The Legend Of Hell House [HD]

Very scary!
"The Legend of Hell House" freaked me out as a child. I could barely go to sleep after the first time I saw it on TV. Yet thereafter, everytime it came on, despite the fact that I was scared to death of this movie, I always tried to watch it (under a blanket cover, of course). It is probably one of the most frightening movies, haunted house or not, ever made. It relies on the bare minimal of special effects but rather gets its chills from the eerie cinematography and sound and the uniformly solid performances from the actors. The film has a deadly serious tone to it, which makes it all the more scary, unlike such modern junk like the new "Haunting" or the "Scream" series. In fact, I would consider this film the equal of the original "Haunting" and "The Changeling" in terms of haunted house movies.

The plot is this: a small group of people is hired by an eccentric millionaire to determine if there is indeed life after...

On the Short List of Best Haunted House Movies!
I'm very gratified, having read the other reviews of this film on Amazon.com, to see THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE getting its due. This is truly one of the best haunted house movies there is. Everyone is "right on" to place this with Robert Wise's THE HAUNTING and Clayton's THE INNOCENTS. Oddly, THE UNINVITED now tends to seem a bit dated while these other three films hold their impact well. For the modern jaded youth, HELL HOUSE has the added "advantage" of being a color film, though in style both INNOCENTS and HAUNTING are visually superior. HELL HOUSE may suffer by virtue of its budget, but not in much else. Richard Matheson's story (the novel IS very good) is mysterious and fascinating and perhaps more fully formed in some ways than that of THE HAUNTING.

The premises of HELL HOUSE and THE HAUNTING are similar enough to make one wonder about cross-pollenation, but the truth is that the stories and their handling are quite different. All 3 films...

A truly frightening movie. Puts most modern horror to shame.
One of those rare horror flicks that will actually scare the pants off you. I read the book years ago, and it somehow escaped me that this movie even existed. I bought it immediately when I saw that Matheson himself wrote the screenplay, and let me tell you, it all works. The actors really stepped up to the plate on this one and delivered a real bone-chilling performance. I find this doubly impressive given the low budget and economical use of special effects. bravo.

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