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Hell House Richard Matheson 8601404904882 Books

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Hell House Richard Matheson 8601404904882 Books

I will say that I enjoyed the book. Is it scary? In my opinion, it is not. But I found it well-written, and had a nice, detailed answer as to how and why the house was haunted. I grew up watching the movie, "The Legend of Hell House," which was based on this book and the screenplay was written by the author. I feel the movie had some good parts and was enjoyable, but it skipped over a lot of the explanations. I read this book after a recent re-viewing of the film. I see now that the film stuck closely to the book, yet I enjoyed the book a little more because it explained things a bit more in detail. Yes, the book is slow in parts and modern readers may not find it scary, but I looked at it as an interesting debate on the nature of parapsychology and a clever little mystery to solve (about which of our researchers had the right answer). Keep in mind that this book was written in the 70's and can seem a little dated. I'm sure the sexuality presented here was also more of a big deal than it is now. I think it's a classic tale. It may not be the best haunted house story but it's a good one. And I think if you view the movie first, this only enhances your enjoyment of the story.


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Hell House Richard Matheson 8601404904882 Books Reviews

The ectoplasmic sh!t hits the fan in Richard Matheson’s brooding tale of paranormal phenomena and sexual repression. Set in the 1970s, Hell House begins as a wealthy octogenarian (with apparently too much money and too little time left) hires expert parapsychologist Dr. Lionel Barrett to answer the metaphysical question of life after death, promising Barrett and his fellow investigators each $100,000 to bring him the answer. As if proving survival post-death wasn’t tricky enough, the hapless team is dispatched to the long abandoned Belasco House somewhere in rural Maine, a decadent manor that fell into disrepute after a dark period of drug addiction, alcoholism, debauchery, with just a dash of cannibalism—all of which occurred there under the silent influence of Emeric Belasco. Armed with troves of scientific equipment and an orange cat, the good doctor, his insecure wife Edith, and two spiritual mediums named Florence and Fischer arrive to discover this creepy estate possesses all the amenities ranging from an icky tarn to a death-defying steam room. Things go horribly awry, the spooks come out, and this ragtag group soon finds their sanity being subtly undermined by the malevolent forces housed within. It’s pretty clear why this deserted manor was been dubbed "Hell House" by the good townsfolk. As Barrett and the others resolve to rid Belasco House of its evil affliction, they soon learn that the ghosts here won’t go down—at least not without one hell of a fight.

I had high hopes for Hell House, which had glowing endorsements from such auspicious writers as Stephen King. Alas, save for a couple of gripping moments, the book was so-so at best. Matheson’s writing here is pedestrian, repetitive, and wrought with awkward adverbs. The narrative plods at a leaden pace. The fright elements are familiar by today’s standards (I realize the book was published in the 1970s, but so was ‘Salem Lot and The Shining—both of which continue to stand the test of time). Although the ending was unpredictable and rather fitting, it still felt anticlimactic and maybe even a little contrived. The characters are banal, their motives one-dimensional, and the reader is given little as to their lives outside of Hell House. Dr. Barrett is overly arrogant and his attempts at explaining the nature of ghostly phenomena through the lens of cold, scientific logic bridges on nonsensical techno-babble; Edith is meek and repressed; and Florence is stubborn and overeager to prove she’s correct about the source of the haunting, even at the expense of her own life. Of the quartet, Benjamin Franklin Fischer was perhaps the only likeable character. In addition to the characters' lack of depth, I found myself occasionally frustrated by both their strange behaviors and their rash decisions, some of which proved fatal.

As I was reading Hell House, I had a hard time not drawing comparisons between this tale and Shirley Jackson’s seminal novel, The Haunting of Hill House (1959). While the plots of both stories surround four ghost seekers probing a notoriously unfriendly pile with only a single vowel to distinguish the two—Hill House v. Hell House—the more notable similarities are found in the principal protagonists. There’s little doubt that Matheson took some of the key traits and identities of Jackson’s players and injected them into his own. On the other hand, Matheson’s horrors are openly exposed while Jackson’s are implied and more frightening for that very reason. Moreover, Matheson's prose doesn’t even come close to reaching the poetry of Jackson's elegantly woven web of words. (Simply read the first paragraph of Hill House and you’ll see what I mean.)

The story is so steeped in darkly twisted, depraved eroticism that some might argue there’s more sexual content going on here than horror. It’s true, there’s plenty of flesh on display and sexuality certainly plays a chief role in the backstories of both the characters and the Belasco House. I won’t mince words—there were times when I sensed the book was lewdly indulging in sex, much like a titillated teenager (unlike William Peter Blatley’s The Exorcist, which handles similar adult themes but with greater sophistication). But if you ask me, lurid sex actually sets the book apart from other forays into the haunted house genre. While I had no objection to Matheson’s depiction of spirit possession coupled with sexual kinks (hash-tag ghost sex), which have their place in books like these; however, readers may find the sexualization and brutal abuse of the female characters gratuitous at times.

