The first thing you might notice when comparing the source novel to the film, is that the film transplants the action of the novel from America over to Great Britain. But just like in the book, we open not in Hell House but in the palatial home of eccentric millionaire Rudolph Deutsche (Roland Culver). Terminally ill, he offers to pay Dr. Lionel Barret $100,000 if he can prove the existence of life after death. Barret (Clive Revill) is a physicist and parapsychologist who has spent the last twenty years debunking the paranormal, which is why Deutsche wants him to lead an expedition into the infamous Belasco House, thinking the answer he wants to his own mortality can be found there. Barret can hardly believe the offer. He thought "Hell House" had been sealed up since the incident some twenty years ago. (His inflection on "the incident" tells us that whatever it was, it wasn't very nice.) But the Belasco family needs the money, Deutsche is happy to pay, and he wants the answer before he dies. 

Also on the team will be Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin), a spiritual medium, and Ben Fischer (Roddy McDowell), a physical and mental medium -- and the only survivor of the aforementioned incident ... Turns out that twenty years ago, during the last investigation into Hell House, Fischer barely got out alive while all the others met their death, disfigurement, or were driven completely insane by whatever lurks inside those insidious walls. The new team is rounded out by Barret's wife, Ann (Gayle Honeycutt), and only because he can't talk her out of coming along. Despite the danger, she wants to be with him when he proves his new theory. Besides, they don't believe in haunted houses -- even the "Mt. Everest of haunted houses."

Deutsche only gives them a week because his time is short. Barret makes arrangements with the old man's people to finish building a machine of his design, a machine he claims will solve the problem of Hell House. Promising that the machine will be completed and delivered to the house in two days, Deutsche has the Barrets delivered to the Belasco House in his limousine. Along the way, they pick up Fischer at the train station and Tanner at her church. And the closer they get to their destination, the soundtrack turns more sinister as the road is engulfed in a fog. When the car comes to a halt, as the four make their way toward the house, Ann notices that the windows are bricked up and the house is completely sealed off. Fischer says Belasco did that from the inside to keep people from looking in or out. And as Tanner is overcome by the house's evil presence, Barrett scoffs that they haven't even gotten inside yet. Visibly upset, Fischer can't fathom Barret's incredulous attitude towards Hell House, and constantly reminds everyone that it tried to kill him and damned near succeeded. Doesn't he realize the true danger? Apparently not, and already, what lurks inside Hell House is marshalling itself to finish what it started 20 years ago and kill him -- him, and the others...

Author Richard Matheson detests genre labels. He's not a horror writer, or a science fiction writer, just a writer -- plain and simple. His motto is "A good story is a good story" and why categorize it beyond that? Over the years, his novels and stories, however they're labeled, seemed ready made to be adapted to film. I Am Legend made it twice, first as The Last Man on Earth, and later, the Heston's tour de crap, The Omega Man (-- a third adaptation has recently escaped pre-production purgatory, but the less said about the ending of that thing, the better). And more recently, What Dreams May Come and Stir of Echoes have made it to the big screen. Matheson's first crack at Hollywood was for his novel, The Shrinking Man, but he wouldn't sign the rights over to Universal unless they let him write the screenplay -- which they accepted, but still tinkered and changed a few things for The Incredible Shrinking Man. Matheson was OK with that, but you get a sense that it bugged him. With his foot firmly in the door, Matheson continued to turn out screenplays for the big and small screens -- most notably for The Twilight Zone, including one of my all time faves, The Horror at 20,000 Feet, with William Tiberius Shatner wigging out because something's on the wing! Aside from his novels and their cinematic adaptations, Matheson's biggest claim to fame is probably his collaboration with Roger Corman and American International Pictures on a series of loose -- and I mean loose -- adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe. And though Corman gets a lion's share of credit on those pictures, Matheson's macabre (House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum) and later hilarious (The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors) scripts are why we're really still talking about those movies today -- with a tip of the cap to the great Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre as well.

Originally, Matheson's Hell House, whose proprietor, Emeric Belasco, was loosely based on the exploits of Alistair Crowley, a well known Satanist, was as to be another production for American International, but when James H. Nicholson's affair with actress Susan Hart blew up, leaving him divorced and no longer and equal shareholder with long time partner Sam Arkoff, Nicholson struck a deal with 20th Century Fox and set out on his own as an independent producer. And first on his list was The Legend of Hell House, which he brought with him when he left AIP. Sadly, this, and some pre-production work on Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry were Nicholson's last cinematic contributions, who succumbed to a brain tumor in late 1972. And though Nicholson never got to see it, his last film/spook-show was a fitting cap-stone to a long and storied career as we catch back up with our intrepid troupe of ghost-chasers right after they get the generator running. And when the lights come on, Fischer gives them the nickel tour -- highlighted with tales of how each of the last investigative team met their gruesome demise. He eventually leads them to the chapel: a profane place with blasphemous pictures on the walls -- topped off with a giant *ahem* erotic crucifix hanging over the altar. The room gives off such a vile vibe that Tanner cannot even enter it, and the medium is soon overcome with the sound of wailing voices and retreats. When asked why Fischer isn't affected, Barret believes his psychic defenses must be stronger than hers.

