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Post by dem on Aug 19, 2020 8:21:52 GMT
Richard Matheson - Hell House (Bantam, 1973: originally Viking, June 1971) Blurb: The Belasco House. Some people called it "The Mount Everest of haunted houses." It was said that demons stalked the ancient rooms; that rites of black magic and the most perverse sexual crimes had been enacted there; that ghosts played havoc with the minds and souls of visitors who passed a night in the old Maine mansion. Twice, teams of psychic investigators had examined the place. None escaped unscathed, Suicide, insanity, grotesquely horrifying deaths followed each exploration. Now a new team was going in to exorcise the dark spirits of HELL HOUSE Hell House, from what I recall of it, was rather a different sort of story from the film version. Lots of sex and extreme language and more extreme imagery. December, 1970. Fantastically wealthy William Rudolf Deutsch is dying and needs to know if there's anything to look forward to on the other side. To this end, he hires three experts in their relative fields to conduct a third investigation of the allegedly haunted Belasco House in Maine's Matawaskie Valley. The vast, windowless property comes complete with ballroom, spectacularly blasphemous Satanic chapel and adjoining Tarn (aka "bastard bog," where Belasco's scarlet women disposed of unwanted infants). According to Dr. Lionel Barrett, 83, parapsychologist and physicist: "It's the Mount Everest of haunted houses, you might say. There were two attempts to investigate it, one in 1931, the other in 1940. Both were disasters. Eight people involved in those attempts were killed, committed suicide, or went insane. Only one survived, and I have no idea how sound he is. Benjamin Fischer, one of the two who'll be with me." Prior to the 1940 debacle, the teenage Fischer, now 45, was considered the most powerful psychic medium of his day. He still is. Making up the team, the Rev. Florence Tanner, 33, a former actress turned spiritualist medium. Barrett's health is not the best. "I had polio when I was twelve; my right leg is partially paralyzed ... it won't effect our project in any way." Even so, his devoted wife, Edith, insists on accompanying him for the week long duration of the investigation. Barrett may be a skeptic where matters "supernatural" are concerned, but he does not rule out the possibility that the situation could turn nasty over coming days. You never know what these hocus pocus crackpots are capable of! Fischer is well versed in the revolting history of Hell House. It was built in 1919 by 'Evil' Emeric Belasco (1878-?) from the $10.5 million he'd inherited from the father he never knew. A genius of depravity, at aged five Emeric lynched a cat to watch the it revive for the second of its nine lives. When the creature refused to quit playing dead, the boy tore it apart and hurled the pieces from the window. Sent away to school following a sexual assault on his sister (who would later briefly become his mistress), Emeric was himself abused by a paedo teacher - who committed suicide shortly after. Childhood was merely a case of warming up for debauchery proper. In 1919, Emeric founded Les Aphrodite's, an exclusive club devoted to reenacting de Sade's 120 Days in Sodom. What began as mere drug-fueled orgies involving anything from twenty to thirty people, fast progressed to murder, mutilation, vivisection, human sacrifice, cannibalism, necrophilia ... When police raided the property in November 1929, they found everyone dead. Twenty seven corpses. Emeric's was not among them. How could such a horror house not be haunted? TBC ...
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 19, 2020 12:04:49 GMT
I remember reading this in paperback when it first came out. It is without doubt one of the most disturbing and horrifying novels I have ever read even to this day. The film was, alas, just a pale shadow of the book, though in all fairness back then there was literally no chance of much of what made the book so memorably horrific getting past the censors.
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Post by cromagnonman on Aug 19, 2020 12:05:30 GMT
As I believe I've mentioned once or twice, I have very mixed feelings about this book. There is an aspect to the resolution which is exceedingly clever. But in other respects there is a slapdash and slipshod feel to the thing. A case in point: 21 December 1970, 2.21pm (p27 in the Corgi edition): exactly where do all those packing cases of equipment suddenly spring from?
The book also has a pronounced misogyny about it. Just contrast the difference in treatment dispensed to the female characters as opposed to the male ones. There's nothing particularly unusual in this in the context of the horror culture of the times. But in this instance it actively undermines the central conceit of the Belasco mansion being an indiscriminate and all inclusive house of equal horrors. It says something about the period, I guess (and perhaps about Matheson too) that the idea of sexual terror being inflicted upon women could be happily countenanced but that the same tolerance didn't extend towards men.
