The Legend of Hell House

Amazon.com

Four people enter the Belasco Mansion, the so-called "Everest of haunted houses," hired by a dying millionaire to investigate the possibility of life after death. Physicist Clive Revill leads the quartet, which includes his wife Gayle Hunnicut and two mediums. Pamela Franklin, young and impulsive, immediately makes contact with what she perceives as a tortured spirit, while Roddy McDowall, the only survivor from the previous investigation 20 years ago, closes himself off completely, deathly afraid of the malevolent forces that crushed his former comrades in body and spirit. Science fiction and horror legend Richard Matheson, responsible for penning such horror classics as The Devil Rides Out and Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum, brings a literate sensibility and a refreshing seriousness to the haunted-house genre with this adaptation of his novel Hell House. Director John Hough follows Matheson's lead with a moody but sober approach, balancing the physical threats of objects lethally leaping to life with the slow, subtle possession of the characters by a truly evil spirit. Parts of the script feel like so much scientific mumbo jumbo, with characters discussing the finer points of supernatural manifestation and ectoplasmic activity, but Hough's deliberate direction gives it the necessary solemnity to take it all seriously. --Sean Axmaker

Description

In sits there, shrouded in mist and mystery, a nesting place for living evil and terror from the dead. It's Hell House. Roddy McDowall heads the cast of this exciting chiller about four psychic investigators and the dark, brooding mansion they themselves call "the Mt. Everest of haunted houses." It's already destroyed one team of researchers. Now this brave quartet ventures in for another try at unraveling its secret. But before they succeed, they must suffer through madness, murder and everything else the spirits that dwell here have in store for them. Yet learning the truth just might drive them all insane. An ingeniously-devised ghost story, THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE will thrill and delight veteran horror fans from the first creaking door to the very last slithering shadow.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent B-Horror Movie.......2007-09-15

It is amazing with the variety of unique horror movies that we used to produce, almost all horror movies have become a slew of horny teenagers getting slaughtered by one psycho. This is a movie with a very tight script. There are really only four characters in the story, all unique in reason for being in Hell House. The pace starts slow, and then builds into a very suspenseful and un-nerving movie. It was very entertaining. Recomended.

Decent horror effort, but the plot makes no sense when you think about it!.......2007-09-11

Ahh, Hell House. The Legend of Hell House is by no means a bad horror movie. It's moody and atmospheric, if a bit over the top. A doorknob subtly turning is much creepier than everything in the room being violently overturned--which is one reason why Hill House is a much scarier place than Hell House (referring of course to Robert Wise's The Haunting--though whether Hill House was actually haunted is debatable). The Legend of Hell House is, at least, an actual horror film, something filmmakers today have forgotten how to make. (Sorry, torture porn and teeny-bopper startle flicks do not count.) With that said, however, I can't resist adding that the plot of Legend of Hell House makes absolutely no sense. (Spoiler ahead.) Dr. Barrett's ghostbusting machine works because, in the film, a "ghost" is just a form of energy left over after bodily death. A house acts like a battery that can store this energy. Barrett's machine sends out an opposite charge of the same kind of energy, and when this meets the field of energy that comprises the "ghost," the two cancel each other out, and the ghost is gone, or, "ghostbusted." Well, it turns out that the reason that Dr. Barrett's machine doesn't completely wipe out Belasco's "ghost" is that Emeric Belasco's body is sealed in a lead-lined room at the center of the house. Now, if Belasco died in the room and the energy from the machine couldn't get in the room to neutralize his "ghost energy," then how did his "ghost energy" ever get OUT of the room to haunt the house in the first place? Did his ghost energy run and hide in the room when it saw the machine coming, and then exit the room to destroy the machine? No, because if this was the case, then when Fisher opened the door to the lead-lined room and then went to run the machine again, Belasco would have just shut the door again. Further, if his "ghost energy" was spread evenly throughout the house and the machine wiped it all but that in the room, then again, how did Belasco get out to destroy the machine and kill Dr. Barrett? Further, why didn't Belasco kill Fisher when he went back to turn on the machine the last time? I guess these are minor points, but in the end the movie does not make sense, and this irks me.

By the way, I am an avid horror fan. My wife and I owned more than 400 horror DVDs (we sold them) and have seen thousands. Of all the horror films I've seen, the only really good haunted house movies are The Shining (Kubrick's version), The Haunting (Wise's--the original) and The Changeling. That's it! Does anyone know of any other creepy haunted house films? If so, please leave a comment. Are there no old haunted house movies? The Haunting seems to be the first serious one. James Whale's The Old Dark House is EXCELLENT, but alas, it's not really a haunted house movie; it's rather about a house and a weird family. Again, anyone, please feel free to start a post below listing what are, in your opinion, the best and creepiest haunted house films. I've seen several decent ones, like Legend of Hell House and Burnt Offerings, but none as good as The Changeling or The Haunting.

Not scary--- no ghosts, nothing spooky.......2007-08-05

I bought this movie because it had so many high-star ratings. So, I was very surprised when I watched it and found there were no, meaning zero, ghosts, skeletons and scary scenes. The movie takes place in an old, dark house with cob webs all over. There are some strange sounds that are supposed to represent haunted spirits. The scariest scene is when a black cat chases the "mental-medium" character and scratches her.

The 4 characters in the movie went to the haunted house with the task of finding out if people survive after death i.e. determine if the owner of the house who was supposed to be dead but no body was ever found is still living in the house "in spirit". In the end of the movie, 2 of them leave the house alive. The other 2 had died from things falling on them. Overall, the movie was disappointing.

