The Legend of Hell House

Dir. John Hough (1973, 95 min)

Based on the novel by Richard Matheson, author of such venerable horror movie fodder as I Am Legend and The Shrinking Man, Legend has a lot going for it: strong acting, effective atmospherics, and a premise which could have developed into a nice creepy tale. This makes it all the more disappointing when the film loses steam halfway through. I blame the cat. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Legend opens as well-known ghost hunter Lionel Barrett agrees to investigate the infamous Belasco House, known as "the Mount Everest of haunted houses," with the modest goal of proving once and for all if there is life after death. Lionel is to be accompanied in his quest by two mediums, Florence Tanner and Benjamin Fischer (Roddy McDowall, who doesn't even bother chewing the scenery - he just swallows it whole), news to which Barrett responds less than enthusiastically. It seems that mediums are not tops on his list, but the promise of a 100,000-pound fee proves too tempting to resist. The trio will be accompanied by Barrett's wife, Ann, who insists on coming along for the excitement, despite his objections.

Fischer will be our twitchy doom-predictor on this trip, it rapidly becomes clear. Not surprising, since according to Lionel, he was the sole surviving member of a previous ill-fated Belasco house investigation, and it's a wonder he escaped with his sanity. So, you know, naturally, he'd want to come back. I guess a hundred thousand pounds stretched pretty far back then. The chaste Florence, on the other hand, is clearly the idealist in the group. She likes to help lost souls. Uh-huh. You know, ghosts can smell sucker a mile away, lady.

Our heroes arrive at the typically big, dark, creepy, gothic, dusty Belasco mansion, get the lights turned on, and with true ghost-hunting instinct, head straight for what is always the scariest place in movies of this sort, the chapel. Florence's reaction to the place is so strong that she can't go in, and waits outside while the others explore. And it's that moment, when she seems to be overwhelmed by a something-or-other inside the chapel, that exemplifies what's good about this film. The players in Legend spend a lot of time reacting to, and interacting with, things that we can't see or hear, the filmmakers having wisely elected to leave most of the ghosts and ghoulies to our imagination, and I think they do a bang-up job of making us believe their fear. Florence's terror shows us that there's some bad mojo in the chapel, and sets the stage for unpleasant revelations and supernatural events to come.

The film takes its time building tension through a series of familiar ghost-story scenes: the seance; the increasing tension between the rational, as embodied by Lionel, and the emotional, personified especially in Florence; and the revelations of nastiness involving Belasco senior, who seems to have been quite the busy fellow, his activities memorably ticked off by Fischer during dinner: "Drug addiction. Alcoholism. Sadism. Bestiality. Mutilation, murder. Vampirism, necrophilia, cannibalism. Not to mention a gamut of sexual goodies." Fun fun!

It's not the originality that makes it here, as we've seen these tactics in countless other movies. It's the deadly serious conviction with which the actors and director approach their task that makes these scenes believable and, therefore, suitably frightening. The careful pacing allows us the luxury of savoring each small and well-placed frightening moment, leisurely preparing us for the horrors to come.

The careful setup pays off as Florence, who has been contacted by a spirit claiming to be Belasco Sr.'s son Daniel, becomes increasingly alienated from the others, particularly skeptical Lionel. This leaves her vulnerable to the ghost, whose true identity becomes doubtful as its hostility grows. As these and other rifts between the characters leave them in danger, it is left purposefully ambiguous whether they are orchestrated by the supernatural forces in Belasco House, or generated by the explorers' own human failings - another deftly handled touch. All in all, by the midpoint of the movie, my spine was a bit tingly and I was settling back for a nice scary ride.

And then the cat came along and ruined it all.

Note to people who make horror movies: when you're reading a script, and you get to a scene with someone getting attacked by a cat, here's what you should do. Rip out the page. Light it on fire. Step on it.

Here's the problem: cats cannot be trained to act like they're attacking people, thus making the use of cat puppets a necessity. And there is nothing, nothing, more embarrassingly unscary than watching some poor actor try to pretend that he or she is being attacked by a puppet of a cat (see also: Strays; Sleepwalkers).

So there's this scene where Florence gets mauled by a cat (puppet), which is traumatic for her and awkward for the viewer, and which is made worse for her by the fact that Lionel quite obviously thinks that she probably hurt herself.

Despite the fact that the story struggles gamely on and the acting remains quite good, the spell was broken for me at this point, and my hopes of finding a haunted-house movie to rival The Haunting and The Changeling were dashed. The interactions of the characters begin to verge on melodrama, and by the end of the film, everyone seems a bit worn out, resulting in a climax that seems strangely detached, and a final revelation which is more of a whimper than a bang. I won't give it away here, because I still have a lot of respect for this movie, but suffice to say that the dark secret of Belasco House made me feel like I would feel when my souffle fell, if I cooked souffle. All, you know, limp and still needing something to serve the dinner guests. I recommend this film just to see how important pacing, acting and subtlety are in a supernatural tale, but I'm afraid you'll still have to figure out how to carry off the ending yourself.

Rating: 3 out of 5 points for effort, and get rid of that damn cat.

Legend of Hell House resources: IMDB

Previously published on Blogatron.