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The Legend of Hell House
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Directed by John Hough.
Richard Matheson adapted the screenplay of The Legend of Hell House from his own novel. In the tradition of Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, four people with alleged extrasensory powers are called upon to spend a weekend in a supposedly haunted house, to either prove or disprove the presence of ghosts. Roddy McDowall has been in the house before, and refuses to treat the possibility of paranormal activity lightly; scientist Clive Revill believes that he can trace the happenings to rational explanations involving electric current; Pamela Franklin is convinced that, if spirits exists, she will be able to communicate with them; and Gayle Hunnicutt plays Revill's young wife, ripe for "possession." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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RisseladaRisselada Re:Re:top five movies that scar ...
by Risselada in Top 5
hasn't rated it.
"Wow yeah, I wouldn't show Akira to any young kids for many reasons, but mostly for that halucination scene. That creeped me out as an adult! " [More]
Dr_GorDr_Gor Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:'Tis the season...
by Dr_Gor in HORROR MOVIES 101
loved it.
"I find it quite fascinating that Return Of The Living Dead made it onto three of the lists above! (including my own!) What, exactly, is it about this movie that makes it so compelling? It is, obviously, more comedy than horror... in fact it is a parody of all the zombie movies to come before. It is (loosely) based on the NOTLD mythology, but quite ground-breaking in some respects. The fast-moving, agile zombies (WAY before 28 Days Later!) and the zombies ability to speak! ("BRAINS!") I've always had a bit of a problem with that last one because I know that you need to have at least three functional organs (4 counting a funtional mouth) to accomplish this including lungs, vocal-chords and a tongue... somebody correct me if I'm wrong... but most of the zombies I have ever seen, in THIS movie in particular, were obviously missing some, or all, of those particular organs. I don't know... if I had been in a more serious horror mood when I made my lis ... " [More]
vhsparrowvhsparrow One of the best, EVAR...
by vhsparrow in vhsparrow Blog
loved it.
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"I'll try to make quick work of this, but, IMHO, Richard Matheson's 'The Haunting of Hell House' is the best haunted house flick ever to have been made. As much of Matheson's work were tweaks on older, familiar stories, 'Hell House' is no different: 'Hell House' is something of a Mathesization of Shirley Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House', the same novel that became 1963's 'The Haunting' – but the Matheson version has an edge that Robert Wise was unable to bestow upon his creation. It was shot as a documentary.Yes, more than 25 years before 'The Blair Witch Project', John Hough directed a film from a Matheson script that had been written as a documentary. And the documentary style wasn't a novelty in the UK as numerous other horror pieces had been done as faux-documentaries for the BBC. Much of Nigel Kneale's work for the BBC had been in documentary style, 'The Quatermass Experiment', ' ... " [More]
Dr_GorDr_Gor Re: hard to scare
by Dr_Gor in HORROR MOVIES 101
loved it.
"Thank you for that, Miss June. You are a very sweet and charming and beautiful young lady as well! I have never worried about what people think about me so I have never been afraid to speak my mind. It is nice to know, however, that all of you sweet and pretty young ladies like me and as long as I have that, then nothing else really matters. I DO have some thoughts on movies that are genuinely scary.... besides "The Exorcist" , which is STILL considered by many people (myself included) to be the 'scariest movie ever made', there ARE some others, both old and new, that I thought were genuinely frightening. "Darkness Falls" I thought was quite terrifying (although I know a lot of people don't agree with this) perhaps because I have had similar experiences with creatures such as this... "The Ring" , the first one, I found to be quite creepy as well... Some others I feel worth mention would include; "The Haunting" (original) "The Legend Of Hell House" ... " [More]
Dr_GorDr_Gor Re: hard to scare
by Dr_Gor in HORROR MOVIES 101
loved it.
"Thank you for joining our humble group, thulsadoom! And thank you for your post! It is a pleasure to have you here! I would assume that you are a fan of "Conan: The Barbarian" in some form or other? (the movie, the comics, the books, the TV series) In that case, you might appreciate the 'tagline' on my home page! As far as what scares you, that is a very personal matter for each and every individual. I suppose that DEATH is the underlying factor in what scares most of us, but it goes much deeper than that... into HOW we die! Appearantly, some ways are more horrific than others! For instance, if you live on the beach and go swimming in the ocean after dark (or even during the day) "JAWS" might just scare the bejeezus out of you! Or if you had ever had some unpleasant experiences with the 'supernatural', then "The Exorcist" or "The Omen" or "The Amityville Horror" or "The Shining" or "The Legend Of Hell House" might scare you! Or, ... " [More]
Dr_GorDr_Gor Re: Horror Movies Based on Real ...
by Dr_Gor in HORROR MOVIES 101
loved it.
"That was a JOKE, meinrad... what that meant was it was actually based on the 'true' events that inspired NOTLD... It is PURE fiction! ANY author or Movie Maker can say "based on true events", as long as there is a 'disclaimer' in there somewhere! ... Michael Chrighton did this with his NOVEL, "Eaters Of The Dead"... from which "The 13th Warrior" was derived! It says all over the cover that this book is "Based On ACTUALL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS"! ... and then, inside, in really fine print, it says "this is entirely a work of fiction"... "The Blair Witch Project" guys tried to pull the same stunt with thier huge, pre-release internet campaign! Same is true of "The Legend Of Hell House" and "Cannibal Holocaust" ... and, on a slightly different level, "Snuff"... 'purported to be a REAL 'snuff film'! ... of course it ISN"T! " [More]
Dr_GorDr_Gor Re: Horror Movies Based on Real ...
by Dr_Gor in HORROR MOVIES 101
loved it.
"Thank you for your post, June! Yes, you are correct about "The Exorcist" ! Also, during filming, they had a couple of high-ranking Catholic Priests on hand as 'technical consultants' to make sure that the exorcism rituals, etc. were as true to life as possible! I believe one of them even acted in the movie! I have not yet seen "Identity", but "Shadow Of A Vampire" was very interesting! I have read that 'Max Schreck', the actor who played "Nosferatu" was a very mysterious person indeed! 'Schreck' means 'terror' in German, I believe.... Many of my favorite 'Horror Movies' have been based on actual Serial Killers! I will not start listing movies here as there are just too many! But some infamous murderers who have been immortalized in film include: Jack The Ripper, Henry Lee Lucas, Charles Manson, John Gacy, The Green River Killer, The Zodiac Killer and, of course, Ed Gein! (for more on this please see the following ... " [More]
 



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