The Legend of Hell House.......2007-05-13

On a scale where THE HAUNTING is rated as a five star movie I have to assign this film about three stars. I enjoyed THE LEGEND more than that rating would convey. Despite the several faults it has, which have been well presented by previous writers, it was a lively, entertaining and enjoyable movie. It is too bad that the DVD did not include more extras like a brief documentary on the making of the film. It was a decent enough transfer though, and well worth the current price.

The thinking man's horror story........2007-04-30

Unfortunately, this movie doesn't begin to touch the truly perverse and horrifying depths as written in the novel of which it is based, Richard Matheson's "Hell House". There are many key elements to the story which were barely mentioned but not explored due to the times when this was released. A more faithful film adaptation would be welcomed, so long as the CGI was kept to a minimum and if competant actors are hired for the project.

Belasco House is the Mount Everest of haunted houses, a private Hell built and orchestrated by its owner, Emeric Belasco. A large number of atrocities, horrors and criminal activity occurred there, and nearly all paranormal investigators called to the house had died in violent circumstances. The only survivor of the previous investigations is Ben Fischer, a physical medium who is called to return to the house along with Florence Tanner, a mental medium, and Dr. Lionel Barrett, a physicist who has brought along his wife Edith despite his protests. They are being paid princely sums of money each by an elderly millionaire to uncover absolute proof of life after death. What happens following their arrival is a series of red herrings woven into the plot consisting of ghostly apparitions, possessions and restless spirits wreaking havoc.

This might be a boring film for those who are accustomed to seeing lots of blood, gore and violence in their horror movies. Indeed, it is rather tame in comparison to the original novel. Still, it boasts a VERY fine cast in Roddy McDowall, Pamela Franklin, Clive Revill and Gayle Hunnicutt, who all give excellent performances. The storyline is worthy of discussion and dissection for devoted fans of both the book and movie, and there is usually something new to find with each viewing of the film. Until its DVD release nearly ten years ago, this film was somewhat hard to find and rarely shown on TV. It was years before I met someone else who'd even seen it before! Today it is still rather elusive, but now much easier to buy a copy for your own film library.

"The Legend of Hell House" is a great classic horror film which makes you think...something that not many other movies in the genre tend to do. It is scary without being gory, and is sure to be a reliable favorite in your household for many years. Buy a copy of it today!

Average customer rating:

A major problem
A Peerless Offering in HIGH CAMP HORROR! Brilliantly Bad!
Not bad at all for 30 years ago...
Scariest Movie I have ever seen.
Not Great, But very Unsettling

The Sentinel
Starring: Chris Sarandon , Cristina Raines , Martin Balsam , John Carradine , and José Ferrer
Director: Michael Winner
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00023P4UQ
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Customer Reviews:

A major problem.......2007-08-23

It's difficult for me to do a review because I couldn't play the DVD on my player because I am in Region 2 and the DVD is in Region 1 format. I have now realised I can get the film on VHS tape, where I will be better placed to do a review. I saw this film back in the 70s and I remember, at the time, it scared me sh**less. That's why I'm keen to acquire it now.

A Peerless Offering in HIGH CAMP HORROR! Brilliantly Bad!.......2007-07-29

Peerless Bad Movie maestro Michael Winner, whose oeuvre includes The Nightcomers, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and more Death Wish movies than you can shake a stick at, reached a personal "best" with his '77 horror opus The Sentinel. Others also tried (and failed) to cash in on the success of The Exorcist, but no one else created more unintentional laughs while doing so than writer-director Winner.

The fun begins when supermodel Cristina Raines finds a beautifully furnished, large apartment in New York for only $400 a month. This establishes that we are deep inside the fantasy genre, but the movie turns genuinely horrifying with the appearance of Sylvia Miles and Beverly D'Angelo--both decked out in leotards, heels and ghastly perms--as two of Raines's new neighbors. In a very poor Cruella De Vil accent, Miles announces, "We don't get many visitors." Why not? Well, maybe it's because Miles begins groping D'Angelo's thighs in front of Raines, whereupon D'Angelo lustily strokes herself. There's actually a closeup of fingers busily rubbing away, then a shot of D'Angelo lifting her fingers to her nose, inhaling deeply. Raines can only ask this mad non sequitur, "What do you do for a living?" before bolting away. Miles snaps, "Going so soon? It's rather rude to eat and run!"

Raines develops terrible headaches (wouldn't you, if you were a talent-free actress trapped in a movie this awful?) and, dopey from pain pills, allows herself to be wooed by neighbor Burgess Meredith (even more fey than usual--was Roddy McDowall unavailable?) into attending a birthday party for his cat, where, yes, Miles and D'Angelo dance a polka. Scary, sure, but not as unsettling as the nightmare Raines has afterwards, in which Miles and D'Angelo--both in the nude--rip off her clothes.

Understandably, Raines complains about these tenants, only to be told by real estate rep Ava Gardner that no one but Raines lives in the building, "aside from the priest." That's right, neighbors Miles, D'Angelo, Meredith and the cat are all dead, and a reclusive blind priest, John Carradine, lives on the top floor because (uh-oh!) the Catholic church owns the whole building. Does Raines, a lapsed Catholic, move out? Hey, what are a few hammy ghosts and a sightless priest when the rent is this cheap? But then, one night Raines awakens to find the specter of her own dead father terrorizing her! Confessing to priest Arthur Kennedy, Raines sums up the spiritual crisis an unwise rental has brought about: "I've rejected Christ. I've committed adultery. I've tried to take my life, twice. I saw my father. I stabbed him, but he was already dead!"

