The first thing you might notice when comparing to the source novel to the film, is that the film transplants the action of the novel from America over to Great Britain. But just like in the book, we open not in Hell House but in the palatial home of eccentric millionaire Rudolph Deutsche (Roland Culver). Terminally ill, he offers to pay Dr. Lionel Barret $100,000 if he can prove the existence of life after death. Barret (Clive Revill) is a physicist and parapsychologist whose spent the last twenty years debunking the paranormal, and Deutsche wants him to lead an expedition into the infamous Belasco House, thinking the answer he wants can be found there.

Barret can't believe the offer. He thought "Hell House" had been sealed up since "the incident" twenty years ago. (His inflection on "the incident" tells us that whatever it was, it wasn't very nice.) But the Belasco family needs the money, Deutsche is happy to pay, and he wants the answer before he dies. 

Also on the team will be Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin), a spiritual medium, and Ben Fischer (Roddy McDowell), a physical and mental medium -- and the only survivor of the aforementioned "incident." It turns out that twenty years ago, during the last investigation into Hell House, Fischer barely got out alive while all the others met their death, disfigurement, or were driven completely insane by whatever lurks inside those walls. The team is rounded out by Barret's wife, Ann (Gayle Honeycutt), and only because he can't talk her out of coming along. Despite the danger, she wants to be with him when he proves his new theory. Besides, they don't believe in haunted houses -- even the "Mt Everest of haunted houses."

Deutsche only gives them a week because his time is short. Barret makes arrangements with the old man's people to finish building a machine of his design that he claims will solve the problem of Hell House. He's promised that the machine will be completed and delivered to the house in two days. With that settled, Deutsche has them driven and delivered to the Belasco house in his limousine. Along the way, they pick up Fischer at the train station and Tanner at her church. The soundtrack turns more sinister as the road is engulfed in a fog. When the car comes to a halt, the four get out, enter thru the main gate, and make their way toward the house. Ann notices that the windows are bricked up and the house is completely sealed off. Fischer says Belasco did that from the inside to keep people looking in or out. Tanner is already overcome by the house's evil presence, but Barrett scoffs that they haven't even gotten inside yet. Fischer can't believe Barret's incredulous attitude towards Hell House. Doesn't he realize the true danger? He constantly reminds everyone that "this house tried to kill me and it almost succeeded." 

After they get the generator going and the lights on, Fischer gives them the nickel tour -- highlighted with tales of how the last investigative team met their gruesome demise. He eventually leads them to the chapel: a profane place with blasphemous pictures on the walls -- topped of with a giant *ahem* erotic crucifix hanging over the altar. The room gives off such a vile vibe that Tanner cannot even enter it. She is overcome with the sound of wailing voices and retreats. Ann asks Barret why Fischer isn't affected. He replies that his psychic defenses must be stronger than hers.

Later, they all regroup in the dining hall where Fischer gives us a history lesson on Emeric Belasco and his accursed house. Belasco was born in 1879 and built the house in 1919. He was a "roaring giant" and "frightening visage" -- Fischer quotes from Belasco's wife's diary before she committed suicide. He was an evil man who partook in "drug addiction, alcoholism, sadism, bestiality, mutilations, murder, vampirism, necrophilia, cannibalism and a number of sexual peculiarities." Fischer continues, saying no one really knows what happened to Belasco. He sealed the house up with his cronies and disciples trapped inside. Several years later, the house was broken into by relatives but everyone was dead. Twenty-seven in all, but Belasco's body was never found. Ann asks how did it all end. Fischer replies if it had ended, they wouldn't be here now. Barret assures him that's about to change.

Tanner suggests they get to work, and offers to do a sitting to try to channel the spirits of the house. She puts herself in a trance and mumbles something about a place of sickness. She claims there is a young man here who is trying to speak. She suddenly seizes up and a demonic voice channels through her, spitting venom at the others, ordering them "To get out before I kill you all." Several objects in the room start to vibrate and shake while Tanner is possessed. Barret is astounded -- Tanner is a mental medium and shouldn't be able to manifest any physical phenomenon. When Tanner comes out of her trance, she claims it wasn't her -- it was the spirits of the house. After that taxing manifestation, they all turn in for the night. While they sleep, an unseen presence makes it's way inside Tanner's bedroom. She tries to communicate with it, and makes a connection with the spirit of Daniel Belasco. Emeric's son is a mischievous spirit as it tosses the blankets at Tanner. She asks Daniel why he doesn't leave the house and move on, and the spirit responds by throwing a tantrum, tossing several objects around, and then slams the door on the way out.

