| Hell House by Richard Matheson |
| The Belasco house in Maine, which is the setting of Richard Matheson's Hell House, is described most often as the Mount Everest of haunted houses. The same could be said for the book itself. More often than any other story that comes to mind, this has the reputation of being the quintessential haunted house story. This is a legacy that is often rienforced by praise from some of the most high profile writers of our time, Stephen King and Dean Koontz to begin with. The novel has spawned a well received film adaptation (written for the screen by Matheson himself) and enough imitations and homages to secure its place as a landmark work of horror. Hell House has the reputation to later haunted house stories that Bram Stoker's Dracula has to later vampire stories. It seems that no matter how well executed a story comes off, it's relegated to being a foot note to Hell House. |
| Well, anyway, that's the sense that I got when approaching Hell House. It would be quite easy and almost expected for any story to crumble under the weight of such heavy anticipation. It is with a tremendous sigh of relief and unfaltering admiration to its creator that I say that Hell House is worth every bit of hype surrounding it. Matheson takes us right into the most haunted house ever known to man and wrings every drop of tension out of the brooding location. |
| The plot concerns four characters who all enter The Belasco House for a hefty sum of $100,000 and a chance to persure their own agenda. They're employed to do this by Mr. Rolf Rudolph Deutsch, a frail old man with a lot of cash and an intense curiosity about the afterlife. Mr Deutsch is knocking on death's door, and he really wants to know who's going to answer it. He wants answers, for better or worse, and he's willing to pay a lot for them. Enter Dr. Lionel Barrett, a physicist some scientific theories regarding psychic phenomena. Deutsch offers Dr. Barrett the money to produce the answers and bring facts to prove them in a week. Since he wants other avenues explored as well, he hires two notable psychics to accompany him into the house. Florence Tanner is a mental medium with ideas about putting eneasy spirits to rest with a some love and help from above. Benjamin Franklin Fischer was at one time thought to be the most powerful mental medium in the world...That is until he entered The Belasco House thirty years earlier. Also along for the ride is Dr. Barrett's wife Edith, who brings along her own burdens. |
| Of course the core of Hell House is the hauntings and history of The Belasco House, but what really sets this story in motion is what the characters bring to the table. Dr. Barrett has dedicated his life to the legitimate scientific study of paranormal events and is our resident strong willed skeptic. He has several brilliant theories at his side and a new machine that just may have what it takes to clear The Belasco House and prove that 'hauntings' may not really be all that they seem. Underneath the veneer of a dedicated wife, Edith decides that spending a week in the most haunted location in the world is less terrifying than spending a week alone. Edith has lived a life of repression that the house is eager to exploit. |
| While the Barrett's are busy taking care of the scientific end of things in The Belasco House, our two mediums are busy exploring other angles. Miss Tanner is determined to solve the mysteries of the house strictly through love and prayer. Regardless of the respect she has for his work, a natural tension mounts between her and Barrett as their views of the house clash on the most fundamental levels. Fischer enters the house with a little less bravado than Miss Tanner, and with good reason. He is the only person to come out of The Belasco House with both his life and his mind intact. He was part of a team of investigators when he was 15. Everyone else in his party either died or lost their minds before their time at the house was through. He was left a shell of a man, who would rather do anything than open his mind to such insanity again. |
| Matheson proves once again that he is a master of his craft. Everything in the story serves the purpose of advancing the characters and their plights, and just being downright scary. Hell House has a way about it that made me feel like a little kid again. It made the dark scary again. Every sound of the house settling or the furnace coming to life take on a new angle of uneasiness. Every episode is directed at one of the characters enough to advance the story, but taps into universal fears enough be a detriment to my sleeping habits. |
| The appeal to Hell House works on several levels. First and foremost, it's a scary story that holds its own 35 years later. Because this is a Matheson book, there is also plenty to chew on. The theories on hauntings are interesting and similar to Robert Neville's on the gouls in I Am Legend. Matheson's research and straightforward approach almost give this a true story type of feel, without being reduced to the silly shenanigans of The Amityville Horror. The additional characters give Matheson a chance to explore more perspectives without sacrifcing that intense feeling of isolation that gave I Am Legend so much of its power. |
| In this day and age of endless remakes and ripoffs, and increasingly disappointing genre fare, classics like Hell House are more appreciated than ever. A legendary novel, about a notorious house, Hell House delivers like few others. This is a staple of the genre that will be enjoyed for generations to come. One of the most well told and frightening ghost stories I have had the pleasure of experiencing. |
| The Belasco House was realized on the screen in 1973 in a well made film from John Hough, The Legend of Hell House. Some of the more explicit moments from the book were ommited for the PG rating, but that is not to say that the film doesn't pack a punch...but that's another review (coming soon!). The lingering effects of this classy story can still be felt in some of the stronger cinema and literature today. The Others is, for my money, the best haunted house story in recent memory, and creator Alejandro Amenabar owes a good deal to Matheson's work. Stephen King's novel The Shining in many ways seems like a tribute to Matheson's work, although it too has become a benchmark for the genre. Whether or not genre fans will feel as strongly about it as I do, Hell House is worth a look from anyone interested in important works of horror. |
| On a side note, Matheson's work should not be confused with Shirley Jackson's equally important novel The Haunting of Hill House which was the basis for Robert Wise's classic film The Haunting (1963) which in turn was remade into the Jan De Bont debacle that dribbled out into theaters in 1999. |
| Review by Joe Canistro 08.23.2005 |
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