What does it all mean? Trying to answer that query, Raines's beau, Chris Sarandon, breaks into church headquarters and finds files outlining a sinister program: the church is taking people who've attempted suicide and turning them against their will into unseeing priests and nuns doomed to keep evil spirits from wandering the haunted halls of cheap apartment buildings. And not only is Raines on the list, she's scheduled to give up modeling and replace Carradine as her building's newest blind cleric. Rushing to Raines's address, Sarandon uncovers a sign in the lobby that probably belonged on the front page of this film's script: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." Carradine--whose time is up as the sentinel guarding "the world against evil"--helpfully explains that the building is "the entrance to Hell." Will Raines agree to replace him? It's that age-old dilemma: Should I be a sentinel or a supermodel? If this film had been made recently, Raines would obviously stay a supermodel and host an MTV show, but The Sentinel was made back in a simpler time, when supermodels knew that becoming a blind sentinel nun was a good career move.

So, who gets Raines's fab flat? At the end, Gardner rents it to someone destined to later move into the trendy Sliver, Tom Berenger.

Not bad at all for 30 years ago..........2007-06-09

Considering it's from 1976...it's pretty good! Wouldn't take much to modernize it into a remake. Better than many of the "horror" movies that come out today.

Scariest Movie I have ever seen........2007-05-29

Watch this movie in the morning or afternoon - way too scary for nighttime viewing - it will keep you up.

Not Great, But very Unsettling.......2007-04-13

This another of the movies that scared me as a child that I have bought and watched in an effort to relive my childhood. While this movie isn't the best of the bunch it sure stays with you long after it ends.
Cristina Raines is a model who moves into a killer(in more ways than one) apartment only to be subjected to all manner of creepy and strange visions. The neighbors are also an assortment of weirdoes and slowly her life begins to unravel. To say much more would do you an injustice, you must watch this one and pay attention to follow the story. There are a few good gore scenes but for the most part this relies on the Gothic terror of the building and on long hidden secrets to make your skin get goosebumps. I like it at 12 and now at 40 I still like it.

Average customer rating:

"Watch me where I'm unwatchable."
More silly than profound
a hard movie to watch
I am so enamored of Catherine Breillat....
Fine Arthouse Porn

Anatomy of Hell
Starring: Rocco Siffredi , Catherine Breillat , Jacques Monge , Amira Casar , and Claudio Carvalho
Director: Catherine Breillat
Manufacturer: Tartan Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FZEQCS
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Customer Reviews:

"Watch me where I'm unwatchable.".......2007-09-13

Catherine Breillat (1948) is a brilliant French filmmaker, director and novelist. Her films take us (particularly us uptight Americans) places we've never been before, and usually outside our comfort zones with their depictions of hard sexual truths. As a result, Breillat is often the subject of controversy for her explicit depictions of sexuality and violence. Adapted from her novel Pornocratie, Breillat's Anatomy of Hell (Anatomie de l'enfer) (2004) is perhaps her most controversial film. It stars hunky porn star Rocco Siffredi (Romance) as an Everyman character and willowy Amira Casar as the Everywoman, and basically depicts four nights of sexual politics played out in a sparse bedroom in an isolated beach house. After meeting in a gay nightclub, the woman offers to pay the man to "Watch me where I'm unwatchable," that is, to observe all that he despises in a woman because he is a homosexual. The ensuing dialogue between the two is enlightening and the sexual scenes are primal.

Throughout the film, one wonders: what is Breillat up to here? Ultimately, Anatomy of Hell is not so much a film about four nights of explicit sexuality, as a film about confronting male misogyny, brutality against women, and fear of the female anatomy. For many, this film may be disturbing. Anatomy of Hell is to Breillat what The Second Sex is to Simone de Beauvoir. Thank the French God for these Gallic bad girls. Breillat's interest in exploring hard truths about human sexuality is something I admire about French cinema in general and her films in particular. Certainly, it would be difficult to find this sexual dialogue happening anywhere else in cinema. Like all of Breillat's works, this is a film people should be debating afterwards in cafes, bars, and their bedrooms.

G. Merritt

More silly than profound.......2007-08-12

You probably know the story line: a woman goes to a gay male
club and slashes her wrists in the toilet. A patron of the club finds
her, saves her and they strike a bargain. She will pay him to watch
her expose herself and tell her what he sees and feels. Essentially,
he is to be a reporter and she an audience of one. You get the sense
that Rupert Murdoch is unlikely to buy this channel.

So, with that introduction, we have a string of graphic sex scenes
and pompous pronouncements on the nature of male/female
relationships. It's hard to say which is more boring.You may be a bit
amused that the male protagonist and recipient of all this wisdom is gay.
Or you may find that to be merely another aspect of the overall
bombasticity and pretentiouscity of this thoroughly silly film.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine

a hard movie to watch.......2006-10-12

The film is very thought provoking and doesn't mind pushing buttons or boundaries to achieve this end. Although I agree with another reviewer's (Dexter Tay) assessment that this film certainly pertains to Sartre's "Hell is the Other" view, I do not believe this film is more arthouse porn then art. I find it very interesting that the reviews are fairly divided between the sexes. Females seem to rave about this movie and males seem to find things wrong. Hmmmm. This film is basically two characters, one female and one male (names aren't used because they don't matter - they are ourselves) who are complete strangers and come together to discuss the real view they have of the "Other" as well as themselves. The setting is very bare as there is no need for props - it is the inter-relationship that is front and center and no diversions are allowed. So even though there are several graphic scenes, be prepared for much more dialogue and philosophical discussions between man and woman then actual sexual content. Also, the very graphic content is there for a specific purpose and it is not titillation. For example, the tampon scene is a little too detailed for my comfort but that moment shows the whole point of this amazing film. It was NOT about the female lead's bent toward self-mutilation as one reviewer suggests (sooooo male), otherwise every female who used tampons on a monthly basis would be carrying out a deprived act of self-hatred?! Rather, the diametrically opposed views held by men and women about the most basic and intimate nature of things. Two scenes stand out from all others: (1) when the women opines on the ridiculousness of the sanitary outer covering of a tampon to prevent intimacy. The very act by its nature is intimate. Why are men and women horrified by menstruation? This topic is delved into with such honesty that the viewer automatically shies away. I'll admit I closed my eyes in one scene; and (2) when the man complains to another about the way the woman let him debase her, allowed herself to be made to wallow in her own piss and excrement (no scenes of this, thank goodness) and with every humiliation, she asked for more. All the while he is disgusted by her, he is haunted by his own actions. The whole movie makes compelling comments about us as men and women. Catherine Breillat (director) presents a piece of work (based on her novel entitled, "Pornocrate") that forces the viewer to confront issues buried by morality or social conventions. I applaud her brilliant effort.