Leaving Tanner to find the Barrets, Fischer finds only Ann, locked in another trance. Feeling a bit randy again, Ann claims this is where most of Belasco's debauchery took place and it's really turning her on. She offers herself to Fischer, but when sees Barret spying on them from the top of the stairs, Ann screams and then faints ... Blaming the house, her husband doesn't hold her responsible for her abhorrent actions. Fischer warns that this wasn't the first incident, and encourages Barret to get her out before it's too late; the house has already gotten to Tanner and Ann, and they could be next. Barret then turns on Fischer, accusing him of wasting Deutsche's money. He knows Fischer has shut himself off, making him completely worthless to the investigation. After Barret storms off, Fischer takes a seat. Taking a moment to steel his nerve, he then slowly drops his mental guard, opening himself up to the house -- and is quickly overwhelmed, screams, and drops to the floor in a mass of convulsions ... After he's recovered, Fischer again tries to talk Tanner into leaving before it's too late. But she stubbornly says the house has nothing that they can't handle. That's a load of bull, Fischer says, and then recounts the tragedy that occurred twenty years ago: Lillian, a fellow psychic, threw herself off the balcony to her death. Dr. Graham crawled out of the house to die. Dr. Rand was paralyzed, and Finley was crippled and driven insane. He also admits to shutting himself off from the house, and he will continue to do so until he is far, far away from Hell House -- and suggests she does the same.

Back in the main hall, Barret finally explains his theory that the house is like a giant battery of stored energy waiting to be channeled. And what his machine will do is -- brace yourselves, reverse the polarity on the stored electromagnetic radiation and drain the house of this residual energy, rendering it harmless. Fischer says that's crazy and calls the machine a pile of junk, and punctuates that with a warning, whether it works or not, that Hell House will allow visitors and only attacks when provoked -- so don't provoke it, Einstein. Instead, he offers, why don't they all lay low, like him, and tell old Deutsche whatever he wants to hear, and then spend his money in good health if not good conscience. But his pitch finds no takers.

Back in her room, Tanner is overcome by the voices again. This time, she finally relents and gives her body over to Daniel's spirit, hoping the love she gives will end his torment. The spirit then molests and rapes her while she screams for God's forgiveness. Hearing this outburst, the others burst in and find her alone and giggling, covered in more bloody scratches. Waking up, and sickened by what happened, she weeps, claiming the evil is inside her trying to take over. Pushed well past her limits, Tanner finally agrees to let Fischer take her away. When they announce to the Barrets that they're leaving, Barret tells Fischer that he needn't come back either as he's about to fire up the machine and microwave Hell House clean. Tanner asks him to explain. Barret gladly does (-- you really get the sense that this guy loves to hear himself talk), saying the body produces an aura of electromagnetic radiation, and when we die, this aura sticks around. Tanner agrees, saying that this is the soul and we use that to get to Heaven. Barret disagrees, it has nothing to do with the soul and is only energy, and with his machine, the energy will be siphoned off, thus destroying Hell House. With that revelation, Tanner becomes possessed, seizes a fire poker and whacks away at the contraption. In her fury, she knocks Fischer out before Barret can return the favor. 

Luckily, she smashed nothing vital and it will only require minor repairs. Barret also claims that this outburst proves his theory about Tanner correct --  she tried to destroy his machine because it would disprove all of her beliefs. And while Fischer and Ann watch Barret fix the machine, Tanner wakes up and sneaks off to the chapel, where she is overcome by the wailing voices of torment. She presses on toward the altar, reaching out further with her powers, but the giant *ahem* erotic crucifix breaks away from the wall and impales her. Crushed, before she dies, Tanner realizes the real truth behind Hell House, and in her own blood scribbles a B inside a circle. Her death screams bring the others too late but they don't know what to make of her cryptic message. Moving on, Barret finishes fixing the machine and switches it on. As a steady hum grows louder, he orders everyone out of the house. Once they're clear, the hum continues to grow in intensity and we hear the wailing of the spirits inside as they try to seek shelter from the radiation pulse ... When the machine completes its cycle, the three survivors return to the house. Once inside, when Barret asks Fischer to open up and check the house, Fischer can't believe it -- he senses nothing! The house is clean. Calling Barret a genius, he runs off to test the rest of the house. His experiment a rousing success, Barret tells Ann to go and pack while he gets some final readings from his equipment. All seems well -- until his equipment starts ticking. Barret watches in amazement -- then horror, as the levels start going off the charts, and the last words he can get out is "I do not accept this" before his sensors explode, peppering his face with shrapnel ... Ann returns and finds the equipment in ruins, but no sign of her husband. She hears more noises that lead her into the chapel, where she finds Barret's body crushed under a chandelier. She screams and runs out, right into Fisher, who claims the entire house is clean -- except for the chapel. Sensing an evil presence there, Ann begs Fischer to just leave with her, but he gathers the strength to confront whatever is in the chapel -- for Tanner, for Barret, and for himself. When he crosses the threshold, he is assaulted by the voices but makes it to the bodies of his fallen comrades. Here, he finally deciphers Tanner's message. She realized it too late, but she and Barret were both wrong -- sort of. It wasn't a multiple haunting, or residual energy, just one foul entity that was behind Hell House -- Emeric Belasco.

For the most part, the film adaptation does Hell House justice. And the author, the book and the film come under way too much fire and comparison to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Robert Wise's film adaptation, The Haunting. To each his own I guess. I personally enjoy both franchises for very different reasons. Subtle and implied horror is more creepy as far as I'm concerned, but as Stephen King says "Sometimes you gotta feed the gators" and see what's lurking in the shadows. What I do find find truly hilarious, though, while watching the current remake of The Haunting, was when I realized that the creators had their source materials all confused. As the old Recess Peanut Butter Cup commercials used to go -- You got you're Haunting in my Hell House! No! You've got you're Hell House in my Haunting, resulting in one of the most unintentionally hilarious movies of 1999.