I love writer Richard Matheson, he wrote I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come, Duel, 16 of the most famous episodes from the original Twilight Zone, he also wrote the material that became Kolchak: The Night Stalker (the movies and the show). So when I heard about this haunted house story I immediately put to the top of my "must see" list. The story is eerily similar to the movie The Haunting, and its source material The Haunting of Hill House, both stories are about a group of four or five paranormal investigators going to study the activity in the stories' titular houses (their names are only different by one letter). Hell house is characterized in the novel as "the Mount Everest" of haunted houses. The main difference in the two stories is that Legend of Hell House is set in England, and the entire cast is British (even though the novel is originally set on the U.S. east coast just like The Haunting). Both
the films' source material was released in the same year, 1959. The film is also pretty similar to another British film, The Stone Tape (1972) that was a BBC made for TV movie about a record company based out of an old mansion encountering ghosts and eventually doing experiments on/with the ghosts. Where Hell House really stands out among the rest however is in some of the things it was the first to do in horror movies; All the ghost movies before it focused on subtlety, even though The Haunting still one of the scariest films ever made to this day, with the exception of one character dying at the end of the film, nobody was noticeably attacked on-screen, that's not the case in Hell House. The Haunting's ghosts did bother and mess with and potentially try to hurt its guests, Hell House has a team of investigators go in knowing that a previous attempt to "cleanse" the house had been made, and only one person survived that attempt. Also the house makes no mistake about its intentions to its "guests," it posesses one of the mediums and warns them all very clearly "I will kill you all!" and then attacks the person in charge and very nearly does kill him. This film came out the same year as The Exorcist, but Hell House came out that summer as opposed to the winter when The Exorcist was released, thus making Hell House one of the first times a character was very noticeably demonically possessed on film. The film also marks the first time (as far as I know) that a character has sex with a ghost. The acting is superb with a cast led by Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes, Fright Night), and the film is directed by John Hough the same guy who would go on to direct other supernatural classic Sci-fis Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), and Watcher in the Woods (1980), that being said the film has a similar feel and will not be a dissappointment to fans of those films. The film is not as scary as I expected, but in its own innovative way it was pretty badass. I recommend it and give it a 4.5/5, you can view the trailer below:
Another one that almost single-handedly changed the horror genre. As I mentioned before in my Black Christmas review, 1974 was a big year for horror, Black Christmas redefined the slasher genre making the birth of movies like Halloween (1978) possible, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre made eventually led to the birth of the extremely gory violent and scary horror movie. Texas Chainsaw along with Black Christmas were the first two horror films to create "the lone girl" formula (where a single female always survives)for horror films to come, Chainsaw was also the first film to feature the killer running full speed after his victims instead of walking at a slow pace, and it was also the first horror film to have the majority of it take place in the daytime. Also though you may walk away from the film thinking you've just seen a bloodbath, there's very little actual gore in the film (a lot of it just appears or was already in the background). For those who do not know about the film, the general plot is that five hippies go out for a drive and get lost/find an old house and go exploring, the five friends then run into a chainsaw wielding maniac named Leatherface and his demented cannibalistic family. The movie is not based on a true story despite what the film and advertising says, but it was inspired by the real life crimes of Ed Gein and Charles Manson. Now if you were to just look at the movie for all those reasons alone the film would be great, but that would be disregarding about 90% of the film's greatness. Arguably the real horror and greatness that came from this movie involved/was due to the horrendous infamous conditions of the film's production. The acting in the film was great and one of the reasons why the film was as successful as it was, but a large percent of the performances, were not acted. A lot of the scenes when you see people getting beat with brooms or other objects, those actors were actually beaten full force. The scene where the actress limps away from Leatherface after jumping out of a one story window? That was real too, in order to get a better shot the film crew made about an eight foot tall ramp for the actress to run and jump off of, through the window, and when she landed she hurt her leg badly, but she decided to continue filming anyway. All the animal bones, bodies, and furniture aroundthe house? Those
were all real too and constructed by the film's art director who went out driving around the highways of Texas scouring for roadkill, and then would bring it back to make all the film's "creations" out of it. The crazy hitch-hiker? In the documentary found on "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:2-disc Ultimate Collection," titled Flesh Wounds, the actor who plays the Hitch-hiker admits to actually being Schizophrenic. The insane cackling the actress does on the back of the truck at the end? That was real too, she explains that she was having a nervous breakdown at that point in filming due to the fact that she had to re-shoot some of the most difficult scenes to film (including the one where she hurt her leg) because of technical problems. Also in the scene where
Leatherface hits the guy with a hammer, one of the actors expressed that he was almost struck by the hammer. And the obnoxious Franklin character? He stayed in character even when they weren't filming so as to create real dislike between himself and the other characters. On top of all that the shooting of the film is notorious for the conditions it was filmed under, it was filmed during a record breaking heatwave in Texas history with almost a month of days with the temperature over 100 degrees, plus when filming on the set all the lights added about another 20 degrees of heat, which lead to the animal carcasses rotting and stinking to the point of making several people on the production (including the actor who played Leatherface) vomit multiple times. Most of the Actors and Actresses only had one costume too say during the whole three plus weeks of filming in the severe heat, they couldn't wash their clothes, or even bath so they could retain their character's gritty "look". Also at one point they had more animal carcasses lying around than they knew what to due with, so director Tobe Hooper told the crew to burn them, so the horrible smell of burning rotting animal flesh was detectable for miles. The most grueling part of the shootthough was agreed upon by everyone involved to be the dinner scene, which was a 27 hour long shoot. The actor who played the hitch-hiker said in Flesh Wounds, that he had personally lead soldiers into combat several times in Vietnam, and that that was not as harrowing of an experience as shooting the dinner scene was.