I am so enamored of Catherine Breillat...........2006-08-14

I adore Catherine Breillat's films, and I believe this to be her best work. Why do I love her so much? She challenges me, she entralls me, she makes me think, she takes sex seriously. Her films polarize, her films enrage people, but it's the good kind of polarization. None of her films are done for shock value. This is my favorite among her work. The performances are superb, especially that of Rocco Siffredi, who is a real porn star in Italy. Breillat cast him because he was unafraid of the part, and she also added that "most French actors aren't very handsome". He acquits himself quite well, and shows that a porn star can act. More often than not, porn stars are terrible actors, as porn doesn't require any emotions, just stamina. Breillat understands the true complexity of relationships, and it unnerves people. If she wanted me to do a nude scene, I'd do it. I wouldn't ask her about it. Full frontal. She is a great artist, and one of the greatest filmmakers working today.

Fine Arthouse Porn.......2006-05-25

Anatomy of Hell - a metaphorical reference to the nether realm, is, if I'm not wrong, Briellat's adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's famous quote "Hell is the Other". The film makes a rather stilted commentary centred around the notion of the Other, and of how as the Subject, we are desperate, if not phenomenally suicidal, to constantly yearn for the look of the Other to reflect upon our physical selves which we cannot escape, which is both a necessary "evil" and self-sustaining as it is tormenting and perpetually unfulfilled. Breillat is only excused by the highly symbolic, theatrical style of the film with a disclaimer that relinquishes the reality of the characters portrayed.

The choice of Siffredi as the male lead couldn't have been more surprising - few mainstream actors would have gone to the extent of no-bars-held in displaying their endowment aroused - close-up and in full glory. Siffredi's portfolio wouldn't stifle audiences more familiar with his pornographic work to boredom; his role in the film is highly restrained in the emotional sense, and there is a certain heightened sense of eroticism that goes with it. Amira on the other hand, plays a dejected Venus fallen from adoration - bordering on the inane and desperately seeking ways to turn the most quietly staunched of misogynists to reconsider sexuality in all its face value.

Unfortunately for all the philosophical postulations, the film is led more by the attempts to revolt and to shock, rather than to make a genuine attempt at examining the relations between the sexes. The man played by Siffredi could have not engaged in torrid sex with the woman - but the film would have lost its focus and the entire point that resolves in mutual sexual gratification, so that in the end, the entire film is more of an arthouse porn than art.

Fans and non-fans of Siffredi alike, this DVD is a collectable tribute to him in his prime.

Average customer rating:

HELL NIGHT : Pray For Day
Garth Manor Rocks
A Hellish Viewing Experience
Solid 80's Haunted House Slasher Flick
entertaining slasher film

Hell Night
Starring: Linda Blair , Vincent Van Patten , Peter Barton , Kevin Brophy , and Jenny Neumann
Director: Tom DeSimone
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00000JXVP
Release Date: 1999-08-24

Customer Reviews:

HELL NIGHT : Pray For Day.......2007-02-25

This film was very well done. It had a lot of suspense and plus Linda Blair stars in this non-gory slasher movie.Thats right NO GORE!!!It was meant to have some gore, but the director filmed it so that you see only some blood but no gruesome scenes shown.One wierd seen between Vincent Van Patten & Suki Goodwin, but its is brief.Great locationing (excellent scary mansion,as seen on cover) make this film a classic slasher-frenzy/80s body-count Horror film. I love it because of the many chases that occur (between Blair and the killer)multiple times. Also starring Peter Barton from Friday the 13th part4: The final chapter& The young and The restless.
Hell night is another name for the holiday Halloween.This night four sorrority & fraternity pledges must stay all night long in a creepy castle like mansion.Through legend, a crazy man(Ramond Garth)has killed his deformed family before killing himself. Some say a family member still survives...AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This film is filled with jokes(Goodwin keeps calling Van Patten by "Wes" instead of his charecters real name "Seth".The funny part about it is that she is doing it accidentally SEVERAL TIMES while being drunk.),scary sequences,suspense,and scenes that will keep you on the edge of your seat(Barton & Blair are running away from killer in cave, built under mansion & Blair on her own is chased by the non-axe-wielding killer at very end).

This movie is in my collection with all the Jamie Lee slashers including TERROR TRAIN,PROM NIGHT,& HALLOWEEN and is next to my favorites GIRLS NIGHT OUT & HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME ( All early 80s Body-count classics)

Linda Blair was in her early 20s and didn't act her best in this yet she kept me entertained and kept me routing for her to survive to the end , and she was the surviver.Shewas very delightfull, innocent& YOUNG .I'm a big fan of her , Jamie Curtis & Lesleh Donaldson(who was in Happy Birthday to me ,Curtains,Funeral Home & Deadly Eyes a.k.a. RATS)whom are all scream queens.

I Love This Movie!!! Its worth buying to own if you like this GENRE.

