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From
his deathbed, sensationalistic
newspaper tycoon Rolf Rudolph Deutsch
wants proof of the supernatural,
ghosts, and most importantly, what
lies beyond death's door. To do this
before he croaks, the eccentric
millionaire hires three paranormal
experts to investigate "the Mount
Everest of haunted houses" to get
him some answers. This house in
question is a dark and foreboding
place of dubious and murderous
reputation. Secluded in backwater
Maine, the manor is surrounded by the
Bastard Bog and an eternal, nearly
impenetrable fog. Emeric Belasco --
it's owner and architect, was the
bastard son of a Civil War munitions
maker; a giant, raging madman known to
partake in "drug addiction,
alcoholism, sadism, bestiality,
mutilations, murder, vampirism,
necrophilia, cannibalism" and
other unspeakable things in the house
that now bears his name.
In
the early 1900's, after his wife
committed suicide, Belasco sealed the
house off from the outside world,
trapping himself and his cronies and
disciples inside. The depravity that
happened next can only be left to the
imagination. Eventually, the house was
broken into by relatives looking for
lost family members, but everyone had
come to a gruesome end. No one knows
for sure exactly how many people
actually died in Belasco House, but
one death cannot be confirmed because
no one could ever find the body of
Emeric Belasco. With no heir, the
house was up for grabs, but no one
could claim or occupy Belasco House
for very long, due to all the
mysterious and deadly phenomenon that
occurred there as the spirits of the
deceased still roamed the maledicted
halls. As its reputation and body
count grew, by the '40s a group of
professional paranormal investigators
-- including a famed psychic whiz-kid
named Ben Fischer, mounted an
expedition to study the house. Several
days later they found Fischer on the
front porch, comatose, naked, and in a
fetal position. Everyone else had met
a violent end inside the house, and
after that disaster, the Belasco House
had a new name: Hell House.
Now,
in 1971, a new team has been organized
by Deutsch to tame Hell House: Dr.
Lionel Barret, a physicist and
parapsychologist, who will be
accompanied (--
or maybe that's encumbered)
by his emotionally dependent wife,
Edith; Florence Tanner, a spiritual
medium; and Fischer, the sole survivor
of the first expedition. They've been
given one week to poke and prod, and
each will be paid $100,000 to validate
or debunk the secrets of Hell House. And
believe it or not, that's just the
back story and first few chapters.
Quite the titillating set up to a
truly fascinating book -- and this
thing has barely gotten warmed up yet
as our
meager group faces danger both
internal and external. Conflicts arise
as bitter "professional
differences" won't allow them to
agree on the nature of Hell House,
dividing them into two camps as the
possessed house starts to get its
hooks into them both physically and
mentally.
Barret
is a skeptic on the spiritual aspects
of the phenomenon. He believes in the
paranormal but only as a science. Good
and evil, souls, or the afterlife
don't enter into the equation. Barret
theorizes the house has a great deal
of psychic energy stored up and "in
essence, the house is a giant battery
and the residual energy of which must
be tapped by all who enter it."
In other words, if you believe the
house is haunted then the
"residual energy" will
manifest itself that way. The good
doctor also has a plan on how to rid
the house of this excess energy.
Tanner
is the polar opposite. The spiritual
leader of a fervent religious sect,
she feels the house is a controlled
multiple haunting. Supposedly, there
is more than one ghost haunting Hell
House, but Belasco keeps the other
spirits trapped here; not allowing
them to pass on to heaven -- or in
most cases, hell. Ms. Tanner is also
mental medium (--
telepathic and empathetic), and
intends to help those pour souls move
on to the other side and give the
house a spiritual cleansing.
Fischer,
on the other hand, is both a mental
and physical medium (--
telepathy and telekinesis), but
only intends to put up a strong
psychic barrier, wait out the week,
and collect his money. Having nearly
been killed here once before, he has
no intention of tangling with Hell
House again.
Things
hit the ground running as the initial
séance brings a warning by Belasco
himself. Channeling
through Tanner, he warns them to "Get
out of this house before I kill you
all." And then our story
barrels to the climax and bloody
resolution. Whose theory proves to be
right? I won't spoil it, but I will
say that not everyone survives.
What
I really like about Hell
House
-- and
all of Matheson's work for that
matter, is how he can explain things
like psychic phenomenon and Barrett's
complex theories so the layman can
understand them. I barely survived
high school physics but Barrett's
intricate explanations on ectoplasm,
bio-energy and electro-magnetic
radiation made perfect sense to me.
While reading, I kept hearing Dan
Aykroyd's Dr. Ray Stantz from Ghostbusters
voicing Dr. Barrett in my mind's ear.
Matheson
is also able to bring the reader a
sense of dread and foreboding with an
economical efficiency of words that a
lot of writers could learn from. One
thing Matheson isn't, is verbose. A
lot is left to the imagination. He
handles the action scenes in the exact
same way, keeping things nice and
taught as the reader burns through the
pages to see what happens next ...
Florence's initial sitting and
summoning of the spirits, and later,
during the poltergeist attack in the
dining room, where everything turns
into a projectile, is a prime example
of this.
And
if you'll allow me a brief interlude,
here, Matheson's efficiency is
actually displayed better in his book,
I
Am Legend.
With a few simple words and
descriptions he can make several
months pass as Morgan teaches himself
the knowledge he needs to fight off
the vampire contagion. In Hell
House,
his characters are likeable, annoying,
heroic, sanctimonious, stubborn and a
lot more braver than they should be in
some situations. And also rightly
frightened in others. In other words,
very human considering the
circumstances. The most interesting
character in the whole story, however,
is Belasco House itself. From the
moldy steam and pool room, to the dank
cellars, to the profane chapel, the
house is Belasco through all
it's manifestations and dirty deeds.
The
book is not without it's flaws,
though. To me, Matheson seems to enjoy
tormenting and degrading poor Florence
Tanner a little bit too much. He
really stacks the deck against her and
runs her through the wringer: Barrett
accuses her of manipulating the
house's energy against him; she is
savagely attacked by spirits, and
always seems to be naked when this
happens; she also becomes obsessed
with the spirit of Belasco's son,
Eric. And I was a little uneasy with
the scene where she tries to exorcise
Eric's spirit by having sex with it.
Then again, he doesn't really treat
Edith all that better, either.
Again,
I won't spoil the ending, but it kind
of chickens out on whose theory is
right. I wasn't completely satisfied
with it but that could be due to a let
down after such a great build up. I
have the same reactions to a lot of
good books I read. There really isn't
anything wrong with the ending, I just
don't want them to end. Period. Hence
the disappointment.
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