The Legend of Hell House: 03 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen!

When people think about British Horror movies, the most common association is that of Hammer Studios.  While Hammer was certainly a bench mark of the industry in England, there are a few stunning exceptions to their massive catalog made by outside studios.  Filled with a Gothic atmosphere of the clash between the normal and the paranormal, it is almost hard to believe that The Legend of Hell House is NOT a Hammer film, but it is precisely because it is not that makes it so arresting and, well, just good!

The story is adapted by Richard Matheson from his own source novel Hell House.  Matheson wrote a number of screenplays, including many of the Edgar Allan Poe scripts for Roger Corman in the 60s.  He even wrote the Devil Rides Out, which was produced by Hammer Studios.  Many of his novels and short stories have been adapted to film, often the screenplays being written by Matheson himself, Hell House, being a superb example.  The story is about a group of parapsychologists who are hired to investigate a haunted house, The Ballasco House, where on two separate occasions investigating parties had been killed, crippled, or severely disturbed.

From there the film leads us through a series of strange occurrences and events that put the characters at odds with each other, at odds with their beliefs, and at odds with themselves, making for an atmospheric slow burn towards a startling conclusion.  As I said before there's a sort of Hammeresque Gothic vibe to the film, in it's setting and design, but the film is distinctly not a Hammer film in that the characters are so convincingly real.  Credit for this must be handed to director John Hough and the actors, Roddy McDowall, Pamela Franklin, Clive Revill, and Gayle Hunnicutt.

Made in 1973, the film bares a few similarities and comparisons to The Haunting, also based on a novel, enough similarities that many people wrote it off as a rip-off when it was released, but Hell House takes a very serious approach to the ideas it presents and brings with it a strong unabashed sexuality and violence.  Ultimately, Hell House is about finding the truth midst an ocean of conjecture and it's paid off in the final scenes of the film. The film doesn't so much go for cheap jump scares as it uses a more suspenseful approach, but there are a number of sudden moments, including a scene where Pamela Franklin is attacked by a cat and another where a fireplace erupts forth in an attempt to char Clive Revill to a crisp.

A good film that sticks to it's plot, sometimes unrelentingly, and delivers plenty of mood along with it's scares.

4 skulls out of 5.