She finds a human skeleton chained behind a wall. Stricken by the accusation, Fischer drops his psychic shields, but he is immediately attacked.įlorence is convinced that one of the 'surviving personalities' in the home is Daniel, Belasco's tormented son, and she is determined to prove it at all costs. He is resentful, and spurns Fischer's warnings that the house is affecting Ann. Her husband arrives a moment later to witness her advances to Fischer. A second incident occurs a day or so later after she has become drunk. He strikes her, snapping her out of the trance, and she returns to herself, horrified and ashamed. She goes downstairs and, in an apparent trance, disrobes and demands sex from Fischer. Meanwhile, Fischer remains aloof, with his mind closed to the house's influence, and is only there to collect the generous paycheck.Īnn is subjected to erotic visions late at night, which seem linked to her lackluster sex life. When, after a quarrel with Tanner, Barrett is attacked by invisible forces, he suspects that Florence may be using the house's energy against him. Though not a physical medium, Florence begins to manifest physical phenomena inside the house. Barrett brings a machine he has developed, which he believes will rid the house of this energy. The group arrive to begin their investigation a week before Christmas Eve, and the rationalist Barrett is rudely skeptical of Florence's belief in 'surviving personalities', spirits which haunt the physical world, and he asserts that there is nothing but unfocused electromagnetic energy in the house. The house is believed to be haunted by the victims of Belasco's twisted and sadistic desires.Īccompanying Barrett are his wife, Ann, as well as two mediums: mental medium and spiritualist minister Florence Tanner and physical medium Benjamin Franklin 'Ben' Fischer, who is the only survivor of an investigation conducted 20 years before.

Lionel Barrett is enlisted by eccentric millionaire Rudolph Deutsch to undertake an investigation on the afterlife at Belasco House, the 'Mount Everest of haunted houses.' The house was originally owned by Emeric Belasco, an imposing, perverted millionaire and supposed murderer, who disappeared soon after a massacre occurred at the home. Its screenplay was written by American author Richard Matheson, based upon his 1971 novel Hell House. It follows a group of researchers who spend a week in the former home of a sadist and murderer, where previous paranormal investigators were inexplicably killed. The Legend of Hell House is a 1973 gothic supernatural horror film directed by John Hough, and starring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, and Gayle Hunnicutt.

Hell house by richard matheson