Also all the blood that was poured in the main actresses hair at the end, permanently stained her hair for life. Also once the film did get successful the actors never got any of the royalties because of the contract they had with the film company that produced the film (which just happened to have ties to the mafia), honestly checkout the documentaries on that 2-disc collection if you're interested in hearing more, they're quite good.But despite all the hardships the film and crew went through, someone could argue the end product was worth it. The director, Makeup artist, and set/art director and cinematographer all went on to successful and award winning careers. The film opens at the beginning by talking about some mutilated bodies that are described as "a grisly display of art," which is exactly how I would describe the film. It is at once extremely disturbing and yet gorgeous. The cinematography, unique camera style, and gorgeous sunsets make the film gorgeous to look at, and the set is so distinct that it is essentially another character in the film. (Fun fact: the set was an actual house, and it is open to the public today as a restaurant in Texas.) And the rest is history, the film became a massive success at Drive-ins and such and spawned several sequels and remakes as well launched the career of Tobe Hooper, one of my all time favorite directors. At this point I think it's pretty obvious what my opinion of the film is, most people will say this is one of the greatest Horror films of all time, if not the greatest, I wouldn't say it's the greatest but I'd say it's probably in the top 5. I give it a 5/5. I've decided not to include the trailer because it shows every single famous/scary scene from the film, so instead here's the segment from Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments where they talk about the film:
1974 was one hell of a year for the horror genre, arguably the two most influential horror movies (and arguably two of the most influential films of all time too) were released within ten days of each other, the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Black Christmas. Black Christmas was the first film to do many things, it was the first Christmas horror film (first holiday horror film as well), it was the first sorority horror movie, it was the first horror film where you never see the killer, the first where ending is never clearly resolved, the first to do the big twist with the phones (think When a Stranger Calls[1979] or [2006]), and the one which the director was most proud of, the first realistic look at college life in the US. Bob Clark may have become most famous for the 80s comedies Porky's (1982), or the immortal holiday cult classic A Christmas Story (1983), but like many and most famous directors, he started in the horror genre. Like most directors he only viewed making horror films as a necessity to pay the bills until he would later be big enough to make the films he wanted to do, but those who have seen his horror films usually agree that they are some of the best ever made. This film is about a serial killer stalking the residents of a college sorority around Christmas. This film came out four years before Halloween (1978) which would set the horror world ablaze creating the slasher craze which would eventually in one way or another affect every horror movie ever made after the 70s. When I watched this one I had no idea of the historical significance it had and I was just like "wow this is pretty similar to Halloween, it's really good though, and hey they stole that part from When a Stranger Calls!" When in reality When a Stranger Calls blatantly ripped off this film. This film even if you have seen all the movies it influenced before you see these one, it still feels great. The film is still scary, still funny, and the juxtaposition of the killings around "the most peaceful time of the year" still works great. While The Texas Chainsaw Massacre influenced horror movies to eventually go down the path of extreme violence and gore, this film is just as influential in the way that it is stylized and shies away from being extremely graphic (though it does have its
moments).This film truly still feels fresh, especially in its portrayal of the college students, I felt like they were similar to some people I've met being a current college student. The film is also notable for its young stars Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet) Margot Kidder(Superman), and Keir Dullea (2001: a Space Odyssey). It should almost be a crime that this film has dwelt in obscurity while the other films that were influenced by it prospered enormously. This film does have pretty devout cult following that it has gathered over the years though, including such celebrity fans as Steve Martin (in the documentary in the bonus features on the disc, Olivia Hussey said he told her it's one of his favorite movies and he's seen it 23 times), and a little guy named Elvis Presley, who watched it every year around Christmas until he died, and since then Priscilla and Lisa Marie have kept up the tradition every year since.The film also had a remake in 2006 which earned the approval of Bob Clark, the remake is notable in the sense that it sets out to resolve some of the loose ends left by the original. The film's most famous scene is when a girl is asphyxiated by a plastic bag over her head. This film is a part of Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, and I give it a 5/5. You can view the trailer below:
Another influential and ahead of its time horror movie, Raw Meat would pave the way for countless stories about underground mutants killing people in the subways, like C.H.U.D.(1984), (see my review) Creep (2004), and Clive Barker's short story and film The Midnight Meat Train (2008), and even The Descent (2005) takes a page from this film's book. When an important member of the British government goes missing in a subway station, the local police force takes the matter into their hands, and a somewhat manic Donald Pleasance (The Great Escape, Halloween) leads the investigation. Sir Christopher Lee also makes an appearance in the film, though his is much smaller. It turns out the lone survivor of a group of construction workers that got stuck in the subway tunnelsmany years ago (for so long
that the survivors resorted to cannibalism and inbreeding to survive) is responsible for the recent disappearances and murders in the subway. This movie is surprisingly funny, Donald Pleasance is a real hoot, and there are also times when the audience is called to feel empathy or even sympathy for the cannibal killer, (and it is rather effective at doing so), and then of course there are times when the film's atmosphere (dark London subways) is very disturbing/unsettling and freaky. This film was ahead of its time for the amount of graphic detail and gore it shows. There are some plot holes if you look hard enough and try to scientifically analyze everything, but you shouldn't be doing that for this film anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I don't like gore (the gore is ahead of its time but not necessarily a lot by today's standards), I would recommend watching this one in total darkness though, because I watched almost the whole thing with a light on, and then turned it off for the last 20 minutes or so, and it was a lot freakier in the dark.The monster could have seemed less human Also you'll never think of/hear the line "Mind the doors!" the same way again. I give it a 4.25/5. This film is mentioned in Rue Morgue magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You need to See. You can view the trailer below:
