“Welcome to my house, I’m delighted you could come. I am certain you will find your stay here most illuminating. It is regrettable I cannot be with you, but I had to leave before your arrival. Do not let my physical absence disturb you, however. Think of me as your unseen host and believe that, during your stay here, I shall be with you in spirit.” ~ Emeric BelascoBelasco House…Hell House…within these dark passages and cavernous rooms resides the residue of pure, unadulterated evil. This book begins with the new owner of Belasco House assembling a crew to determine what, if anything, haunts this tomb-like mansion. The crew consists of Dr. Lionel Barrett (a scientist), his wife Edith, Benjamin Franklin Fischer (a physical medium whom had experienced the house previously), and Florence Tanner (a mental medium with a profound religious faith). We accompany the group on the third attempt to discover the source of ghostly disturbances within the house. The first two attempts resulted in the murder, suicide, or mental deterioration of the investigators involved…all those except Fischer that is.Our introduction to the House is through brief glimpses as the thick, eerie fog surrounding the mansion and Bastard Bog clears. The tour through the house leaves us chilled to the bone. As we walk room to room, corridor to corridor, the foreboding feelings steadily increase. These walls have witnessed all manner of unspeakable events. The House is dark and angry and soon begins its attack on its unwelcome guests. The House exploits the weaknesses that reside deep within one’s soul and employs those weaknesses to devour and utterly destroy the host of such vulnerabilities. Can anyone truly survive the horrors of Hell House?Matheson is a true literary genius. He swiftly seizes the reader and propels you into a sinister world of appalling sexual exploitations, atrocious physical cruelties, and sickening mental molestations. Hell House is one of the greatest haunted house stories I have encountered. This book is an older book, with its first publication in 1971. However, its age does not diminish its content or reduce its affect on those who face the challenge of Hell House itself. Though the book draws you in and confronts you head on, do not look to the movie, The Legend of Hell House, to give you the same frightful sensations. The film was released in 19-seventy…something…and was not produced for the zombie-movie generation. Hell House is not a book for you of weak character. Read it only if your soul is stout and sturdy enough to withstand the atrocities which dwell between these eerie covers.“All your needs have been provided for, nothing has been overlooked. Go where you will, and do what you will – these are the cardinal precepts of my home. Feel free to function as you choose. There are no responsibilities, no rules. ‘Each to his own device’ shall be the only standard here. May you find the answer that you seek. It is here, I promise you. And now..,auf Wiedersehen.” ~ Emeric Belasco.
"Isn't it just another so-called haunted house?" "I'm afraid it isn't. It's the Mount Everest of haunted houses."This.is.one.creepy.book.The excesses depicted in the history of the Belasco House (and here you can list any blasphemy and perversion you can think of) make for morbidly fascinating reading in itself and sets the stage for this 1970s horror novel. I was actually surprised at how grim this book gets. It’s much more explicit than contemporaries like Rosemary's Baby, which was published only a few years earlier. I’m guessing it probably caused a bit of a stir back in the day. “…a latter-day Satan observing his rabble. Always dressed in black. A giant, terrifying figure, looking at the hell incarnate he'd created."This novel seems to enjoy a bit of a cult status. I’m saying cult as opposed to classic, since it doesn’t receive the same amount of love than, say, The Haunting of Hill House. Here’s the thing though: Hell House doesn’t muck around. It’s dirty and shameless and unapologetic and deals with some themes that people will still find offensive today. If it’s horror you’re after, you’ve come to the right place."How did it end?""If it had ended, would we be here?"I enjoyed the detail Matheson brings to the table, especially pertaining to spiritism / spiritualism, parapsychology and the occult. I actually had to go read up about Spirit Guides and mediumship (notably the difference between a mental medium and a physical medium) to better understand the sittings / séances described. It’s old school stuff, and pretty much a product of its time, but fascinating all the same.They'd found him lying on the front porch of the house that morning in September 1940, naked, curled up like a fetus, shivering and staring into space.While I don’t necessarily approve of some of the nastier elements of books like these, I can certainly understand why they’re present. These are the things that impinge on the reader’s comfort zone, and isn’t that why we read horror stories in the first place?As he crossed the entry hall, he had the feeling that the house was swallowing him alive.Hell House does a terrific job of building tension. The first half is fairly slow and sets the mood (lights the candles and all that). The second half, of course, is when all hell breaks loose (I couldn’t resist).It is easily one of the scariest “haunted house” stories I have read. Even so: I probably wouldn’t recommend it to casual horror readers. It will mess with you."It knows we're here."
