Hell House by Richard Matheson

 

Who doesn't love to read a horror novel that features a haunted house? The haunted house motif really does seem to be a popular theme in the horror genre world. With Halloween right around the corner, I decided I would read a few novels from the horror genre... I couldn't resist choosing to read Hell House by Richard Matheson as I've enjoyed a few of his other novels and have wanted to explore more of Matheson's novels. Hell House seemed like a good fit as it deals with a haunted house and is also considered a horror classic.

Hell House by Richard Matheson was published in 1971. Hell House has four main characters - Lionel Barrett, a physicist with an interest in parapsychology and his wife, Edith, and two mediums, Florence Tanner and Benjamin Franklin Fischer. Lionel Barrett, Florence Tanner, and Benjamin Franklin Fischer are hired by a dying millionaire, William Reinhardt Deutsch, to investigate the possibility of life after death for a week at the Belasco House (aka Hell House) in Maine. The Belasco House is known as the most haunted house with a long history.

Hell House is a horror novel with a mystery to be solved as to why the house itself is haunted. I especially liked the supernatural horror and mystery components for this novel as it slowly draws the reader in to the storyline over time. The sanity of each of the four characters is subtly undermined as the Belasco House picks up each individual's weakness and uses this weakness to its advantage as the house pits each individual against the other, which erodes the trust between them. 

The Belasco House also has a sordid history of debauchery and other immoral acts, which seemed to occur (or rather be encouraged) by the original owner, Emeric Belasco. The majority of those that enter the home never leave as they end up dead or alive but scarred in some way by other means, like madness, etc.

Although, I liked Hell House by Richard Matheson overall, I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. I absolutely loved Matheson's novels,  Shadow on the Sun and also A Stir of Echoes, but Hell House just didn't measure up completely for me. Yes, this novel features a very scary haunted house, but the plot felt a bit dated and something else I can't put my finger on.

I listened to the unabridged audio version of Hell House by Richard Matheson, which is well narrated by Ray Porter. 

Listening time for Hell House by Richard Matheson is 9 hours, 11 minutes.

Below is the publisher's summary for Hell House by Richard Matheson, which I discovered on Chirp's website:

For over twenty years, Belasco House has stood empty. Regarded as the Mount Everest of haunted houses, its shadowed walls have witnessed scenes of unimaginable horror and depravity. All previous attempts to probe its mysteries have ended in murder, suicide, or insanity. But now, a new investigation has been launched, bringing four strangers to Belasco House in search of the ultimate secrets of life and death. A wealthy publisher, brooding over his impending death, has paid a physicist and two mediums to establish the facts of life after death once and for all. For one night, they will investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townsfolk refer to it as the Hell House.

Hell House, which inspired the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House, is Matheson’s most frightening and shocking book and an acknowledged classic of the genre.

I am giving Hell House by Richard Matheson a rating of 3 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!!