The next morning, at breakfast, Tanner reveals her meeting with Daniel. She's believes that if they can convince him to "move on," the house's power will be lessoned, making their job a lot easier. Again, Barret doesn't put much credence to Tanner's notions or beliefs, and her frustration with him grows. He asks her to perform another sitting under strict scientific study. She agrees, just to prove him wrong. Attaching several sensors to Tanner, Barret monitors his equipment while she goes into a deep trance. His gauges record a drop in temperature and a rise in the electromagnetic fields, and ectoplasm oozes out of Tanner's fingers and starts to take shape. Barret manages to get a sample of it before something brushes past Ann, causing her to scream. Tanner's spell is broken and she suffers a tremendous psychic backlash. Ann apologizes for ruining the sitting, but Barret was more than satisfied with the results. The sample of ectoplasm he collected fits his theory perfectly. The bulk of it is living matter produced by the human mind. Back in Tanner's room, something waits for her under the covers. But when she pulls them back nothing is there. The spirit continues to tease her, but she's not playing tonight. So it throws another conniption fit and leaves.

That evening, as they gather for dinner, Tanner is finally fed up with Barret's smug attitude and accuses him of doubt and distrust. She goes on ranting, claiming all psychic phenomenon can be traced back to the bible and her power is gift from on High -- a prime example of "God's manifestation in man." When Barret tries to apologize, his coffee cup explodes in his hand. Then the room comes alive as everything not nailed down goes airborne, most of it drawing a bead on Barret. While Fischer and Tanner watch dumbfounded, the physicist barely dodges a falling chandelier, but takes the brunt of a large mirror crashing off the wall. Tanner yells for it to stop. And that's all it seems to take as the room quickly falls silent. Tanner turns a stink-eye on Fischer, thinking the house is using his powers against them and warns that he should leave. Ann helps Barret up, and he accuses Tanner of "Trying to get rid of both of us." Tanner denies any responsibility, but Fischer warns that she -- not he, should be the one to get the hell out of Hell House.

Back in their bedroom, Barret rips on Tanner for the attack and calls all mediums tricksters and charlatans. Ann asks, then how could she have done all that. According to Barret's theory, the house is a great power source of residual energy that Tanner was able to focus and direct toward him. Right on cue, Tanner enters and tries to apologize, saying it was Daniel trying to break up the team. The apology goes nowhere as Barret claims there is no such person. Tanner storms off, determined to prove him wrong. That night, the house switches targets and goes after Ann. While Barret sleeps, Ann watches the shadows of a statue cast on the wall having intercourse. She can't wake Barret before the shadow returns to normal. Unable to sleep, she fixes herself a drink and starts going through Belasco's library of dirty books. Later, Fischer finds Ann walking about under some kind of spell -- a horny spell. She wants Barret, Fischer and Tanner to have one massive orgy. Before Fischer can calm her down, she drops her robe, revealing her birthday suit. Fischer slaps her, snapping Ann out of it -- and she realizes she's naked. Quietly gathering up her robe, Fischer tells her she was just walking in her sleep.

Meanwhile, Tanner's search for Daniel leads her down into the cellar. Hearing voices that lead her to a brick wall, she manages to trip the release on a secret passage. When it opens, she cries out "I've found you." But her joy is short-lived as a malevolent wind knocks her back, causing her to scream. Her commotion brings the others running, and they find her outside the cellar. Claiming to have found Daniel, and that he attacked her, Tanner shows them two bloody claw marks on her chest. Fischer and Barret enter the cellar and spy the secret room. Inside, they find a skeleton chained to a wall. Fischer and Barret remove the body and bury it, while Tanner performs the funeral rites in hopes of releasing the tormented spirit.

That night, Tanner's dreams turn to nightmares. Daniel's spirit is still trapped inside the house and claims that the only way he can be released is if she makes love to him! When she refuses, a large black cat that's been lurking about since the beginning of the movie attacks Tanner. Torn to ribbons, Tanner retreats to the bathroom where the beast can't get at her. The next morning, Barret's machine arrives: a large doohickey covered in knobs and gauges. About to explain to Ann what it does, Fischer tells them Tanner's been attacked again. Fischer again encourages her to leave before it's too late, but Tanner feels communicating with Daniel is the key to breaking Hell House. Fischer isn't so sure and worries that Emeric might be up to some new trick. They laid Daniel to rest, so why isn't he at peace? Tanner offers that the house is a controlled multiple haunting with several spirits lorded over by one dominant spirit -- Emeric Belasco, whose "Like a general, never in a battle but always controlling it!"

