The Legend of Hell House

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Wow, watch that trailer and then Edgar Wright's trailer for Grindhouse. Cool.

Michael Gough has just passed away. Not Cool. I remember him mainly from Tim Burton films, notably as Alfred in his Batman films and also uttering my favourite line in Sleepy Hollow. "Taken. Taken by the Headless Horseman. Taken back to hell!" I saw the name of this film in his filmography and thought, I do love a good haunted house film so I gave it a look. Unfortunately it's not the best example of his acting talent. He only appears as a corpse in the last minute of the film. But his characters presence is there from the start.

I was pleasantly surprised to get to see Roddy McDowall without chimpanzee make-up covering his face. I've been going through all the extras on my new Planet of the Apes bluray box set so I'm just used to hearing his voice filtered through those prosthetic lips.

He and the rest of the cast member are required to do some pretty big acting here and I think they sell it for the most part. But if you aren't getting into it it'll be pretty ridiculous. There's all the stereotypical haunted house staples here. Whispering voices, low angles, high contrast shadows, moving objects, temperature drops, clairvoyance and some even ectoplasm.

They try and make is a science by explaining about electromagnetic radiation and using a machine to clear it. Good thing the ghost was smarter than that.

It's not the greatest haunted house movie but it has all the elements I love about them and does them reasonably well too.