Garth Manor Rocks.......2007-02-13

"Hell Night"
This review contains an obvious spoiler.
I didn't think I would like this movie when I heard about it
"WAS I EVER WRONG"
Hell Night has all the elements needed for a great
slasher movie, Sexy people, good kills and a freaky killer on the loose..
I personally love movies where the killer is in some way disfigured yet still human and in this movie that is delivered.
Sorority newbies spend the night in Garth Manor Known for its legend about Raymond Garth and his deformed children and how he killed them all and then himself .Supposedly Andrew Garth The most hideous of all the children escapes being killed and lives in tunnels under Garth Manor "so the legend goes".
Linda Blair is all grown up and quite the good herione also starring the FINE Vincent Van Patten and cute Peter Barton.
The final showdown between Blair and the villain is grade A entertainment and the rest of the movie does not disappoint either.

A Hellish Viewing Experience.......2006-08-22

The cover says 'Hell Night', Pray for Day as the tagline, I was praying for this movie to end- Thats how boring it was. This was one of the recommended films in 'Fangorias 101 Horror Movies youve never seen' book. Most of the ones ive seen so far have been good but this one stunk.

Plot- starring Linda Blair, this was one of the things that attracted me to the movie because we all know Linda from the great horror film The Exorcist so I figured she would be good in this one too, to my suprise, far from it. Though the actors didnt have much to work with as far as dialogue. A very familiar plot- one dark night 12 years ago, a madman butchered his family in their mansion before killing himself. 'Legend has it' one child survived the slaughter and remains hidden in the house as a deformed monster. Halloween night a group of fraternity and sorority pledges must spend the night in Garth Manor on the anniversary of the killings.

This film was very slow moving, the acting was terrible. Mostly a bunch of unknowns except Linda Blair and it wasnt at all scary. This was a bad horror film. I wouldnt recommend it, you might not even be able to sit through it without falling asleep or turning off the TV.

Solid 80's Haunted House Slasher Flick.......2006-05-16

If you are a fan of 'Friday the 13th' (parts 1-4) or 'Halloween' you will no doubt enjoy this. As far as movies on that level, this is one of the best. Has good tension and scares and an effective score.

entertaining slasher film.......2006-04-21

Yet another slasher film, but a good one.

Well, they're ALL good. But this is even better than most, mainly because Linda Blair and Peter Barton lend depth and sympathy to their characters despite some hokey dialogue.

It's initiation time on fraternity/sorority row. Four pledges must prove themselves worthy by spending the night at Garth Mansion, a huge abandoned estate. Years ago, Daddy Garth killed his wife and three mutant kids. The fourth mutant kid was never found. Legend has it he still stalks the mansion ...

Here's something odd. There are only four pledges: two guys (Barton and Van Patten) and two gals (Blair and Goodwin). Since when do fraternities and sororities hold joint initiations? And they are bid farewell on their initiation by a HUGE party. This implies a great many brothers and sisters. Yet at the rate of two pledges per year, the fraternity and sorority would each be down to eight members each within four years.

I guess director de Simone simply wanted lots of people at the party, but only two couples at Garth Mansion. I guess it's spookier (and cheaper) with just four pledges, never mind making sense.

Okay, I don't mind.

What's important is that the four kids are locked behind the tall iron gates of Garth Mansion, three upperclassman sneak in to scare them ... and the body count mounts!

The script and lead performances are a bit better than standard slasher fare. Barton portrays a sensitive rich boy. Blair is the poor girl with a heart of gold. She's also virginal, at first keeping Barton to his own bed, later cuddling and sleeping with him ... but just sleeping. Both keep their clothes on. Meanwhile, Van Patten and Goodwin fornicate like rabbits in the next room.

Guess which couple is killed first? And guess who survives the night?

Blair and Barton perform well, but Van Patten and Goodwin also add some dimension to their clich?d supporting roles: the [...] cutup and the sleazy party girl. Brophy, Neumann, and Sturtevant play the jerky upperclassman who sneak in to scare the pledges. They also provide much needed slasher-fodder. I liked Jenny Neumann in Stage Fright (aka Nightmares, Australian 1980), but she's under-utilized here.

Hell Night strikes tried-and-true horror psycho notes like a well-tuned instrument. One girl is pulled screaming down into a hole (although my favorite hole-dragging is in The Unseen, 1980). The psycho seems indestructible. They shoot him, but he keeps on going ...

But there are also some surprises, which is no small feat in this tradition-bound subgenre.

Cinematography and lighting are used to good effect. Shapes emerge from the dark, slowly, indistinct. Creeping up behind our unsuspecting heroes. Makeup is also simple but noteworthy. When we finally see him, the mutant resembles Nosferatu's Max Schreck.

The final scenes are visceral, even brutally poetic. 1981 was a good year for horror psychos, and Hell Night is prime vintage.

Average customer rating:

Cult indeed
Worthwhile Italian Classic
Pathetically funny
Fulci lives!
This movie is awesome

The Beyond
Starring: Al Cliver , Laura De Marchi , Giovanni De Nava , Roberto Dell'Acqua , and Anthony Flees
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305972052
Release Date: 2000-10-10

Amazon.com

Lucio "King of the Eyeball Gag" Fulci made his name with a series of gory, gooey horror epics, and The Beyond stands above all as his outré masterpiece. The largely incoherent plot has something to do with a turn-of-the-century curse and a doorway to hell in the cellar of an old New Orleans hotel. Fulci shows his usual sensitivity with wooden acting, clumsy dialogue, and buckets of oozing blood and pus, but don't let that get in the way of enjoying this mad tale of zombies from hell invading Earth and eating their way through a cast of humans: crucified martyrs, blind visionaries, creepy hotel handymen, befuddled cops, and a plucky pair of heroes desperately fleeing a horde of hungry undead. The blood-red art direction is eerily beautiful, and Fulci's relentless long takes, punctuated by jolting shock cuts and eruptions of grotesque violence, create a mood of sheer paranoid horror right down to the final, mind-bending image. And don't forget the Fulci claim to fame: eyes are gouged out, eaten away, melted with acid, and (shudder) popped out by a spike through the back of the skull. Yech! If you dare ignore such piddling details as narrative logic and let yourself get carried away on the creepy visuals, it's a deliciously stylish treat, an edgy bit of gothic gore pitched in all its bone-crunching, flesh-ripping, organ-splatting glory. This sadistic, sanguinary hell-spawn tale is for gore-hounds only.

