he barely survived. Possessions, attacks and sinister secrets all come to the surface, and not all of them will come out alive.

"The Legend of Hell House" is creepy. Very creepy. Lots of slow-moving, eerie scenes that are propelled mainly by atmosphere and the actors, and punctuated with shrieks and the occasional spurt of violence (Florence gets attacked by a possessed cat). It unwinds slowly with hints and clues about what's going on, and slowly building up to some shocking twists.

Additionally, the actors are magnificent. Revill is excellent as a stuffy, rather rude guy who thinks that the mediums are superstitious losers, and Hunnicutt has a few good scenes as a "wanton sleepwalker." But the best performances are by Franklin as a naive, religious young girl, and McDowell as a man tortured by the past.

So what goes wrong with this movie? Well, it comes unraveled in the last few scenes. Suddenly Roddy McDowall is yelling and posing and getting blown around. And of course, the Big Revelation is... less than bone-chilling. You're more likely to just go, "What, that was the twist?"

"The Legend of Hell House" is a haunting, eerie movie that centers on four excellent actors, but the tension and creepiness basically disintegrate at the end. However, it's still a horror classic worth scaring yourself with.

What makes a good horror film? In my opinion it is three major things: The first is the atmosphere and style of the film, how it affects our mood and experience as we view it. The second is the development of strong characters that make the viewer care as to what happens to them in this horrific environment. Finally, the source of the terror has to be so frightening that it creates a foreboding dread in the viewer because the nature of its evil comes across as too realistic or possible within the context of the film.

The Legend of Hell House does a very good job in regard to these criteria. The atmosphere and style of the film is very good, offering the viewer a very foreboding haunted house that has a very grim history of sadistic evil. The characters in the film are interesting and diverse: the arrogant scientist and his devoted wife; the naive young woman who is a professional medium; and finally, the battle weary medium, played by Roddy McDowall in one of his better performances, who was the only survivor of the last group that attempted to explore the supernatural events at Hell House. Finally, you have an evil spirit that seems to have every vice and sinful disposition known to humanity, and the diabolical power to carry them out. Why this spirit would not be in Hell, rather than Hell House, only God knows.

The fate of two of the characters, the scientist and the young female medium, both brilliantly played by Clive Revill and Pamela Franklin respectively, is particularly interesting. The two characters that ended up meeting their doom at the will of this evil spirit were also the two characters that had the most noticeable weaknesses in character than made them so vulnerable. In the end, it was the arrogance of the scientist and the naïveté of the young woman medium that led to their doom. The film does a nice job of making the character and psychological development of these two characters within the context of the film the apex of what transpires in Hell House, and ultimately what makes the film work as an above average horror film.

I found the ending of the film somewhat disappointing, in a sense almost anti-climatic and rather banal, though I suppose one could argue that the downfall of the evil spirit was the sin of pride. Nevertheless, a fine horror film that can be enjoyed by any fan of the genre.

This film is a classic in every sense of the word. It has every element of supernatural and even some psychological horror. It has the spooky house, and a superb cast of characters. It is extrenmely well-written, and the direction and cinematography are truly excellent.

This film marked one of the late Roddy McDowall's best screen performances, and I'm not the only one who says that. It was even mentioned by several members of the Motion Picture Academy at memorials after his death a few years ago.

If you are looking for a genuinely good fright movie, you cannot go wrong with this film. It is required for any good horror movie collection.

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3.0 out of 5 stars DUMB ending!
Great movie, actually AMAZINGLY good, until you reach then end, then it gets really dumb as some movies did in the 60's and early 70's.

Published on May 29 2004 by C. Ream

4.0 out of 5 stars A neglected gem for horror fans to rediscover
Unfairly neglected by audiences in the wake of that same year's cultural juggernaut that was The Exorcist, The Legend of Hell House has since recovered a deserved place as one of... Read more

Published on April 6 2004 by P. I. Johnson

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent spooky movie
I just watched this movie on the heels of "The Haunting" (1963) and it's far superior. It really isn't all that scary (I am a hard scare), but definitely more spooky and enticing... Read more

Published on Feb 20 2004 by moonlighteye

5.0 out of 5 stars Rip-roaring good time
They don't make good movies like this anymore. During the late 60's and 70's, occult-laced, supernatural entertainment was a staple of the industry. Read more

Published on Dec 30 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars good
I liked this movie better that Hill house. Even though they are kind of alike they really aren't. This one is better. And the story is really different. Read more

Published on Nov 13 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Clunky but Spooky Fun
Despite the editing flaws and some hokey camera work, this film is infinitely superior to the 1963 thriller "The Haunting", which seems to be accorded undue accolades... Read more

Published on Nov 12 2003 by C. Seggelin

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but Memorable
All roads lead to Rome--or in the case of haunted house stories to Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. Read more

Published on Nov 2 2003 by Gary F. Taylor

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better haunted house movies.
Made in 1973, this movie still packs a few frights and the story is quite good. Basically this is writer Richard Mathesons take on Shirley Jacksons "The Haunting of Hill House"... Read more

Published on Oct 23 2003 by OverTheMoon

2.0 out of 5 stars not scary enough
This had the makings of a real classic. It was a pity the way it turned out. There were times I actually laughed at this. Read more

Published on Oct 5 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars good, but not as good as the book
The book goes into way more detail about everything and needs to be read before you see the movie. The movie is good and the house is spooky, but it lacks the depth that the book... Read more

Published on April 20 2003

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