I THINK WE'RE GONNA NEED THE GHOSTBUSTERS FOR THIS ONE! By: SASHA SLAUGHTER

Well hello again creeps!! So nice of you to stop by! Sasha Slaughter here with you for day 2 of my haunted house themed movies. Today I'm gonna go a little old school on your candy asses. I'll be reviewing, “The Legend of Hell House.” It was released in 1973 and runs about 95 minutes. The novel and the screenplay were written by Richard Matheson and it was directed by John Hough.

“The Legend of Hell House” is a British Horror film, but in the original novel the story took place in Maine and the investigative team was made up of Americans. And here is a little info for you, a few scenes from the film were parodied by Scary Movie 2. Those scenes included the part where the main character Cindy is attacked by a cat and when the character named Alex has sex with a ghost. You learn something new everyday! So let's get it! 

When physicist Lionel Barrett is enlisted by the eccentric millionaire Mr. Deutsch to explore the Belasco house and prove that there is life after death, he and his team discover more than just that. Mr. Deutsch asks Barrett to go to the Belasco house where Mr. Deutsch says "It is the one place where life after death has yet to be refuted". He tells Barrett he will give him one week in the Belasco house to prove that there is indeed life after death.

The house was owned by the notorious so called "Roaring Giant" Emeric Belasco, the six-foot-five perverted millionaire (who participated in masochism and necrophilia, among other things) and supposed murderer who disappeared after a massacre in his home. The house is believed to be haunted by many spirits, some being the victims of Belasco's twisted and sick desires.

Accompanying Barrett, are his wife Ann as well as two mediums: a mental medium named Florence Tanner and physical medium, Ben Fischer, who is the sole survivor of an investigation 20 years ago. Barrett, being a rationalist, is skeptical of Tanner's Christian faith and spiritual beliefs, insisting that there is nothing but unfocused electromagnetic energy throughout the house. Barrett brings along a machine that he has developed to rid the house of any paranormal force. 

During a sitting that evening, Florence, being a mental medium, begins to show signs of physical phenomena during her trance. Later that evening after a fight with Barrett about his skepticism about her, Barrett blames Florence when he is attacked by seemingly invisible forces and accuses her of using the houses energy against him. Meanwhile Ben Fischer remains totally aloof to the things happening around him, trying to keep his mind closed to the houses influence, and only being there to collect the generous pay they were offered to go to the house.

While lying in bed, Ann, Barret's wife, starts seeing erotic shadows of a statue on the ceiling. She gets up to get a drink and sees a book about erotic visions. Shortly after she goes downstairs in a trance and takes off her clothes in front of Fishcher and demands sex from him. He strikes her in the face (a guy turning down sex??? what?) and she snaps out of her trance.

She returns to herself, horrified and embarrassed and runs up the stairs. Another incident occurs two days later, although this time she is fully awake but she is drunk. She places Fishcher's hand on her chest and demands that he touch her, and then she realizes her husband is watching from the stairs. Barrett is angry and tells Fishcher that he believes that he no longer has any psychic ability and that Mr. Deutsch is wasting a third of his money on him. Fischer is offended by the accusation and later that night he drops his psychic shields only to be attacked and left writhing on the floor in agony.

Florence is convinced that one of the "surviving personalities" of the house is Belacso's son Daniel and is determined to prove it at all costs. She is led to a room in the basement where she finds a skeleton chained to a wall and believes it to be the body of Daniel Belasco. They bury the body outside and Florence performs a funeral. Despite being buried, Daniel's personality continues to haunt Florence: she is scratched violently by a possessed cat and Barrett, upon seeing the scratches, is convinced that they were self inflicted by Florence.

Later that night, in an attempt to put the supposed soul of Daniel to rest, Florence gives herself to the entity sexually (ghost sex!!!). Shortly after it appears as though Florence has been possessed by Daniel himself and starts acting strangely, although the possession is shortly lived. Fischer tells Barrett that he is taking Florence away from the house because it is going to kill everyone if they don't get out. Barrett tells him he can leave, but Fischer says he will stay because he was the only survivor 20 years ago and he will be the only survivor again.

Barett tells Fischer and Florence about the machine he has constructed to eliminate all paranormal forces. Florence attempts to destroy the machine thinking that it will harm the spirits in the house. She is quickly stopped and knocked out by Barrett. Barrett notes that there wasn't any damage done to the machine and is busy getting it ready when Florence wakes up and makes her way to the chapel, the unholy heart of the Belasco house.

She attempts to warn the spirits about the machine when a crucifix falls on her, crushing and killing her. In her last dying moments, she writes a clue in blood, the true source of the haunting, which she now knows. Meanwhile, Barrett activates the machine and he, Ann, and Fischer leave the house for a few moments while the machine does what he has built it to do. They return a few minutes later and while Fishcher is using his psychic abilities to search the house, he finally exclaims that the house is clear of all spirits.

Shortly after, while Ann and Fishcher are resting, violent psychic activity resumes and Barrett is eventually killed in the chapel. Ann hears strange noises and goes to find her husbands body in the chapel, crushed by a chandelier. Fishcher tells her that he is going to confront the house and she goes with him. In the chapel, a confrontation ensues: thanks to clues from the way that Florence, Barrett, and many others died in the house, Fischer realizes that Belasco is the sole identity that is haunting the house and is masquerading as many others. He taunts Belasco, calling him a "funny little dried up bastard" who fooled everyone about his..........

Well then, what was that dastardly little ghostie fooling everyone about?? If you really wanna know, go watch The Legend of Hell House. So this movie was from 1973 and I'm more a new school person, but I actually really liked this film.

The special effects I thought were pretty decent for being made in the 70's. The acting was pretty good also and I thought the plot was actually really good too. I mean, we've all seen haunted house movies, but this one was probably one of the better ones I've seen.

It kind of took a while to get good and parts of it were really slow, but it was worth the wait. There was a genuine creepiness to it that I really enjoyed. There was some semi-nudity (the girl was naked and it was dark in the room, so there wasn't much to see) and some sexual situations, like when the Christian girl was givin it to the ghostie...isn't that maybe borderline necrophilia...since the ghost is dead?? I don't know!!!

I read somewhere that there were some scenes missing in the Netflix version of the movie, and I'm thinking that may be true. Some of the scenes didn't really make sense and when I read what scenes were missing, only then did they make sense. Regardless if there missing scenes or not (Boo to Netflix if there were!) this was a pretty good movie.

Overall I'd give Legend of Hell House a solid 3.5 out of 5. It took a while to get going, and the music during the movie was awfully annoying. Another good thing about this movie is that it didn't rely on CGI to make it creepy. It just used old fashioned good acting, good lighting, and good writing. I would definitely watch this movie again in the future, probably several more times. 

Now that you know how I feel about “The Legend of Hell House,” how about you go and see how Zane feels about whatever it is he plans on writing about!! And thanks for stopping by!

Sasha Slaughter