Review of The Legend of Hell House (1973) by Allan C — 23 May 2014

Terrific haunted house story from writer Richard Matheson! This is one of my favorite haunted house films. This film bears many similarities to my favorite, "The Haunting" but "The Legend of Hell House" is very much an original piece of work that stands on it's own.

Both films had a team of investigators with varied abilities investigating a notorious haunted house. Whereas "The Haunting" never made clear if there was an actual haunting or if it was simply in peoples' imagination, "The Legend of Hell House" makes it clear right away that there are unexplained phenomenon happening in this film.

What's in question here is whether it's the ghost of an Aleister Crowley-like figure and his followers or if the phenomenon happening in the house can be explained through science. Roddy McDowall steals the show as a psychic investigator who was the sole survivor of the last investigation many year's earlier when he was a hot shot 15 year old.

Pamela Franklin is also quite good as a brash young psychic who begins to believe she had made contact with one of the spirits, though the rest of the team is not so such she isn't being used by the house.

Tightly directed by John Hough, I'm really surprised that I didn't seem more great films on his IMDB filmography. "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" is a bit of a classic, but "Escape from Witch Mountain" and "The Howling IV" are pretty distant from the greatness of this film.

Hough crafts an incredible amount of suspense by crafting a great atmosphere and continuously tightening the screws on the audience. This one is a must see and it really makes me appreciate how films really can be scary without the bombast of most of today's haunted house films, like "Insidious" which was actually pretty subtle compared to most.

This one is a must see for horror fans.