Leaving Tanner to find the Barrets, Fischer finds only Ann -- and she's in a trance again. Feeling a bit randy, Ann claims this is where most of Belasco's debauchery took place and it's really turning her on. She offers herself to Fischer, but sees Barret spying on them from the top of the stairs. She screams and then faints. Blaming the house, her husband doesn't hold her responsible for her actions. Fischer warns that this wasn't the first incident, and to get her out before it's too late. The house has already gotten to Tanner and Ann, and they could be next. Barret then turns on Fischer, accusing him of wasting Deutsche's money. He knows Fischer has shut himself off, so he's completely worthless to the investigation. After Barret storms off, Fischer takes a seat. He steels his nerve and then slowly drops his mental guard, opening himself up to the house. And he is quickly overwhelmed, screams and drops to the floor in convulsions. After he's recovered, Fischer again tries to talk Tanner into leaving before it's too late. But she stubbornly says the house has nothing that they can't handle. That's a load of bull, Fischer says, and then recounts the tragedy that occurred twenty years ago: Lillian, a fellow psychic, threw herself off the balcony to her death. Dr. Graham crawled out of the house to die. Dr. Rand was paralyzed, and Finley was crippled and driven insane. He admits to shutting himself off from the house, and he will continue to do so until he is far, far away from Hell House -- and suggests she does the same.

Barret finally explains his theory to everyone that the house is like a giant battery of stored energy waiting to be channeled. And what his machine will do is -- brace yourselves, reverse the polarity on the stored electromagnetic radiation and drain the house of this residual energy, rendering it harmless. Fischer says he's crazy and calls it a pile of junk. And he warns whether it works or not, that Hell House will allow visitors and only attacks when provoked -- so don't provoke it, Einstein. Now why don't they all lay low like him and tell old Deutsche whatever he wants to hear, and then spend his money in good health if not good conscience. No sale.

Back in her room, Tanner is overcome by the voices again. This time, she finally relents and gives her body over to Daniel's spirit, hoping the love she gives will end his torment. The spirit then molests and rapes her while she screams for God's forgiveness. Hearing this outburst, the others burst in and find her alone and giggling, covered in more bloody scratches. Waking up, and sickened by what happened, she weeps, claiming the evil is inside her trying to take over. Tanner finally manages to assert herself and agrees to let Fischer take her away. They announce to the Barrets that they're leaving. Barret tells Fischer that he needn't come back either as he's about to fire up the machine and microwave Hell House clean. Tanner asks him to explain. Barret gladly does (you get the sense that this guy loves to hear himself talk.) He says the body produces an aura of electromagnetic radiation, and when we die, the aura sticks around. Tanner agrees, saying that this is the soul and we use that to get to heaven. Barret disagrees, it has nothing to do with the soul and is only energy, and with his machine, the energy will be siphoned off thus "destroying" Hell House. With that revelation, Tanner becomes possessed, seizes a fire poker and whacks away at the contraption. She knocks Fischer out before Barret can return the favor. Luckily, she smashed nothing vital and it will only require minor repairs. Barret also claims that this proves his theory about Tanner correct --  she tried to destroy his machine because it would disprove all of her beliefs.

While Fischer and Ann watch Barret fix the machine, Tanner wakes up and sneaks off. Finally entering the chapel, she is overcome by the wailing voices of torment. She presses on towards the altar, reaching out further with her powers, but the giant *ahem* erotic crucifix breaks away from the wall and impales her. Crushed, before she dies, Tanner realizes the real truth behind Hell House, and in her own blood scribbles a B inside a circle. Her death screams bring the others too late and they don't know what to make of her cryptic message.

Barret finishes fixing the machine and switches it on. As a steady hum grows louder, he orders everyone out of the house. While they wait outside, the hum continues to grow in intensity and we hear the wailing of the spirits inside as they try to seek shelter from the radiation pulse. When the machine completes its cycle, the three survivors return to the house. Once inside, Barret asks Fischer to open up and check the house. Fischer can't believe it -- he senses nothing. The house is clean. He calls Barret a genius and runs off to test the rest of the house. Barret tells Ann to go and pack while he gets some final readings from his equipment. All seems well -- until his equipment starts ticking. Barret watches in amazement -- then horror as the levels start going off the charts. The last words he can get out is "I do not accept this" before his sensors explode, peppering his face with shrapnel. Ann returns and finds the equipment in ruins, but no sign of her husband. She hears noises that lead her into the chapel where she finds Barret's body crushed under a chandelier. She screams and runs out, right into Fisher. He says the entire house is clean -- except for the chapel, and there is still an evil presence there. Ann begs Fischer to just leave with her, but he gathers the strength to confront whatever is in the chapel -- for Tanner, for Barret, and for himself. When he enters the chapel, he is assaulted by the voices but makes it to the bodies of his fallen comrades. Here, he finally deciphers Tanner's message. She realized it too late, but she and Barret were both wrong -- sort of. It wasn't a multiple haunting, or residual energy, just one foul entity that was behind Hell House -- Emeric Belasco. 

