PaladinNites   Posted at 2020-02-07 19:35:42(253Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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| First Nighter Theater Macabre is now open  Ah good, you have your tickets.Take your customary seat in the balcony, first row please.  We have a special offering tonight for you to tag along with a team tasked with investigating what has been called "The Mount Everest of haunted houses" Your host for this night is;  Emeric Balasco "Welcome to my house. I'm delighted you could come.I'm certain you'll find your stay here...most illuminating. Think of me as your unseen host. And believe that-during your stay here-I shall be with you in spirit. My you find the answers that you seek. It tis here, I promise you. And now, Auf Weidersein"  For the sum of 100,000 pounds each, a team is tasked with gathering the facts of survival after death. And they only have a week to do it. There had been previous attempts to scientifically investigate the house. All ended in disaster, with only one survivor in any semblance of normal shape. Scientist Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) and his wife, Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt), lead a team into the infamous Belasco House, supposedly haunted by the victims of its late owner, a notorious serial killer. Though the rational Barrett does not believe in ghosts, the other members of his group do, A devout spiritualist/mental medium Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) Physical medium Benjamin Fischer (Roddy McDowall), the lone survivor of the last attempt to scientifically investigate the house. Haunted house movies generally don't deliver the goods. There are a few exceptions; the original The Haunting (1963) is the prime example. That was a truly terrifying film. The Legend of Hell House is one these exceptions 'cause it really serves up some decent scares and maintains a very creepy atmosphere throughout.  This movie relies more on atmosphere, not on gore or other special effects. If thats what you are looking for, you'd better try somewhere else. The back story to the house; It was run as a place of complete debauchery, a sort of Hellfire Club type of place, the master of ceremonies was the owner Emeric Balasco, a man of fearsome reputation, known as the "roaring giant". When one day the sins and violence overspill, in 1929 leaving 27 dead and mutilated bodies in the mansion to be discovered.  Only Belasco was never found... What unfolds is a lesson in how to get the maximum scary atmosphere with so little to hand. Following the brilliant example set by Robert Wise back in 63, special effects are kept to an absolute minimum as the movie lets our minds eye fill in the blanks. The horror is serverd up as little incidents; A mad cat, a séance, ectoplasm (put a specimen in the jar please), suspicious noises, eroticism and a little possession.  The more the team delves in, the more the 'house' reacts and interacts with each of them. As Fisher tries to tell Barrett " Yes I know the score. You do not fight this house! Look Hell House doens't mind a guest or two. What it doesn't like is people who attack it....I was the only one to make it out of here alive and sane in 1933" The mansion itself is suitably eerie (exteriors are the wonderfully Gothic designed Wykehurst Place in Bolney, West Sussex) Barrett is smugly determined that all 'ghosts' are merely an electromagnetic field, and can be countered by an artificially generated one resulting in a dissipation of any residual "ghost" activity. Of course he sees the "ghosts" as simply mindless energy given form by the minds of the living that have interacted with the field. The field is impressed on locations by the people living in them and dying in them. But does he really have the answer to hauntings...or do the two psychics?  And then there is that room called "A chapel in hell" that affects people the most.  Trailer; Best Paladin  Last edited by PaladinNites on 2020-03-16 15:03:05 | |
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