Editorial Reviews

When people refer to “good old haunted house movies”, this is precisely the type of film they’re talking about. Probably sixth or seventh on the list of best haunted-house flicks is The Legend of Hell House. You don’t get much more basic than this one, folks: four full-grown and seemingly sane adults end up spending a week in the most horrifying mansion you can imagine. Common household items move on their own accord; the lights start to dim; and the guests are repeatedly left to wander about all by themselves.

As is often the case in this sort of movie, the reason for the visit is ‘science.’ Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) is a physicist who is offered a massive amount of money if he can spend one week in the abandoned Belasco Mansion and bring back some evidence of life after death. Lionel unwisely opts to bring along his lovely wife, Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt). Also along for the trip are two mediums, one is a sweet young lady named Tanner (Pamela Franklin), and the other is a wacky freak. The quartet ignores the news that Belasco Mansion has already claimed the lives of its last eight visitors. Off they go.

What works best in The Legend of Hell House is director John Hough’s depiction of the house’s interiors. Every room is moodily lit and characters often take to wandering into pitch-black areas. The director lets the tension build… only to provide very little payoff. The movie has several entertaining scenes of dining room tables dancing and flatware flying about, but the overall pace of The Legend of Hell House is as deadly as the ghosts onscreen.

As the humourless scientist, Revill (Zorro, the Gay Blade) is suitably bland and blustery, while Hunnicutt (Target) is solid and even gets all sexy a couple of times. (Again, it’s the house doing it.) As Fischer, the one survivor from a previous visit to Belasco, Roddy McDowall is… well, he’s Roddy McDowall – quiet and mellow one minute, raving and frothing the next. Franklin (The Food of the Gods) plays the sensitive and intelligent young psychic – who easily gets the most physical punishment. Her best scene involves a ridiculously violent black cat, and was parodied in Scary Movie 2.

Legendary author Richard Matheson (Stir of Echoes, The Incredible Shrinking Man) adapted the screenplay from his novel “Hell House,” and despite a truly creepy setting and a handful of good jolts, this one creeps along too slowly with not much happening in between the chatter scenes. The script includes too many exposition scenes and discussions of scientific mumbo-jumbo that attempt to explain the ghost’s existence. Unfortunately, all these talky scenes stand in the way of the ghosts actually doing all that much.

While not on par with haunted house classics like The Haunting (1963), The House on Haunted Hill (1958), The Changeling or Poltergeist, this one is at least worth a look for fans of British horror flicks.

Plot Summary

• Tagline: For the sake of your sanity, pray it isn't true!
• Plot Synopsis: A team consisting of a physicist, his wife, a young female psychic and the only survivor of the previous visit are sent to the notorious Hell House to prove/disprove survival after death. Previous visitors have either been killed or gone mad, and it is up to the team to survive a full week in isolation, and solve the mystery of the Hell House.

Product Details

• Actors: Peter Bowles, Roland Culver, Pamela Franklin, Michael Gough, Gayle Hunnicutt
• Directors: John Hough
• Format: Color, Dolby, Letterbox, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 4.0), English (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono), French (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Disc Origin: Region 1 (USA) Original
• Region: All
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Letterbox)
• Number of discs: 1 (1 x DVD9)
• Rating: PG
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: September 4, 2001
• Run Time: 95 minutes