Not that I'm placing myself upon the gender barricades by pointing this out. If Pam Franklin had got her kit off as often in the film as Florence Tanner does in the book no one would have found me complaining. But I still believe that this is a rare instance where the film is an improvement over the source material.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 19, 2020 12:41:39 GMT
I remember reading this in paperback when it first came out. It is without doubt one of the most disturbing and horrifying novels I have ever read even to this day. The film was, alas, just a pale shadow of the book, though in all fairness back then there was literally no chance of much of what made the book so memorably horrific getting past the censors. Is it really that disturbing and horrifying? I read it at a supposedly impressionable age but retain no impression at all. (Except I never liked Matheson, something confirmed multiple times since.)
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 19, 2020 14:05:11 GMT
As I was reading Hell House, I kept thinking of how Shirley Jackson handled the same basic premise in a scarier--and more interesting--way.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 19, 2020 14:37:37 GMT
I only remember a couple of scenes from the novel Hell House. I have seen the film a couple of times but retain even less of that, though I enjoyed it when I was watching it. I read the book when I was around 12, and I'm sure my parents had no idea what the Hell (so to speak) I was reading there.
The main thing I don't recall at all is the Lionel character being so old. I thought he was early middle-aged, 40ish, but that's probably because of who was cast in the film--Clive somebody I think? Handsome actor (for those of us who like that sort of thing).
Now I'm wondering just how Matheson thought certain scenes would play out with the lead psychic investigator being in his 80s. It doesn't motivate me to read the book again, however.
H.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 19, 2020 19:49:24 GMT
As I was reading Hell House, I kept thinking of how Shirley Jackson handled the same basic premise in a scarier--and more interesting--way. Of course you are right, HH is just a variation of a theme. But the writers come from so different backgrounds and times, that a comparison seems difficult. Where Jackson only could imply, Matheson was in your face. HH was back then like a tabloid version, 1971 maybe even a little vulgar. I only knew the movie version and thought it pretty lame in my youth, when I read the novel only a few years ago I was surprised how much more explicit it was. I quite liked it and could appreciate the movie more. Even if I still think it is too timid for its own good. I realize that I know Matheson's work mostly through his many movies. His work for Corman and so on. I think I only read I am Legend which left no lasting impression and HH.
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Post by pulphack on Aug 20, 2020 5:36:46 GMT
That'll be Clive Revill, Steve - a cracking actor who apparently is still going at 90, and even up to few years ago was doing voiceover work for cartoons (I googled). He was in Fathom, Bunny Lake Is Missing and Modesty Blaise in the 60's, but my favourite is Nobody Runs Forever which is a Rod Taylor movie where he's an Aussie copper sent to recover the High Comissioner in London (Christopher Plummer), wanted for the murder of his first wife. Great climax at Wimbledon, and although Clive is, as ever, a supporting actor, he more than makes his mark.
And he's actually from New Zealand, which I didn't know and which surprised me as (like most people apparently) I'd always thought of him as a completely British actor!
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Post by cromagnonman on Aug 20, 2020 12:47:33 GMT
A piece of inconsequential trivia: Revill was the voice of the Emperor in the original release of The Empire Strikes Back. Doubtless overdubbed since, I imagine. For has any series ever taken such a relish in trashing its own legacy quite so systematically.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 20, 2020 15:51:18 GMT
Marvelous, Mr Hack. Yes, Clive was quite a looker back in the day, and always reliable in everything.
Now I want to see Legend of Hell Knockers, erm House again.
cheers, Steve
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Post by dem on Aug 20, 2020 17:09:43 GMT
Rev. Tanner conducts a seance. Sneery Barrett finds it hard to keep a straight face when she materialises Red Cloud, the regulation Indian spirit guide. Red Cloud fast gives way to a foul-mouthed, spectral someone else who warns: "Get out of this house before I kill you all."
That night, a randy ghost Florence takes for "Belasco's son" molests her in the bedroom.
December 22nd:
The three investigators don't have much respect for one another. Barrett, insufferably smug, regards Florence Tanner as a gullible romantic and Ben Fischer a phoney. Florence sees Barrett for the closed minded bigot he is. Fischer dismisses both as self-deluded idiots with no idea of the forces they're up against.
