The Legend of Hell House (1973)

I'm going to say something that I may regret later on, but here goes. This film actually scared me. Yes, your "Rabid Host Of All Things Horror" actually got a case of the old heebie jeebies from this film. I thought that it was impossible to get spooked by a movie at the age of 25, but this one really caught me by surprise.

Plot wise, the film centers on 4 investigators: a physicist and his wife, and two psychics played by Roddy McDowall and the other by the extremely cute and sexy Pamela Franklin. The four are being paid by a wealthy old fart who wants proof of life after death and sends the four to the one place where there are sure to be spooks: "Hell House". The house in question is a large estate supposedly haunted by it's former owner, an evil man (gee, you think?) who indulged in such niceties as drug addiction, alcoholism, bestiality, necrophilia, cannibalism and of course...murder. Actually, that's 27 murders to be exact. Lets just say that this place would not be where you want to go to get some good vibes. Before you know it, all hell starts to break out and I'm thinking about turning on the lights.

The first thing that I noticed about this one was the atmosphere. Leave it to those Brits for developing a spooky as shit vibe, loaded with tons of gothic imagery and shadows a swirling aplenty. The mood is at all times menacing; you're always waiting for the next ghostly occurrence to happen. The scares in this film range from the subtle to the not so subtle. The spookiest scenes are the ones where you're not sure if what you saw was actually there or not. The scene with the physicist's wife lying in bed, watching a sculpture of two lovers coming to life on the shadowy ceiling comes to mind. All the performances are great and believable, though that physicist guy got a little annoying after awhile. Compared to recent crap like the "13 Ghosts" and "The Haunting" remakes, this 1973 flick would be the one to watch if you are in the mood for a good haunted house flick.