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[tab title="Movie Review"]

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Ah, the glory of the small-scale UK cinema. Full of tightly-wound tension and white-knuckled suspense, The Legend of Hell House is the quintessential haunted house for the ages. Screenwriter Richard Matheson adapts his own novel, appropriately titled “Hell House”, and presents audiences with a horror setting that is matched only by the original The Haunting and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Scream Factory has rescued the film from the vaults of forgotten fears and remastered the film for its blu-ray debut.

The things that go bump in the night seriously want to harm you. Mr. Deutsch (Roland Culver), an eccentric millionaire, wants to know why. He hires Physicist Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) to inspect the notorious Belasco House – alongside a team of mediums, Florence (Pamela Franklin) and Benjamin (Roddy McDowall) – and either confirm or debunk the stories of its intense haunting. One team, losing all but one member, has already failed. His offer of £100,000 is too tantalizing to refuse.

Unfortunately, the team is not prepared for what they encounter. You won’t be either. No one is to be trusted as the team goes about their professions to prove or disprove the haunting that has driven so many away from the “Mt. Everest of haunted houses”. The beginning stroll up to the house – dense with fog – is an atmospheric introduction that continues to bring me chills. As does the cat that prowls around in the background, just bidding its time until the perfect moment to mount its attack.

The one week deadline – with Christmas as its expiration date - is punctuated with on-screen titles (one of the first times dates have been used as a sort of countdown) helps to add to an already tense situation. Director John Hough and cinematographer Alan Hume brave the studio space and use a lot of different camera angles to amp up the hauntings. Whether through reflections or dizzying camera affects, together they create a film that continues to visually disturb with its active backgrounds and strong sense of depth.

The mental medium goes to work immediately and so does the sexuality – hinted at by the rich set direction suspended all around the team. Turns out the previous owner – the uber-bizarre Emeric Belasco – was a real sexually-charged nut. He still is and works his magic to get the women on the team under his control. Whether through possession or mind-altering moods, the tension created works to drive the team into a frenzy of bizarre behaviors or total obsessions. Do not sleep. Strange creatures are afoot. That seems to be Belasco’s challenge to all who enter his haunted tomb.

Still ripe with sexual undertones, The Legend of Hell House does not disappoint.

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[tab title="Film Details"]

MPAA Rating: PG.
Runtime: 95 mins
Director: Jouhn Hough
Writer: Richard Matheson
Cast: Roddy McDowall, Gayle Hunnicutt, Pamela Franklin
Genre: Horror | Mystery
Tagline: For the sake of your sanity, pray it isn't true!
Memorable Movie Quote: "Yes, I am. That is his second wife. She commited suicide in this room in 1927."
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Official Site:
Release Date: June 15, 1973
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: August 26, 2014
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.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - August 26, 2014
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)
Region Encoding: A

Released by Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, this 1.85:1 AVC encoded 1080p transfer is incredibly rich. The film is beautifully preserved with a bright contrast and deep blacks that don’t disappoint. You can really tell just how far they were pushing the set designer to create a dense feeling with the lighting of some scenes. Natural light seems to dominate. The transfer has a nice layer of film grain and just enough visible print damage to give the transfer a very film-like feel. The sound is presented in a fine DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that replicates the original sound elements nicely.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• One of the film’s best performances comes from Pamela Franklin. In this newly recorded commentary, Miss Franklin discusses her memory over the making of the film and the people involved behind the scenes. If you are looking for her to discuss much beyond her own role then look elsewhere, but what is revealed is more than worthy of at least one listen.

Special Features:

Extras on the disc include a commentary with the star of the film Pamela Franklin and a 28-minute interview with the director John Hough, who shares some thoughts on not only Hell House, but some of his other features as well. While he may be a bit full of himself, the interview is good for fans of the picture as his memory appears pretty solid.

The Story of Hell House: John Hough Interview (28 min)

Radio Spots (2 min)

Photo Gallery (3 min)

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