The 98th review overall!
Second day, vacation still going great. I really, really enjoy not having to go into work Sunday night, words can't describe! So for tonight I hit up Netflix again, tomorrow I go to the video store, I promise, but tonight's horror movie is...
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
So an old millionaire near death wants a guy to prove or disprove life after death, so he sets up a doctor named Barrett with a team to figure out the answer at a place called "Hell House. The team consists of a mental medium, a physical medium who was the only who escaped a previous expedition at the house with his life and sanity.
So they make it to the house, and during a "sitting" a young ghost that calls himself "Jacob" speaks through the girl, threatening to kill all of them if they don't leave. The skeptic isn't convinced, the wife of the skeptic is naturally freaked out, the girl doing the sitting, Florence, is convinced Jacob needs their help passing on, and the last guy, Ben, being the only survivor of a previous encounter is keeping himself shut off, he's just looking to cash in.
A lot of freaky stuff keeps happening, and then everyone finds out what Barrett has planned; he brought in a giant machine to, I don't really know, he explains it, but it's supposed to cleanse the house of the spirits or the energy Barrett talks about. It leads to a cool exchange between Ben and the doctor where Ben explains the house doesn't mind a visitor or two, but if you start fucking with it; it gets pissed and fights back. I'm paraphrasing a bit. Anyways, predictably, the house isn't too happy and the ghost isn't pleased.
It's a good movie, the house is really cool looking, it's got good pacing, tense moments, and several scary scenes. Yes a good majority are pop up scares, but when "Jacob" speaks as Florence, it is pretty chilling. The best word to describe the tone of it is "spooky."
Now, if I could have three words to sum up the entire movie, I'd go with, "weird and goofy." Here are some things that happen in this movie; we get the inspiration for the cat fight from Scary Movie 2, Florence allows the ghost to have sex with her under false pretenses, Florence tries to warn ghosts that have been hurting people, and we find out the reason the main ghost is so pissed off is because when he was alive, he was short. Yes, this whole thing could have been avoided if the man were taller.
Yes if you can ignore a lot of the silliness, it is pretty good. The characters are a mixed bag, I liked Ben, the doctor wasn't bad, his wife was eh, but man, Florence was practically begging the ghosts to beat her up. I get it, she's altruistic and wants to help, but how can anyone keep falling for the same thing? It takes a giant crucifix falling on her before she realizes what's going on.
Goofy but solid.