I am not sure what type of person this makes me. It was more like, “Wow, you are dumb!” As the house played with their minds and bodies, I was apathetic and kind of felt like they had it coming. You know when you are in a scary movie and you yell in y our mind “don’t go in the scary basement!” or “that’s a bad idea!”? I had that feeling for the whole novel but not in a way that I was invested in the characters and wanted nothing to happen to them. I found them to be self-righteous, irritating, and stubborn. One thing I hated about this novel was the characters. Be aware that H ell House contains some explicit and sacrilegious content. The way Matheson describes this and other moments is especially creepy. She tosses a bed sheet into the air and it lands as if draped over a human form. One of my favorite scare moments is when one of the mediums feels a presence in the room. Haunted house combined with spooky bog equals perfect scene setting. The mansion is surrounded by a tarn known as “Bastard Bog” due to the amounts of illegitimate children of the Belasco visitors thrown to their deaths. The descriptions of the Belasco mansion as the characters first enter sets an ominous vibe, feeling heavy and watched. I enjoyed the spooky atmosphere and startling visuals.

Each character has a different perspective on why the house is “haunted,” from scientific to paranormal. The atmosphere of the novel worked for me but the characters did not. However, I just read The Exorcist, also written in the 70s, and I felt that lived up to every bit of my expectations. Granted this book was written in the 70s so by the standards of the day it was ridiculously horrific and controversial. I think the praise actually worked against it because I felt a little let down.

I was so excited to start reading Hell House because of its rave reviews and reputation for being the scariest haunted house novel. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townsfolk refer to it as the Hell House. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery.

But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newspaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death.ĭr.

Hell house novel