'Hell House' by Richard Matheson

[joysilence]

Don't you sometimes wish horror novels and stories had more original and imaginative titles? It took me an embarrassing amount of time to get my head round the difference between Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, which was made into a film called The Haunting, and Richard Matheson's Hell House, made into The Legend of Hell House...Though having recently finished the Matheson book, I can now say there's little chance of anyone genuinely confusing Hell House with Jackson's novel! I enjoyed the movie versions of both films, which were each chilling in their own way, but I'm afraid I found Hell House somewhat lacking. It's certainly not the Best Haunted House Story In The World Ever, or whatever it is Stephen King says on the cover of my copy (I've forgotten the exact wording, but he's a huge fan of the book.) It's also very different in flavour from his most famous works like I Am Legend or Duel (which I enjoyed very much.)

( Cut for spoilers )

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this to first-time Matheson readers, and its relentlessly depressing air makes it pretty much impossible to read 'ironically', as one would a pulp horror novel, but since it's a pretty famous piece of horror history it might be worth a read for genre afficionados.