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From
his deathbed sensationalistic newspaper
tycoon Rolf Rudolph Deutsch wants proof of
the supernatural, ghosts, and most
importantly, what lies beyond death's door.
To do this before he croaks, the eccentric
millionaire hires three paranormal experts
to investigate the "Mount Everest of
haunted houses" to get him some
answers. This house in question is a dark
and foreboding place of dubious and
murderous reputation. Secluded in
backwater Maine, its surrounded by the
Bastard Bog and an eternal, nearly
impenetrable fog. Emeric Belasco -- it's
owner and architect, was the bastard son
of a Civil War munitions maker. A giant,
raging mad man known to partake in
"drug addiction, alcoholism, sadism,
bestiality, mutilations, murder,
vampirism, necrophilia, cannibalism"
and other unspeakable things in the house
that now bears his name.
In
the early 1900's, after his wife committed
suicide, Belasco sealed the house off from
the outside world, trapping himself and
his cronies and disciples inside. The
depravity that happened next can only be
left to the imagination. Eventually, the
house was broken into by relatives looking
for lost family members, but everyone had
come to a gruesome end. No one knows for
sure exactly how many people actually died
in Belasco House, but one death cannot be
confirmed because no one could ever find
the body of Emeric Belasco. But no one
could claim or occupy Belasco House for
very long, due to all the mysterious and
deadly phenomenon that occurred there. As
its reputation and body count grew, by the
'40s a group of professional paranormal
investigators -- including a famed psychic
whiz-kid named Ben Fischer, mounted an
expedition to study the house. Several
days later they found Fischer on the front
porch, comatose, naked, and in a fetal
position. Everyone else had met a violent
end inside the house. After that disaster,
the Belasco House had a new name: Hell
House.
Now,
in 1971, a new team has been organized by
Deutsch to tame Hell House: Dr. Lionel
Barret, a physicist and parapsychologist,
who will be accompanied (or
maybe that's encumbered)
by his emotionally dependent wife,
Edith; Florence Tanner, a spiritual medium;
And Fischer, the sole survivor of the
first expedition. They've been given one
week, and each will be paid $100,000 to
validate or debunk the secrets of Hell
House.
And
believe it or not, that's just the back
story and first few chapters. Quite the
titillating set up to a truly fascinating
book -- and this thing has barely gotten
warmed up yet.
Our
meager group faces danger both internal
and external. Conflicts arise as bitter
"professional differences" won't
allow them to agree on the nature of Hell
House, dividing them into two camps as the
possessed house starts to get it's hooks
into them both physically and mentally.
Barret
is a skeptic on the spiritual aspects of
the phenomenon. He believes in the
paranormal but only as a science. Good and
evil, souls, or the afterlife don't enter
into the equation. Barret theorizes the
house has a great deal of psychic energy
stored up and "in essence, the house
is a giant battery and the residual energy
of which must be tapped by all who enter
it." In other words, if you believe
the house is haunted then the
"residual energy" will manifest
itself that way. He also has a plan on how
to rid the house of this excess energy.
Tanner
is the polar opposite. She's the spiritual
leader of a religious sect and feels the
house is a controlled multiple haunting.
Supposedly there is more than one ghost
haunting Hell House, but Belasco keeps the
other spirits trapped here. Not allowing
them to pass on to either heaven -- or in
most cases hell. She is also mental medium
(telepathic
and empathetic) and intends to help
those pour souls move on to the other side
and give the house a cleansing.
Fischer,
on the other hand, is both a mental and
physical medium (telepathy
and telekinesis) but only intends
to put up a strong psychic barrier, wait
out the week, and collect his money.
Having nearly been killed here once
before, he has no intention of tangling
with Hell House again.
Things
hit the ground running as the initial séance
brings a warning by Belasco himself. Channeling
through Tanner, he warns to "Get
out of this house before I kill you
all." And then our story barrels to
the climax and bloody resolution. Whose
theory proves to be right? I won't spoil
it, but I will say that not everyone
survives.
*
* * *
What
I really like about Hell
House
-- and
all of Matheson's work for that matter, is
how he can explain things like psychic
phenomenon and Barrett's complex theories
so the layman can understand them. I
barely survived high school physics but
Barrett's intricate explanations on
ectoplasm, bio-energy and electro-magnetic
radiation made perfect sense to me. While
reading I kept hearing Dan Aykroyd's Dr.
Ray Stantz in Ghostbusters
voicing Dr. Barrett in my mind's ear.
Matheson
is also able to bring the reader a sense
of dread and foreboding with an economical
efficiency of words that a lot of writers
could learn from. One thing Matheson
isn't, is verbose. A lot is left to the
imagination. He handles action scenes in
the exact same way, keeping things nice
and taught as the reader burns through the
pages to see what happens next. Florence's
initial sitting and summoning of the
spirits, and later, during the poltergeist
attack in the dining room where everything
turns into a projectile is a prime example
of this.
And
if you'll allow me a brief interlude,
here, Matheson's efficiency is actually
displayed better in his book I
Am Legend.
With a few simple words and descriptions
he can make several months pass as Morgan
teaches himself the knowledge he needs to
fight off the vampire contagion. In Hell
House,
his characters are likeable, annoying,
heroic, sanctimonious, stubborn and a lot
more braver than they should be in some
situations. And also rightly frightened in
others. In other words, very human
considering the circumstances. The most
interesting character in the whole story,
however, is Belasco House itself. From the
moldy steam and pool room, to the dank
cellars, to the profane chapel, the house is
Belasco through all it's manifestations
and dirty deeds.
The
book is not without it's flaws, though. To
me, Matheson seems to enjoy tormenting and
degrading poor Florence Tanner a little
bit too much. He really stacks the deck
against her and runs her through the
ringer: Barrett accuses her of
manipulating the house's energy against
him; she is savagely attacked by spirits,
and always seems to be naked when this
happens; she becomes obsessed with the
spirit of Belasco's son, Eric. And I was a
little uneasy with the scene where she
tries to exorcise Eric's spirit by having
sex with it. Then again, he doesn't really
treat Edith all that better, either.
Again,
I won't spoil the ending, but it kind of
chickens out on whose theory is right. I
wasn't completely satisfied with it but
that could be due to a let down after such
a great build up. I have the same
reactions to a lot of good books I read.
There really isn't anything wrong with the
ending, I just don't want them to end.
Period. Hence the disappointment.
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