Hell House Paperback – October 13, 1999

I've seen the 1973 film several times. Finally decided to read the source material as a Halloween treat.It's very good... though flawed in several instances. I particularly enjoyed Matheson's writing style which made for a smooth evocative read. Those who enjoy a bit of descriptive carnality should enjoy this ;-) I can't get over the suspicion that there is a lot of derivitive material influenced by "The Haunting Of Hill House" but I suppose most haunted house stories do share a lot in common.*spoilers*The main thing that bothered me, past the midpoint they begin discussing the seeming multitude of individuals comprising the "army" of the haunting, yet they really had not been discussed or described individually in detail. We get a lot about Daniel Belasco and maybe a couple of brief references to other apparent spirits but nothing to match the later assertion by Florence of MANY apparent individual spirits had supposedly manifested or been sensed. It really isn't until Edith is massively attacked after Lionel's death that we get such a discription. Discovering the truth at the end doesn't really resolve the lack of description concerning the earlier stated "multiple controled haunting" by Florence.The end confrontation was adequate but, considering some of the earlier elaborately drawn out encounters, it was not as spectacular as I had hoped for.All that said, it was a GOOD story and U'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

Our house went on a horror binge over the summer, and it turns out there are several somewhat classic books where the author places a bunch of people in a haunted house and lets the house haunt them – Hell House, Hill House, House on Haunted Hill. It’s easy to get them confused! I think Matheson here stands out for his cruelty, misogyny, and heavy sexuality. It was well-written enough and had some good twists, so it does stand out for that, too. It was interesting enough that I went and picked up “I Am Legend” (which has some of the same issues, not surprisingly). So, it is pretty good for what it is, but there are some elements that didn’t age well.

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.

I was 19 when I first read this book. Blew me away then and I'm now 68....and it's a horror Stephen King says affected him when he was young. The movie is great butt...reading this book is Truly a mind bender. I've been through and seen alot in my life-time, good and bad. But this Book? Blows me away. Buy this if you are open to be scared and horrified. Honestly. Buy the movie first and then read the book. You won't be disappointed.

Really enjoyed this book and it wasn’t until I finished it that I realised it was written so long ago. Time definitely has not aged it. Great book. Well written, great story and ended well.

1970: Ein Team von paranormalen Investigatoren soll im Auftrag eines exzentrischen Milliardärs das legendäre "Hell House" erforschen, das zu Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts der Schauplatz ungeahnter Perversionen und Greueltaten war, geleitet vom geheinmisvoll-dämonischen Emeric Belasco. Die letzte paranormale Forschung fand 1940 statt-es gab nur einen Überlebenden: Benjamin Fischer. Dieser ist 1970 wieder dabei-zusammen mit der Spiritualistin Florence Tanner und dem Forscher Dr. Lionel Barrett, der mit seiner Frau reist und eine eigene Apparatur zum Vertreiben von "residualer Energie" entwickelt hatte. Im Hell House soll sie ihren Test bestehen.Was immer die Vier erwarteten-es wird um ein Vielfaches übertroffen. Der Geist der Protagonisten wird ebenso wie ihre Körper angegriffen und lange Zeit scheint der zerstörerische Geist des Hauses die Oberhand zu behalten. Doch dann tritt eine unerwartete Wendung ein..Wer einen modernen Spukhaus-Roman der Oberklasse genießen will, ist mit "Hell-House" bestens bedient. Am besten nachts beim Licht einer Schreibtischlampe lesen, dann gruselt es sich leichter...

This has to be a classic horror story. Dark and unpleasant throughout it sets the benchmark of tales from beyond the grave.

Amei A Leiturado Livro bom demais fenomenaltem até filme A Casa da Noite Eterna de 1973feito para a TV O Livro Me Fora Indicado por Tatiana Feltin