Despite being given high marks, I’m afraid Hell House doesn’t live up to its advance billing. Sure, there’s some memorable stuff found in the pages of this cinematic novel (which was later adapted into a 1973 film for which Matheson wrote the screenplay), and it’s a both beguiling feat for its time as well as a respectable contribution to the development of the modern horror genre. But is Belasco House the “Mount Everest of haunted houses”? Meh, let’s just go with K2 and call it a day, shall we? Unfortunately, the book suffers from poor characterization and stilted writing, but I’d still recommend this novel to all you Matheson appreciators or lovers of the haunted house plot…though I can’t promise you’ll like it.
Wow. Once Matheson gets his hooks in, there’s no escape. “Hell House,” while not a transformative experience, was certainly a gripping one. The characters in the book refer to the titular house as ‘the Everest of haunted houses.’ That sentiment is equally true for this novel as it pertains to haunted house stories. I don’t normally go in for straight-up horror, but this was absolutely worth the price of admission it is a fantastic book.

Unrelenting pace. Sympathetic characters with disparate backgrounds and conflicting motivations. A different approach to the science vs. supernatural debate. An interesting (novel, haha) sectional structure, where the ‘chapters’ are marked by time of day rather than conventional numbering or titles.

Full disclosure this book does contain sex scenes and overt references to sex and sexual activity. That should come as no surprise to readers of the genre, in general. Also worth mentioning in this regard the book was written ~1970. The sexual revolution was, if not still in full swing (haha), still radically reshaping notions of sex and sexuality. While “Hell House” does contain shocking (at times, explicit) scenes, I’m not entirely convinced those scenes exist explicitly for shock value. Instead, they seem mostly in line with tropes that are now considered genre-standard.

Recommended for fans of horror (especially haunted house stories, I would suspect); those drawn to tales of the supernatural; those who relish incredibly well paced stories; readers who want to be quickly immersed in a setting and remain engrossed as long as possible; anyone looking for a scare or some classic creepiness. If you enjoyed Matheson’s other contributions to horror, or books like “Our Lady of Darkness,” which have their basis in late 19th/early 20th century influences, spend some time with “Hell House.”

Edit typos. Thar be plenty, yar.

“A flickering in her eyes revealed the change, like the evanescent shimmer of sunlight across a cloud-darkened landscape. Instantly she was herself again; but not emerging from amnesia. It was, instead, a sudden, brutal surfacing to self, with total memory of every vileness she’d been forced to utter.”

“Fischer nodded. “Belasco formed a club he called Les Aphrodites. Every night-later, two and three times a day-they’d hold a meeting; what Belasco called his Sinposium. Having all partaken of drugs and aphrodisiacs, they’d sit around that table in the great hall talking about sex until everyone was what Belasco referred to as ‘lubricous.’ Then an orgy would commence.”

“Psi phenomena abound in realms of credulity.”

“It was silent for a while. Then Edith’s legs retracted as Florence began to sing in a soft, melodious voice “ ‘The world hath felt a quickening breath from heaven’s eternal shore. And souls, triumphant over death, return to earth once more.’ “ Something about the sound of her muted singing in the darkness made Edith’s flesh crawl.”

“Fischer tottered on his knees, across his face the dazed expression of a man who’d just been bayoneted in the stomach. He tried to hold himself erect but couldn’t. With a choking noise, he fell, landing on his side and drawing up his legs, bending forward at the neck until he had contracted to a fetal pose, eyes closed, body shivering uncontrollably. He felt the rug against his cheek. Nearby, he heard the pop and crackle of the fire. And it seemed as though someone were standing over him, someone who regarded him with cold, sadistic pleasure, gloating at the sight of his ravaged form, the helpless dissolution of his will.”
I will say that I enjoyed the book. Is it scary? In my opinion, it is not. But I found it well-written, and had a nice, detailed answer as to how and why the house was haunted. I grew up watching the movie, "The Legend of Hell House," which was based on this book and the screenplay was written by the author. I feel the movie had some good parts and was enjoyable, but it skipped over a lot of the explanations. I read this book after a recent re-viewing of the film. I see now that the film stuck closely to the book, yet I enjoyed the book a little more because it explained things a bit more in detail. Yes, the book is slow in parts and modern readers may not find it scary, but I looked at it as an interesting debate on the nature of parapsychology and a clever little mystery to solve (about which of our researchers had the right answer). Keep in mind that this book was written in the 70's and can seem a little dated. I'm sure the sexuality presented here was also more of a big deal than it is now. I think it's a classic tale. It may not be the best haunted house story but it's a good one. And I think if you view the movie first, this only enhances your enjoyment of the story.