The DVD features chatty but largely jokey commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl and an alternate German credits sequence featuring Fulci's preferred sepia-tinged prologue (but no alternate footage). --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Cult indeed.......2007-05-13

Getting the obvious out of the way, this is a movie for B Horror splatter fans, not for mainstream horror audiences. This movie, like Fulci's other films, places emphasis on graphic depiction of gore material, while paying little to no attention to plot, script, or acting. He definitely succeeds in giving zombie fans what they want, however if you expect anything more you will be disappointed. The script was particularly bad, and not in a cheesy-but-good B movie sort of way, but riddled with inconsistencies and occasionally just plain dumb. Like for example in the hospital scene with all the zombies it's obvious that the only way to take them down is to shoot them in the head, yet the guy wastes 3-4 bullets on a single zombie, gets it with a headshot, and then repeats the same pattern numerous times. Sure enough he runs out of bullets sooner than he wishes to. Acting is pretty bad too, not very credible at all. You have the typical protagonist who's seeing things others aren't, and of course those things aren't there when someone else checks it out, yet the character doesn't sound convincing at all when she's trying to explain that those things really are there and it's not her imagination. You can almost tell someone told her what to say just minutes before and she's struggling to remember. To summarize, this movie is underdeveloped but thrives on its gore factor which is fairly elevated all things taken into consideration. Don't leave this one out of your zombie film collection.

Worthwhile Italian Classic.......2007-04-11

The Beyond opens with what has become one of my favorite scenes. A strange man is painting pictures of Hell on a canvas in room 36 of an old Louisana hotel. The year is 1927 and the mans name is Sweik. The natives of the town believe that Sweik is placing a curse on thier village through his drawings and what follows is a typical southern stereotype. A lynch mob storms the hotel and constrains Sweik as he is finishing one of his paintings.

The mob then drags him down a spiral staircase into the basement where he meets his fate in the form of being crucified against a wall and then drenched in flesh eating acid. All while that typical annoying as hell gaillo music is playing in the backgound. Kathrine MacColl inherits the hotel where Shiek meet his unfortunate and horrible demise some six odd years later.

The hotel has all sorts of strange occurances, not the least of which is the consistant flooding in the basement. As she is preparing to open the hotel the flooding in the basement starts to present a real problem, thus she calls in a plumber. Joe the Plumber (yes that is the characters actual name) is called in to fix the issue. What he finds is far more serious than leaky pipe...

The reason that this film works is because of it's take no prisoners presentation. Fulci knows what we want to see, and he more than delivers. It works on the same principle that John Carpenter's 'The Fog' works, the events are presented with no context. You never really know why this guy has no head, or why that lady just got an acid bath. Nor do you care. Fulci doesn't raise any questions and he certainly doesn't answer any, but hey, thats ok with me.

Pathetically funny.......2007-03-19

This movie must be praised, but not for the "gory scenes" or "horrifying horror", but simply because IT IS DAMN FUNNY!

It has so many flaws, holes in the script and bad acting that I just couldn't stop laughing.

If you like big, big comedies, you MUST watch Lucio Fulci's movies... Trust me: it is DAMN FUN mock all his Z-quality movies

Fulci lives!.......2007-03-02

I watched this last night for first time after I've been trying to find it for months, and absolutely loved it. I will probably watch it again today. This movie, is dark, atmospheric and the N.O.L.A setting is great. I can understand why some "pop-horror" fans might not like it, a lot of the story is not explained and stuff just seems to happen out of no-where, but thats the feel Fulci was going for, and why I love it. This movie is brutal ,unrelenting and Fulci's goriest. FULCI LIVES!

This movie is awesome.......2007-02-27

If you like flicks like Blood Sucking Freaks, Necromatik, Sinful Dwarf, May, Devil's Rejects, zombie movies, or other goodies of this nature then you'll love this film. This movie shows everything, every bit of gore, with tons of attention paid to detail of the violence. Most of the really intense scenes (there are lots of them) come out of nowhere, and are well worth it when they do. Made by the same guy who made the Italian movie Zombie, but this film blows that one away. Not for the mild horror fan, this one's for us serious disturbing-movie-loving freaks only. If you're a sick and twisted horror fan, don't pass this one up, it will not disappoint. This movie is awesome.

Average customer rating:

A wall of unreason around a scary world
Religion Gone Bloody Bad
Frightening Insight
SCARY SCARY SCARY!!!
preachy skits sound like they're right out of a Jack Chick comic book

Hell House
Director: George Ratliff
Manufacturer: Plexifilm
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000092T6A
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Description

Hell Houses are a distinctly American phenomenon which began in 1990 just outside of Dallas, at the Trinity Assembly of God Church. The original Hell House was conceived as a modern-day fire-and-brimstone sermon. Today, this religious ceremony of sorts is replete with actors, extensive lighting equipment and full audio-visual tech crews. Inside the Hell House, tour guides dressed as demons take visitors from room to room to view depictions of school massacres, date rape, AIDS-related deaths, fatal drunk driving crashes, and botched abortions. Hell Houses have now spread to hundreds of churches worldwide. With full access to the behind-the-scenes action, HELL HOUSE follows the process from the first script meeting until the last of the 10,000 visitors passes through the Hell House doors. The movie gives a verite window into the whole process of creating this over-the-top sermon, while showing an intimate portrait of the people who fervently believe its message. The film also features a score by Bubba and Matthew Kadane, formerly of the band Bedhead.

