The Legend of Hell House (1973)

Physicist Lionel Barrett and his wife lead a team of mediums into the Belasco House, which is supposedly haunted by the victims of its late owner, a six-foot-five serial killer.

Director:

John Hough

Writers:

Richard Matheson (novel), Richard Matheson (screenplay)

Stars:

Roddy McDowall, Gayle Hunnicutt, Pamela Franklin

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Pamela Franklin	...	Florence Tanner
Roddy McDowall	...	Benjamin Franklin Fischer
Clive Revill	...	Dr. Lionel Barrett
Gayle Hunnicutt	...	Ann Barrett
Roland Culver	...	Mr. (Rudolph) Deutsch
Peter Bowles	...	Hanley

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

house | physicist | medium | visit | isolation | 

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Taglines:

For the sake of your sanity, pray it isn't true!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 June 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

La leyenda de la casa infernal

Filming Locations:

Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Academy Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The shot of the cat in the opening credits sequence (5 minutes/31 seconds) was later used for the Granada Night Time ident on the ITV network in the United Kingdom in 1988.

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Goofs

When Emeric Belasco's body was revealed, he had a glass of wine in his left hand. Emeric had been dead for over 20 years; yet the wine in the glass had not evaporated.

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Quotes

Benjamin Franklin Fischer: There is nothing in this house that we CAN handle.

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Connections

Referenced in The Shining (1980)

User Reviews

One of the best haunted house films ever!

Four psychic investigators (Roddy McDowall, Pamela Franklin, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt) are to spend a week in the Mount Everest of haunted houses to see if life does exist after death. They are given only a week and, in that time, have all the ghosts attack full force.

Next to the 1962 version of "The Haunting" this is the best haunted house flick ever made. It starts up and never stops. There's no humor and it's beautifully atmospheric. Also creepy sound effects and eerie music help keep up the mood and director John Hough shoots the film from weird angles keeping you off balance. Good performances help especially by Franklin and there's one harrowing sequence in which she "offers" herself to the spirits of the house. Not for the blood and guts crowd (this is PG rated). A very scary movie.

The book is much better and a LOT more graphic but there was no way they could have shot the book faithfully--it would have had an X rating! For instance when Franklin has sex with a ghost--in the movie she looks into the camera and screams. In the book she finds a rotting corpse forcing itself on her!

This seems to have disappeared off the radar--even the 2003 DVD release is pretty bad. The colors are faded, there's only a trailer as an extra and there was no big publicity campaign for it. Still you should seek it out if you haven't seen in--it's worth it. I give it a rare 10!