The Legend of Hell House
by John Hough
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DVD details
Actor: Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt, Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Roland CulverDirector: John Hough
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-09-04
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of The Legend of Hell House
DVD Review: A Spooky Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I love the horror genre, but have been so disappointed lately in the movie industry's attempt to up one another in how much gore and gratuitous sex they can get away with. Legend of Hell House is a good, spooky story that relies on great acting and a solid plot to bring a thrill and chill to those watching it. Lovers of true horror/ghost stories will throughly enjoy this movie! DVD Review: CLASSIC HORROR
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the kind of 'old school' frightfest that requires the viewer to fill in the blanks, unlike the splatter-fests that dominate the horror genre today. Whether or not this is as good as THE HAUNTING ( the original version ), THE CHANGELING, or THE INNOCENTS is something that has been debated by lovers of haunted house movies for decades ( and probably will continue to be debated for many more ). What is undeniable, however, is that it definitely bears favorable comparison to the aforementioned masterworks.
Hell House is a place where shadows slither, and move with sinister, sinuous intent, and things don't just go bump in the night. The malevolence that seethes, but never really slumbers in this brooding mansion is always waiting for fresh meat. Truly something to dream about....
DVD Review: The Legend of Hell House
Summary: 4 Stars
The Legend of Hell House is another legendary horror movie. (I only gave it 4 stars because I only give 1 movie 5 stars. See my other reviews!)
Roddy MacDowell gives a sterling performance as a gun-shy psychic. Pamela Franklin is maybe a little over the top with the wide-eyed horror, but no more so than Shelly Duvall in The Shining. (A horrible miscast, if ever there was one!)
As with the other great horror films, it's the director's use of atmosphere, lighting, and camera angles that do most of the scary work. There's some special effects here, but not enough to bore you with un-realism.
Really, if you ever loved Roddy in Fright Night, you've got to see him in this movie. This is one film that I stay up late to watch each and every Halloween night!
DVD Review: A creepy, scary, erotic thriller that still holds up.
Summary: 4 Stars
THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE(1973).
Wow, I had forgotten how good this one was. It had probably been at least 8 to 10 years since I had seen it and I remember it looking pale and grainy. This is a bare boned dvd but it has a beautiful cut in letterbox, it really looks good. Crisp, clear, beautiful photography, lush color.
I liked the understated almost bored tone of the acting, and then the sudden switch up when somthing creepy happens to one of the characters. It was a nice experience as I had forgotten the ending. So I was guessing all throughout the film.
Roddy McDowell gives a nice performance as a survivor of the Houses wrath, going back in for another round. Gayle Hunnicutt is absolutely stunning as the wife of the scientist hired to find out exactly what the secret of the house is. Her shocking and erotic brushes with the "House" are nicely done.
Pamela Franklin also has some rather intense scenes as the religious medium who has probably the most graphic confrontations with the horror behind the House. I didn't find this movie dated much at all, in fact, watching it late at night with all the lights out, I didn't take my eyes off it once. But it's a great haunted house/horror flick with genuine scares and dashes of the erotic.
There's a nice scene where Hunnicutt asks McDowell why there is such a horific presence in the house and McDowell gives a laundry list of horrors that has taken place in the house. Good confrontation at the end, interesting twists, some you see coming, some you don't and some that the movie gives clues to.
Very fun and scary film
DVD Review: A truly evil haunted house
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like watching haunted house movies where the scares are plentiful, a lot of the horror is psychological, and the special effects are non-CGI and still believable, then The Legend Of Hell House (1973) is your movie. The movie is based on Richard Matheson's novel "Hell House." The basic story is about four paranormal investigators who investigate Hell House, an old mansion that houses evil and mysterious things. A previous team of eight researchers once visited the house many years earlier and all but one person in the party perished. The movie stars Pamela Franklin (of "The Innocents" and "Satan's School For Girls" fame), Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, and Gayle Hunnicutt.
The movie wastes little time, as it has this team of investigators arriving at the mansion that they describe as "The Mount Everest of Haunted Houses" right at the beginning of the movie and the action never really lets up from that point on. There is a constant dose of haunted happenings throughout the movie, yet is never overdone. This movie is often compared to The Haunting (1963) because of the similarities in the plots. The Haunting is based on a novel as well (Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting Of Hill House") and also features a team of four paranormal investigators who investigate the haunted happenings inside Hill House in New England. I think the similarities start to erode away as The Legend Of Hell House progresses, and by the end of the movie you'll pretty much forget about the similarities to The Haunting. For one thing, The Haunting was filmed in black and white, whereas The Legend Of Hell House is in color. Black and white was perfect for The Haunting, but in my opinion color was perfect for The Legend Of Hell House. Also, two people die in The Legend Of Hell House, whereas in The Haunting, one person dies. Another thing -- in The Legend Of Hell House, the evilness of the house and its effect on the four people is more apparent and obvious. This is a movie that has a little bit of blood and some disturbing scenes. The haunts are more over the top and obvious compared to The Haunting. Check out the scene when they're eating at the dining room table. Perfect example. Also, the movie has a subtle hint of eroticism and sexuality at times. In addition, the movie's soundtrack is very unique. It's electronic music that is quite "out there" and very simple, yet very effective.
The acting is good in this movie. Hot and sexy Gayle Hunnicutt was perfectly cast as Ann. The scene where she's sleepwalking is a classic. Pamela Franklin ain't so bad either and was great as well. Roddy McDowall gives a great performance, especially at the end of the movie. Clive Revill's performance as the lead scientist is also great.
If you like older haunted house movies that rely on what you don't see more than on blood and guts and have no cheesy CGIs, then this haunted house movie will be right up your alley. This movie has an early '70s feel to it that is hard to describe. Highly recommended.
Description of The Legend of Hell House
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.Four people enter the Belasco Mansion, the so-called "Everest of haunted houses," hired by a dying millionaire to investigate the possibility of life after death. Physicist Clive Revill leads the quartet, which includes his wife Gayle Hunnicut and two mediums. Pamela Franklin, young and impulsive, immediately makes contact with what she perceives as a tortured spirit, while Roddy McDowall, the only survivor from the previous investigation 20 years ago, closes himself off completely, deathly afraid of the malevolent forces that crushed his former comrades in body and spirit. Science fiction and horror legend Richard Matheson, responsible for penning such horror classics as The Devil Rides Out and Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum, brings a literate sensibility and a refreshing seriousness to the haunted-house genre with this adaptation of his novel Hell House. Director John Hough follows Matheson's lead with a moody but sober approach, balancing the physical threats of objects lethally leaping to life with the slow, subtle possession of the characters by a truly evil spirit. Parts of the script feel like so much scientific mumbo jumbo, with characters discussing the finer points of supernatural manifestation and ectoplasmic activity, but Hough's deliberate direction gives it the necessary solemnity to take it all seriously. --Sean Axmaker
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