I've always been a sucker for a good ghost story, and The Legend of Hell House is certainly one of the more intriguing ones to me. Directed with in a subtly unnerving style by John Hough from a script by Richard Matheson (based on his own book), the film does a great job of crafting a story filled with slowly mounting dread and suspense.
The film opens with Dr. Lionel Barrett (played by Clive Revill) receiving an assignment to investigate the supposed haunting of an abandoned mansion, nicknamed Hell House with the objective to either prove or disprove the existence of spirits and see if it's possible to survive death. To complete this task he assembles a group of people including his wife Ann (played by Gayle Hunnicutt) and a pair of mediums, Florence Tanner (played by Pamela Franklin) and Ben Fischer (played by Roddy McDowall, giving a very good performance). Ben had previously investigated the house with another team and knows it quite well, acting as a guide as well for the week the team will be there investigating.
The film sets up an interesting dynamic between the skeptics and the true believers. The skeptics being Lionel and Ann, where as the two mediums are clearly the true believers. Lionel is convinced the haunting is caused by residual energy that has been stored within the framework of the house while Ben warns him something far more malicious is at work within the house and will defend itself violently if threatened. As their investigation goes on, the paranormal activity increases, showing off some pretty impressive special effects, that for the most part still stand up some 41 years later.
While the film does share some similar plot elements to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting and the film of the same name directed by Robert Wise (and yes, remade by Jan DeBont in 1999, lest we ever forget that CGI abomination), the execution is different between the two and I feel they both compliment each other nicely. Both are well made ghost stories and well worth checking out.
I have to give credit to John Hough with this film. Prior to the first time I saw this film, I was more familiar (unwittingly at first, I'll admit) with his work with Disney, namely the first two Witch Mountain films and The Watcher in the Woods (more on that one later). The way he frames his shots in the film are very unique and do a good job of making the audience feel unsettled, which is very effective in a movie like this. It's a good, classic scary movie and is well worth checking out. Conveniently, this one too is available on Netflix.
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