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Epicurus.com - The Legend of Hell House
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List Price: $9.98
Our Price: $7.99
Your Save: $ 1.99 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Starring: Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roland Culver
Directed By: John Hough
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0024543013846
Format: Color
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2001-09-04
Running Time: 95
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 1973-06-15
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: This film is legendary!
Comment: I have been wanting this movie for a long time. Pretty much top shelf entertainment of the evil house variety. Absolutely love it, haunting without the blood and guts.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Over-the-top and dated, but still fun
Comment: This is a movie that you'll either love or hate.
It's the usual story: A wealthy and aging eccentric wants a research team to prove the existence of life after death, or that ghosts are real, or something like that.
Four people enter the house. Not all of them survive.
The music and acting are often over the top. Some of the paranormal scenes are completely unrealistic. The pacing can be tedious and typical of its era.
So, why would you want to own a copy?
I watch it at least once a year, around Halloween. It always provides a gentle, "good scare," even to a ghost hunter.
In addition, there are compelling elements that accurately portray what goes on in a genuinely haunted house. You'll also see how stress -- plus evil and malicious energy -- can affect ghost hunters.
I especially like how this movie presents the very real likelihood that a spirit might be lying to investigators, even to astute and experienced psychics. No one is completely immune to that kind of deception. It's an aspect that many ghost TV shows overlook.
Ghost enthusiasts will want to own this movie. It's so inexpensive, it pays for itself in just one viewing.
Even if it's too dated and cheesy to take seriously, this is a great Halloween movie for a "good scare" or at least some laughs when the plot becomes ridiculous.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Haunted House Film Worth Seeing
Comment: Mr. Rudolph Deutsch has hired Lionel Barrett to investigate a haunted house. This isn't any normal haunted house though. It seems as though anyone who enters the house either leaves the house insane or winds up dead. In addition to Mr Barrett, his wife, Ann Barrett, a mental medium named Florence Tanner, and a physical medium who is also the only survivor of the last team of investigators to visit the house named Benjamin Fischer are all visiting Hell House to try and solve this phenomenon. $100,000 is theirs for the taking if they can do it within a week, but will they be able to survive what's caged inside Hell House? Emeric Belasco, a self-proclaimed genius ahead of his time, may have other plans.
The Legend of Hell House isn't your average horror film about paranormal activity. I'll be up front with you right now, I'm not a big fan of movies about ghosts. I'm just not. I've come across a few that were decent, but I didn't think they were anything special or I just wound up not liking them at all. I actually liked this a lot more than I thought I would. The film isn't heavy on blood, gore, or cheap scares. In fact, more often than not, the scares come from what you don't see rather than what you actually do.
The acting is definitely a strong point in the film. The entire cast has their moments of brilliance during the insanity Hell House is putting them through, but Roddy McDowall is the actor who stands out amonst the rest. His performance just seems to outshine everyone else and he steals just about every scene he's in. There's a scene in the film where he starts screaming and falls to the floor in a seizure like maneuver that reminded me a lot of some of the scenes with Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead. The explanation was that he was blocking himself off from the house since he had been there before. As a physical medium, he was basically putting up walls to defend himself from the house this time around. And in this scene, I guess he tried lowering his guard for a bit and...this happened. The speeches he gives though, his facial expressions and body language, and cold tone. It's weird, but a guy that you look at at the beginning of the film and say to yourself that you're going to hate him because he looks smarmy and only really cares about himself winds up being the highlight of the film.
Another aspect of the film I really enjoyed were the special effects of the film. There's no CGI or anything, but the effects in the film are done very well. There's a scene where Ms. Tanner looks into her bedroom and sees someone lying under the covers in her bed and when she lifts up the covers, you can't see anyone but the door opens and slams like someone was getting up and leaving. It was just done very well. The effects like that were done very well. There are a few that look cheesy(cat in the shower scene, anyone?), but overall they look very good given how old the film is.
The plot was surprising, as well. I wasn't expecting anything really original or anything, but the fact that science is involved so heavily in trying rid the house of its supernatural presence was not only interesting, but a breath of fresh air compared to other methods I would've expected based on other films.
I think it's safe to say that The Legend of Hell House is one of the best haunted house films ever made and the best one I've seen as of this review. It probably isn't the type of horror film for gorehounds or if you're looking for a bloodfest. It's more of a paranormal film with a slight psychological twist. The acting is top notch and the story is a bit more clever than you may give it credit for at first glance. I'd recommend it to just about anyone.
Rating: 7/10
Customer Rating:
Summary: I still cannot watch this movie alone!
Comment: The first time I saw this film, I was scared to death. The last time I saw this movie, I was scared to death! It may be vintage horror, but it is not your typical "haunted house" flick. It may not have all of those glitzy, Hollywood special effects, but it still manages to chill me to the bone. For good, old-fashioned horror movie fans, this is a MUST have!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Comment: A more visceral tale than Wise's adaption of THE HAUNTING, this big screen version of Richard Matheson's novel HELL HOUSE is still all these years later, one spooky film. A fine cast that includes Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roddy McDowell and Pamela Franklin, it comes really close to capturing the power of Matheson's book. Some chilling moments and a brief cameo by Michael Gough.
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