Customer Reviews:

A wall of unreason around a scary world.......2007-08-19

I quite enjoyed this documentary. I don't know why I like to watch movies like Hell House and Jesus camp. I guess I get a little inner laugh at the absurdity of it all. If you are like me and you have not seen a single shred of evidence to believe in the supernatural including anything from god to chakras, no reason to believe in the afterlife and no reason to think that religions and religious texts are anything but man-made, these movies become a glimpse in to human insanity. These people are all suffering from a mass, shared delusion. I can't help but laugh when I see full grown adults, with the cognitive reasoning skills of a ten year old, accepting this crap. When children are involved, the words "child abuse" are not far from my lips. When I think about these people and people like them voting, raising children and running for office, my voyeuristic grin fades. I'm beginning to think that, to these people, truth doesn't matter. I can't admit that they all actually believe this mythology. I think they need to have sharp black and white rules, the lack of moral ambiguity and the promise of better things to come, in order to cope with their lives. As a result, they have constructed a reality and placed strong walls around themselves. Many of the people in the movie, had horrible things happen to them. By constructing a world, where there is a mysterious figure looking over your shoulder who loves you, who tells you how to live your life, makes it easier to cope. Does jesus only help those, whom he has done terrible things to? I am of the opposite viewpoint. At a young age, I questioned the existence of god but just as importantly, I thought how awful the world would be if religious claims were true. Would the god of the Hell House church, be something to worship? Since god is man-made, the particular version of a god that a person creates, tells us a lot about that person. This movie elucidates a lot about the people involved, through the clumsily vengeful, simplistic and naive god found within.

Religion Gone Bloody Bad.......2007-01-29

Wanna get the cr@p scared out of you? And I don't mean that in any respectfully horror-ish way when referring to HELL HOUSE. I mean it in a way that'll cause you to doubt human sanity.

Technique-wise, I have to give the creators of this idea a definite thumbs up. Utilizing graphic imagery to frighten people toward God, the Assembly of God Church has accomplished something quite unique every October 31st. Threatening sinners with eternal damnation if they have premarital sex, are gay, or attend a rave party, this church puts on a haunted house filled with gore and violence each Halloween. The actors and actresses are pulled from their congregation annually. Some are young women who dip their crotches in fake blood and scream in mock pain while perched on a makeshift hospital gurney (their dialogue during this horrific scene is centered around "the morning after pill"and how dangerous it is ...which is completely untrue of course, but we're talking self-induced abortion so this little fib is obviously okay.)

Other scenes include a homosexual man dying of AIDS. A ghoulishly evil creature hovers around him and comments on his "evil lifestyle choice" as he groans his last breath and is ushered into everlasting pain and devilish servitude (never mind that the man may have been a pediatrician who cured a type of cancer that saved thousands of lives. Homo? You're goin' to Hell!)

At the end of peoples' tour through these strange Halloween acts, prayer groups are offered up for those who wish to be saved. Never mind that the pressure put on the guests by the aforementioned scenes and the "limited time" they have to act on this compulsion are stressed to the maximum ("You have six seconds to walk through that door and be saved by Jesus. One...")

Probably the biggest downer here is that this is a growing phenomenon. Forget that God is merciful or full of love or wants you to be happy. That's not what this is about. This is all about fear and the tactics used to instill it by a group of individuals who claim to be "religious." Excuse me but isn't religion supposed to be about acceptance, caring, and the loving nature of Jesus/God? Maybe I'm missing something.

The other issue is that these Assembly of God members obviously have no idea what Halloween is about nor its history (Note: All Hallows Day - also known as "All Saints' Day". The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although we now consider All Saints' - or Hallows' - day to be on the day after Halloween, they were, at that time, considered to be the same day.)

The church also shows how suicide is a sin. But God (nor the bible) ever said this (Note: "In the early Christian era suicide was not only tolerated, but condoned by the church, as a result certain sects such as the Donatists and the Circumcellions jumped off cliffs in great numbers to hasten an afterlife that promised greater rewards than those found on jolly old Earth. Faced with the loss of so many of its members, and rapidly shrinking collection plates, in the sixth century the church decided that anyone else who committed suicide was going to hell." Bet you won't be hearing that "biblical history" during a sermon any time soon.)

There's a brief shining moment when a group of young men and women confront the designers of Hell House and tell them how wrong all of this is (thus my two star rating). But it falls on deaf ears and is quickly swept under the rug in the documentary.

Frightening Insight.......2007-01-10

I have been critical of the "Hell House" movement for years based on their promotional materials, the experiences of colleagues and friends, and a theological revulsion to fear-based evangelism. This documentary is an excellent and terrifying glimpse into not only the experience offered to "guests" (or victims?), but into the personal and spiritual drives that motivate and shape the formation of a Hell House. The directors are incredibly hands-off, attempting to offer the creators of this institution the chance to tell their story. This isn't entertainment, but it is very enlightening and a great source for reflection and discussion on issues of tolerance, acceptance, religious diversity, and comparative theologies of evangelism.