Fischer probes further and sees a pattern emerging. His old colleagues were crippled before being killed or driven mad. The crucifix crushed Tanner's lower body, and the chandelier nearly severed Barret in two. Deducing it was all done to protect Belasco's secret and hidden shame, he challenges Belasco to try and destroy him. Ann pulls him away from another falling chandelier -- how many of those damn things are there? Fischer retaliates, asking why did you never leave this house? Why were you always hiding in the shadows? He kicks it up a notch, calling Belasco a sonofabitch and taunts his mother. Belasco keeps knocking Fischer back with a psychic blow, but each one is less powerful than the one before. Fischer relentlessly pushes on, and reveals that Emeric Belasco was no "roaring giant" at all. He was a dried up husk of a man not even five-foot tall. The house lets out one final scream, and then all is silent -- until the stained glass window behind the altar shatters. Behind it, they find a door. Fischer and Ann enter a secret room and find the preserved body of Emeric Belasco. Fischer claims that the truth lies somewhere in between Tanner and Barret's theories: Belasco was an evil spirit who refused to move on -- a man of incredible ego who even chopped his own legs off to wear prosthesis to give him a larger appearance. Fischer notices the walls of his tomb were lined with lead, and that's why Barret's machine had no effect on him in here. And he would have remained in her, protected for all eternity, if they hadn't discovered the real truth.

Fischer escorts Ann out of the chapel. He comforts her, saying he never would have beaten Belasco without her husband's machine weakening him first. Turning Barrets machine on again, this time there is nowhere for Belasco to hide. As it starts to hum, they quietly leave Hell House for the last time.

The End

Richard Matheson detests genre labels. He's not a horror writer, or a science fiction writer, just a writer -- plain and simple. His motto is "A good story is a good story" and why categorize it beyond that?

According to all my research, I don't think Matheson was ever truly happy with any big screen adaptations of his novels. His first crack at a screen play was for his novel The Shrinking Man -- only because he wouldn't sign the rights over to Universal unless they let him write the screenplay. They accepted the screenplay, but tinkered and changed a few things. Matheson was okay with that, but you get a sense that it bugged him.

Matheson had his foot in the door in Hollywood and went on to write scripts for television series -- most notably The Twilight Zone, including one of my all time faves The Horror at 20,000 Feet with William Tiberius Shatner wigging out because something's on the wing! Aside from his novels, Matheson's biggest claim to fame is probably his collaboration with Roger Corman and AIP on a series of loose -- and I mean loose adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe. Corman gets a lion's share of credit on those pictures, but Matheson's macabre (The Pit and the Pendulum) and later hilarious (The Comedy of Terrors) scripts are why we're really still talking about those movies today -- and a tip of the cap to the great Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre as well.

In the '70s, he teamed up with Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows) and created The Night Stalker and a couple of outstanding TV movies, including Spielberg's Duel, and a version of Dracula starring Jack Palance, of all people, as the Count that more people really need to see. He even wrote the screenplay for Jaws 3-D. His novels and stories translate fairly well to either screen. I Am Legend made it twice as The Last Man on Earth and the Heston's tour de crap The Omega Man. More recently What Dreams May Come and Stir of Echoes have made it to the big screen.

Matheson did adapt most of his novels into screenplays, and that is the case for Legend of Hell House. He was saddled with simplifying the story and turned the secret of Emeric Belasco into a kind of puzzle. He also had to tone down the carnage and erotic nature of the novel, and rework the gruesome demise of Dr. Barret. Director John Hough keeps things tight and moving right along. I really like his strange angles when people are alone that gives you a sense that something is watching them. The special effects are first rate with a special nod for the poltergeist attack, and the end, when Fischer is taking the multiple psychic hits to the stomach. The only time the film breaks down is when the cat attacks Tanner. It tries real hard, but the cat's stuffed origins in several cuts tends to break the old S.O.D.

I don't think the cast could've been any better. Franklin brings a real naiveté to Tanner that makes her transformation at the end startling. Matheson didn't like Revill, but I thought he did fine as the boorish Barret. And I love Roddy McDowell, and when you watch him in this movie as he projects with his eyes, you can almost "see" the powers of his mind go to work, either probing or putting up a barrier.

For the most part, the adaptation does the book justice. The book and the film come under way too much fire and comparison to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Robert Wise's film adaptation The Haunting. To each his own I guess. I personally enjoy both franchises for very different reasons. Subtle and implied horror is more creepy as far as I'm concerned, but as Stephen King says "Sometimes you gotta feed the gators" and see what's lurking in the shadows.

What I did find hilarious, though, while watching the current remake of The Haunting, was when I realized that the creators had their source materials all confused. As the old Recess Peanut Butter Cup commercials used to go -- You got you're Haunting in my Hell House! No! You've got you're Hell House in my Haunting, resulting in one of the most unintentionally hilarious movies of 1999.

Posted: 05/11/03. Copy and paste at your own legal risk.

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