What do You think about Hell House (2004)?
I'm a sucker for a haunted-house book, always optimistic that I'll be in for something as good as The Shining or The Haunting of Hill House. I'm a damn fool, because most books don't come close. This one has me ready to give up on the genre; it was that bad.Matheson seems to have lifted most of his stuff straight from Shirley Jackson's novel: a parapsychologist and two sensitives agree to stay in a notorious haunted house in an effort to prove or disprove survival after death. Alas, he lacks Jackson's fine prose style, brilliantly chilly atmospherics and subtle characterization: the stock characters offer up tinny dialog as they walk through their predictable paces and encounter garish but un-scary boogeymen.It's too easy to make fun of, and very, very dated (homosexuality as a demonic perversion, for starters). I was just amused through most of it, but when Matheson borrowed an element from the scariest and creepiest scene in The Haunting of Hill House and tarted it up with sex and gore, I got mad.I rarely put down a book, so I stayed with this one to the bitter end, and was rewarded with an ending so lame and anticlimactic that I was tempted to throw the book across the room.
—Deb
Two Scientists and a medium are assigned to stay at the Belasco house for a week to get a large monetary sum but then strange and violent things begin to happen. Can they survive with their body and mind intact? Read Hell House for yourself and find out.I was recommended to read this book for All Hallow's Read by author Eric Morse of the book Psychotic State and this was a pretty good and scary haunted house ghost story. I enjoyed reading this and held onto the edge of my seat until the very end. If you enjoy haunted house ghost stories, def check this book out for yourself as it is a great read to check out for All Hallow's Read and Halloween. It is available at your local library and wherever this book is sold.
—Amber
Good creepy novel. While not so awesome as The Shining or Haunting of Hill House (the two greatest haunting novels ever, IMHO), this is a solid showing in the genre. Furthermore, as a friend pointed out, in the sprawling shelves of crappy modern horror, this is definitely a worthy read. Some readers complain that it has a dated feel, but I disagree. The 1970s technology has little bearing on its fright factor; for my own part, I prefer horror novels to be slightly old-fashioned -- tape recorders, rotary phones, etc. Crackling playback & awkward button-pushing only add to the atmosphere of a haunted house.Anyway...The ultimate creepiness arises from the roots of Belasco House. In that I commend the author; he's tapped a fundamental horror of prudish people everywhere, including yours truly. The idea that anyone could lure a variety of normal folks -- friends, acquaintances, tourists, artists -- into an isolated mansion & slowly warp them into a pack of slavering, murderous, sexual perverts is truly horrific. Even now it leaves an unsettled feeling in my stomach -- the same vague disgust I feel from watching Event Horizon. That movie's premise is this: a ship is sent through an experimental wormhole, but arrives seven years late...after spending those seven years in a hellish alternate universe that inspires the crew to murder each other from terror & perversion. And so, like the Event Horizon, Belasco House's gruesome past has imprinted on the structure itself...or has it? Is this a case of multiple hauntings, or merely a disturbed asshole who retains control of his self-contained hell?The answer to that question is the weakest aspect of the book. The resolution is somewhat muddled; it lacks the sharpness of the haunting itself. But final 25 pages aside, I was suitably creeped out. The instances of possession, sensual disturbance, & general ickiness are done very well. The characters, too, were all nicely rounded "everyman" personages -- scientist, plain jane, religious medium, & scarred survivor. (Unlike the Hell House movie, there's plenty of time to explore their individual motives & insecurities; there are also several scenes that never made it onscreen, whether for time constraints or bloodspray.)4 stars; a good book for the Halloween season.
—Sarah