SCARY SCARY SCARY!!!.......2006-11-15

Most of the other reviews have summed it up quite nicely. However scenes of cute smiling young teens saying some of the things they say in this film were quite chilling and frightening. It is quite disturbing to see these kids involved in this exercise of FEAR and exclusion of free thought. I find it difficult to express exactly what I'm thinking but basically it is just VERY disturbing and scary. I don't pray in the traditional sense but I pray that some of these kids can some day think and do what THEY truly want to. Amazing!

preachy skits sound like they're right out of a Jack Chick comic book.......2006-06-04

In what often feels like a Christian-themed WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, teenage thespians vie for roles as "the abortion girl" or "the date raper" in the tenth annual Hell House "Haunted House." Documenting this yearly collection of social ills and flagrant sins presented by the Trinity Assembly of God in Dallas, Texas, HELL HOUSE provides ample belly laughs coupled with groans of frustration.

Director George Ratliff takes the audience behind the scenes of the tenth annual Hell House, from early brainstorming sessions to "opening night," where Bible-thumping thespians try to save souls via their morality plays. We witness the wild auditions, fact-checking of the script ("Is it 'Magic' or 'The Gathering'?"), and creation of the sets. In between, we catch glimpses of Pentecostal pandemonium wherein prayer sessions are plagued with folks speaking in tongues ("Speaking in tongues is like speaking in French or German," says one parishioner), sounding like a Latka Gravis convention.

With material this good, it's difficult to go wrong but HELL HOUSE nearly does. The film remains steadfastly objective throughout. At times, the stone-faced journalism allows the irony to flow freely. However, the muted opinion of the film quiets the outrageousness of these amateur actors as they present crazed scenes of abortions, homosexuality, and suicide. Sure, the scripts to the preachy skits of Hell House sound like they're right out of a Jack Chick comic book but their implications are ominous. While it's not necessary for this film to have a central "argument," HELL HOUSE feels like a lightweight effort for such a heavyweight subject.

Seven Doors Of Death - A.K.A. The Beyond (Widescreen Edition)

Average customer rating:

Cult indeed
Worthwhile Italian Classic
Pathetically funny
Fulci lives!
This movie is awesome

Seven Doors Of Death - A.K.A. The Beyond (Widescreen Edition)
Starring: Al Cliver , Laura De Marchi , Giovanni De Nava , Roberto Dell'Acqua , and Anthony Flees
Manufacturer: Diamond Ent. Corp.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00004ZEQY
Release Date: 2003-01-01

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Cult indeed.......2007-05-13

Worthwhile Italian Classic.......2007-04-11

Pathetically funny.......2007-03-19

Fulci lives!.......2007-03-02

This movie is awesome.......2007-02-27

Average customer rating:

Legend Of Hell House
Starring: Legend of Hell House
Manufacturer: Fox Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Average customer rating:

Bette Davis, bootlegging, and a bunch of delinquents
very poor audio and visual
Early Bette Davis melodrama
Poor Sound

Hell's House
Starring: Bette Davis , Pat O'Brien , Junior Durkin , Frank Coghlan Jr. , and Emma Dunn
Director: Howard Higgin
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000AGWM9
Release Date: 2003-10-07

Customer Reviews:

Bette Davis, bootlegging, and a bunch of delinquents.......2007-06-13

Undistinguished, yet a perfectly watchable depression/prohibition-era melodrama set mostly in a workhouse for delinquent kids. For those Bette Davis fans out there, yes, Bette Davis is in this movie, but it by no means a "Bette Davis movie". Ms. Davis plays the girlfriend of a bootlegger, but doesn't get to do much besides show that she has the conscience her boyfriend lacks (until the unlikely conclusion where the bootlegger all of a sudden feels guilt for those he ground under his boots on the way up). She's also not onscreen much, with most of the running time being devoted to a misguided kid trying to make his way in the workhouse after he refuses to dime out his bottlegger boss.

All in all, this churned-out, second-tier melodrama is a fairly painless stopover for Bette Davis completists. The movie is only 72 minutes long, the print isn't bad (though it's not sharp and restored, by any means), and there's a nice gallery of other vintage-era DVD offerings to scroll through, which mostly feature original movie poster art on the DVD boxes pictured.

very poor audio and visual.......2006-11-10

I would recomemnd selling this until a beter copy can be made

Early Bette Davis melodrama.......2006-06-03

Part reform movie and part "B" picture melodrama, Junior Durkin plays a kid who idolizes bootlegger Pat O'Brien; when O'Brien hires him as a go-fer, Durkin is in his glory. Little does he realize that O'Brien has eyes for his girlfriend, Bette Davis. When the bootlegger's joint gets raided and Durkin is arrested, he refuses to rat out O'Brien and the kid is sent to reform school for three years. Here the boy is cruelly mistreated; when another boy at the school dies, a newspaper threatens to expose what's going on (that's the reform angle). When Durkin finds out from his mother that O'Brien and Davis are a number, he escapes and pays a visit to Davis. She feeds him the line that she was only doing it to get O'Brien to spring him. Then when the cops show up on Durkin's tail, O'Brien confesses. It's a pretty unbelievable ending, and the picture is not very memorable. It's interesting to see Davis this early in her career, though, and some of her scenes with O'Brien are decent, if not great.

Poor Sound.......2000-06-05

Story OK. Main complaint is the quality of the print (purchased from Amazon). Casette labeled "Hell House, 1934" which is incorrect: It is "Hell's House" and it was produced in 1932. Print had numerous scratches and the soundtrack was very poor.

Average customer rating:

Cult indeed
Worthwhile Italian Classic
Pathetically funny
Fulci lives!
This movie is awesome

The Beyond (Limited Edition Tin)
Starring: Al Cliver , Laura De Marchi , Giovanni De Nava , Roberto Dell'Acqua , and Anthony Flees
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305972079
Release Date: 2000-10-10

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Cult indeed.......2007-05-13

Worthwhile Italian Classic.......2007-04-11

Pathetically funny.......2007-03-19

Fulci lives!.......2007-03-02

This movie is awesome.......2007-02-27

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