Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Legend of Hell House Blu-ray Movie Review

The road to Hell House is paved.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 23, 2014

The dialectic between rationalists—skeptics who aren’t about to jump at things that go bump in the night, and supernaturalists—those who are all too ready to believe in some unseen force (or forces) guiding inexplicable events—has informed many a horror film, and in fact two recent Blu-ray releases, The Quiet Ones and Oculus, exploited that very interaction. I made the point in my reviews of both of those films that I felt things might have been better had the filmmakers taken an at least somewhat ambiguous approach toward what they were portraying, leaving a question in the viewers’ minds as to whether or not true paranormal phenomena were being manifested. That very ambiguity was mined quite successfully in a film which can be seen as something of a forerunner of The Legend of Hell House, 1963’s Robert Wise adaptation of a great little Shirley Jackson chiller, The Haunting. Both The Haunting and The Legend of Hell House posit a team of researchers, including both scientists and psychics, investigating a home with a history and, just perhaps, ghosts. But where The Haunting merely hints, The Legend of Hell House out and out depicts. But you know what? When taken on its own terms, The Legend of Hell House is actually a rather enjoyable thriller, with a number of neat scares and an overall mood of oppression and angst that’s almost palpable at times. Which only goes to prove (and please don’t let anyone know I told you this) — critics’ opinions about what tends to work and not work can be easily disproven by individual examples like this. Now, films that leave no doubt in the viewer’s mind about what happened can often seem flat and uninteresting (case in point, the 1999 remake of The Haunting), but The Legend of Hell House really only pretends to be interested in the age old debate between religion and science. This is for all intents and purposes a good, old fashioned haunted house story, and on that level it works rather well most of the time.

A nattily dressed man and woman are waiting in the immense vestibule of some insanely large mansion, when the man, Dr. Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) is summarily summoned into a meeting with the estate’s owner, a semi-crazed elderly man named Mr. Deutsch (Roland Culver). Deutsch is physically incapacitated and seems close to death, and he is more than a little interested to have proof of an afterlife. He offers Barrett an immense amount of money to provide him an answer within one week, an answer Deutsch feels certain can be found at what Barrett tells his wife is the “Mount Everest of haunted houses”, a Gothic monstrosity which once belonged to a mass murderer named Belasco (is this original novelist and screenwriter Richard Matheson’s inside joke about actors, perhaps?).

At Belasco House, Barrett is joined by his emotionally withdrawn wife, Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt), against the better judgment of Barrett himself. There’s also a so-called mental medium named Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin), and another medium, albeit of the physical variety, a man named Fischer (Roddy McDowall). Fischer comes with a bit of psychological baggage, as he was a previous visitor to Belasco House and witnessed some of the carnage there. He is firmly convinced the house has a spirit of its own, a very malevolent spirit and one which tried unsuccessfully to kill him years ago.

Virtually within moments of this quartet’s entry into Belasco House, The Legend of Hell House lays all of its cards on the table (and/or the bed, as the case may be), when Florence is accosted by some kind of invisible force in her bedroom. It’s explicitly shown that something supernatural is going on, for objects move, including Florence’s blankets being tossed off of her bed and right onto her head. Florence comes to the conclusion that the poltergeist is Daniel Belasco, son of the murderer Emeric Belasco, and a spirit perhaps acting out because he can’t escape the confines of the house where he was killed.

Barrett continues giving lip service to rational explanations, but even he seems to realize something odd is going on. He has a huge machine assembled which he hopes can rid the mansion of its spectral entities, but a number of bizarre occurrences seem to be playing on the various psychological weaknesses of various characters. Florence is obsessed by the idea that Daniel Belasco is a wounded soul lashing out in frustration, while Ann Barrett’s unhappy married life begins to manifest in a number of supposedly shocking scenes of exhibitionism with other characters, including Fischer. Fischer has seemingly shut himself off from all outside influence, in the “once bitten, twice shy” category. But ultimately even his facade crumbles under the weight of the house’s psychic energy.

There’s a kind of lascivious aspect running through quite a bit of The Legend of Hell House, as if the spirit is actually “spirits”, i.e., alcohol, leading to a number of questionable behaviors on the part of at least a couple of the participants. Director John Hough had an incredibly varied filmography that included everything from Dirty Mary Crazy Larry to two Disney films, Return to Witch Mountain and The Watcher in the Woods. Hough nicely creates a claustrophobic atmosphere where the stifling aspects are suddenly burst by the raging Ids of various characters. The whole “MacGuffin” of the quest Deutsch set these explorers on becomes almost a sidebar as soon as it’s evident that there is some kind of life after death, and that whatever is reaching out and touching folks from the other side is rather nasty about it. Rather incredibly, this time a near total lack of ambiguity actually helps this film maintain a nice aura of spookiness.

The Legend of Hell House Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Legend of Hell House is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory (an imprint of Shout! Factory) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. In terms of damage, the elements here are in quite good condition. Unfortunately, a bit of fade and browning is evident from the 20th Century Fox logo onward, with yellows looking a bit dirty and reds looking rust colored. That said, colors are very nicely saturated if not completely accurate looking. Hough employs a number of extreme close-ups throughout the film, and fine detail is rather surprisingly strong in these moments (I've included several representative screenshots with this review). A lot of The Legend of Hell House looks soft, something that's exacerbated by soft focus and diffusion filters in some scenes. Shadow detail is negligible in some scenes, but blacks are quite convincing. Grain is quite thick at times but natural looking. Once again there's a smattering of noise in some of the darker sequences.

The Legend of Hell House Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Legend of Hell House is notable for its rather interesting electronic music score by Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, and it sounds nicely vibrant on the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track included on this release. Dialogue is also very cleanly presented. There are no issues to report, and fidelity is very good to excellent throughout.

The Legend of Hell House Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 2:28)


• The Story of Hell House: An Interview with Director John Hough (1080p; 28:19) is a really interesting sit down with the director, who gets into everything from the locations utilized to some of the practical special effects in the film.


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 2:50)


• Radio Spots (2:00) suffer from a bit of distortion.


• Audio Commentary with Actress Pamela Franklin. Franklin doesn't actually start commenting until she makes her entrance in the film at around the five minute mark, so you need to be patient. Franklin is quite enjoyable to listen to as she drifts through a series of reminiscences of the shoot, working with a stand-offish Roddy McDowall, and some of her other film work, like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. This seems to have been cobbled together from an audio interview (and in fact the back cover of this release lists an audio interview with Franklin rather than a commentary).

The Legend of Hell House Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Legend of Hell House begins with one of my all time favorite text cards which reads:

Although the story of this film is fictitious, the events depicted involving psychic phenomena are not only very much within the bounds of possibility, but could well be true.

—Tom Corbett, Clairvoyant and Psychic Consultant to European Royalty

Since I never try to top Clairvoyants and Psychic Consultants to European Royalty, I'll merely add that it really doesn't matter whether or not things could "possibly" be true in The Legend of Hell House. Like any good ghost story, the proof is in the presentation, and with nice performances, moody production design and brisk direction, this film, while certainly derivative and occasionally even silly, is a lot of fun and has the requisite amount of chills. Technical merits here are generally very good, and the supplements are fine. Recommended.