Creepy, creepy shit. Richard Matheson absolutely deserves his reputation as a king of horror. Hell House made my skin crawl, and I could not put it down. I seriously think I read this whole thing in maybe three or four sittings.
A rich old dude named Rolf Rudolph Deutsch (great rich old dude name) bankrolls an expedition into a haunted house previously owned by an evil guy named Belasco. Old rich dude wants proof that life exists after death, so he sends in a medium (Florence), a scientist who believes in the paranomal but not ghosts (Barrett), Barrett’s sexually repressed wife Edith (poor Edith), and a psychic named Ben who had been into Hell House before. In fact, Ben’s the only person to have entered Hell House and made it out alive and (relatively) sane.
Hell House had been a place of murder and torture and crazy orgies, and the team uncovers all sorts of bad shit. Florence and Barrett spend a lot of time arguing about what exactly is causing the haunting — she believes a ghost is doing it, he has some theory about radiation left behind from the events.
Hell House features just enough characterization to make the people seem interesting (especially poor Edith, who comes saddled with an impotent mad scientist for a husband and an alcoholic, molest-y father), plenty of icky gore and a twisty ending. It’s an excellent ride.
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