A second seance. Florence produces ectoplasm at an alarming rate until it shrouds her entire upper body. Edith, fearful for the reverend's life, intervenes, whereupon her husband comes under relentless attack from a glass-throwing poltergeist. Furious and bleeding, Barrett accuses the medium of manipulating her powers against him out of hatred. She protests that Belasco's son is responsible. Unfortunately, no-one else believes that such a person ever existed.
Hell House is getting to them all.
Edith Barnett very nearly somnambulates into the Tarn. When Ben saves her life, Mrs. B - a sprightly 64 years old - attempts to ravish him on the spot. (I get Crom's point. The earlier examination of Florence by a cringing Edith made for uncomfortable reading)
P. 90 of 247. Considering there's no lack of incident - it's been set piece on set piece so far - am finding Hell House more of a slog than I probably should.
TBC
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Post by helrunar on Aug 20, 2020 20:34:54 GMT
Interesting notes, Kev. You're defining for me why I have no motivation to re-read the novel, though I think it would be fun to see the movie again. There was an adorable kitty who prowled the grounds--I have seen images on the interwebs.
cheers, Steve
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Post by andydecker on Aug 21, 2020 12:00:00 GMT
Here are a few covers from my collection. Could have sworn I posted them already years ago, but can't find them in the Vault.
Heyne 1975 TOR 1999
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Post by dem on Aug 21, 2020 19:54:01 GMT
Thanks for sharing those, Andreas. The Heyne's my pick of the covers on this thread to date. The Tor looks familiar. Used elsewhere?
Managed another fifty or so pages today. The momentum has sure picked up, as has my interest.
December 23rd:
The day gets off to an ominous start when Florence is set upon a second time, her breasts bitten and mauled by assailant unseen. Florence claims to have located the remains of Daniel Belasco in the wine cellar, and requests assistance to exhume him. Barrett cries off - the injuries he sustained when the poltergeist ran amok are still too painful. Ben reluctantly obliges, taking a crowbar to a section of wall. Sure enough:
The professor obstinately refuses to be impressed, let alone concede that the corpse is that of 'Daniel Belasco.' That it wears a gold ring bearing the initials 'D.B.' on its bony finger proves nothing. As he later explains to Edith.
"I never did tell you what happened to Martin Wrather that time; if you recall, I merely said he'd suffered injury while sitting. What happened was that his genitals were nearly severed. He did it to himself in a moment of hysteria. To this day, however, he remains convinced that 'forces from the other side' attempted to emasculate him ... Which is a far cry from a few small bites on female breasts - although I'm sure the pain she's suffering is considerable."
Rev. Tanner and Ben Fischer afford the body Christian burial. Florence again comes under prolonged attack, this time from the cat which she believes to have been demonically possessed by Belasco senior. It's all happening!
Barrett's life's work, the Reversor, $70, 000 worth of ghost-disproving apparatus, is delivered to Hell House. Move over so-called 'Reverend' Tanner with your infantile conjuring tricks! They may fool the others, but not me! Now it's the turn of science!
Edith has taken to drinking more than is good for her. Frustrated in an attempts at riding her impotent husband in the steam room, she storms out to try her luck with Fischer. The door jams behind her. Ben saves the scalded Barrett's life by battering it open with a wooden bench.
Now it's Rev. Tanner's turn to sleepwalk into the Tarn while dreaming she's dancing with her Daniel at a grand ball. Ben Fischer to the rescue yet again. Florence is now convinced that the undead Emeric is orchestrating events. "Controlled multiple haunting. Something absolutely unique in haunted houses: a surviving will so powerful that he can use that power to dominate every other surviving personality in the house."
It's been a busy day, but we're far from done. It's not yet 6 p.m.
TBC.
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Post by dem on Aug 24, 2020 17:22:12 GMT
December 24 1970
As Barrett insisted on delivery of the Reversor, Christmas Eve proves to be our dysfunctional team's final day at the Belasco House - though things don't run quite as smoothly as he'd boasted they would. Even so, the odds look to have tipped strongly in their favour. But ...
Far be it from me to knock a book for being miserable as sin, but must admit, I found Hell House exhausting at times. Matheson's attention to detail, while commendable, is bloody murder on the momentum of the thing. The shocking bits remain shocking (at least, the carnage in the chapel got to me) - quite an achievement after fifty years. It's strange. Feel like I ought to appreciate Hell House more than I do. Am certain it's one novel that gains from a second/ third reading, but am not exactly enthused at prospect of a rematch.
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