Hell House

Classic haunted mansion story, similar to The Haunting of Hill House, only less psychological, more visceral. The titular house belonged to the infamous Emeric Belasco, who hosted depraved parties that led to orgies, cannibalism, torture, murder for sport– any blasphemy or perversion you can imagine. Belasco lured guests in with sex, drugs, exotic food (?) and slowly kept them hooked into staying until they fell bestial level. After Emeric's death, the house is considered “the most haunted in the world.” Every form of spiritual activity known to man has occurred there. Scientists and mediums explored the house to investigate and record the phenomena and perhaps purge it of the evil energy that abides. All of these investigations failed and most of those involved didn't survive.

The main story concerns an investigation made by four people: Dr. Lionel Barrett, scientist, and his wife Edith; Florence Tanner, spiritualist and mental medium; and Benjamin Fisher, physical medium. Who knew there were different types of mediums? Certainly not me. I was most intrigued by the conflict between Dr. Barrett and Florence. Barrett is convinced the explanation of the haunting is scientific and treatable with his invention. Florence is convinced the haunting is spiritual and that love will save the day. To me, Barrett's explanation was just as illogical as the notion of spirits. Barrett seemed to believe that any physical manifestations and creepy atmosphere in the house are all created by the mental energy of the people who lived and died in the house, but not any ghostly presence.

Edith and Fischer, two characters not involved in the debate, had their personal issues challenged by the Belasco (Hell House). Fischer had been part of a previous investigation that failed to solve the mystery/purge the haunting and was the only survivor. He never worked as a medium again and suffered a crisis of confidence. Edith is dealing with sexual longings that the nature of the house brings out of her. Their issues were more internal and psychological and brought them into conflict with Florence and Barrett and made them equally vulnerable to the influence of Belasco.

This was not a perfect scary story experience for me; some of the scenes of haunting were a bit silly. I admit I've read too many of these books; I'm probably jaded. The scene with the dining room furniture and dishes flying all over, while the investigators hid under the table, had me laughing, and I doubt that was the intended effect. Also, the resolution to getting rid of Emeric Belasco's influence came down to calling him a little bastard, if you strip away all the drama and emotion. This also seems unintentionally funny.

I preferred this to The Haunting of Hill House since the ending of that one seemed anticlimactic. Despite the unintentional humor, I'd consider Hell House a standard for haunted house stories. It may be a bit dated fifty years out but it was still a fun read for a gloomy day.

This book follows an established horror trope where an old, wealthy man, wanting to know if life really continues after death, offers to pay a large sum to a small group to spend a week in a extremely dangerous haunted house. The small group is made up of four people - a somewhat crippled by polio physicist, his mousy wife and two mediums. Two former expeditions into the house, one in the early 1930s and another in the early 1940s had both ended in insanity or death. It is now 1970 and the one, now older, surviving member of the 1940s group is one of the mediums willing to enter the house to overcome his fear and defeat the evil that permeates the house. The physicist, not believing in ghosts, has invented a machine to clear the house of what he believes is residual noxious energy from past horrendous behavior that occurred there. His wife, though warned about the dangers, is more afraid of being away from her husband and will not leave his side. The other medium is a beautiful redhead who is the leader of a spiritualist church and has her own plans to clear the house of the ghosts that linger there. But whoever or whatever exists in the house has other plans and considers any of the living who enter toys to be played with and eventually destroyed. The story is filled with supernatural occurrences and violence, including sexual violence.

Algo fuera de lo común a lo que leo normalmente.
Premisa muy buena, que se desinfla por la parte media, Pero que termina de forma correcta .

El final se me hizo un poco obvio, pero estuvo bien.
Esperaba más interacciones misteriosas como tal, más que solo fueran aspectos sexuales, pero bueno, era la casa de la perversión.

While I really liked the mood of the house and the terror of the haunting I was put off by the pseudoscience around mediums that was being thrown around. This has been made into at least a movie, the one I've seen is with Roddy McDowall.

This one has a married couple (scientists) and 2 mediums trying to get to the root of a very haunted house. They act as if it's just shenanigans that are going on, but then people are getting injured enough from the ‘ghosts' sexually assaulting them that they really should go to the hospital but they say nah. Then things get serious and there's a showdown with the supernatural. Who wins? You can read it and find out for yourself.