Review; Hell House by Richard Matheson
Description from Goodreads
For over twenty years, Belasco House has stood empty. Regarded as the Mount Everest of haunted houses, it is a venerable mansion whose shadowed walls have witnessed scenes of almost unimaginable horror and depravity. Two previous expeditions to investigate its secrets met with disaster, the participants destroyed by murder, suicide, or insanity.Now a new investigation has been mounted, bringing four strangers to the forbidding mansion, determined to probe Belasco House for the ultimate secrets of life and death. Each has his or her own reasons for daring the unknown torments and temptations of the mansion, but can any soul survive what lurks within the most haunted house on Earth?
My Thoughts on the Book
Hell House by Richard Matheson makes The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson seem like a fairy-tale in comparison, or Hell House is The Haunting of Hill House on steroids. Have your pick, as both descriptions could work.
Fittingly enough, Hell House is a properly disturbing haunted house story, although it might have gone a bit overboard with the sexual violence and the lesbophobic undertones. Also, the characterisation and sexualisation of the female characters were almost a bit cartoonish at times.
Tht said, the plot and story itself was in my opinion fun and engaging, especially with the character dynamics between Doctor Barrett and Florence as they're polar opposites when it comes to the paranormal. Another element that I quite enjoyed was the whole is it the ghosts that's messing around or is it the characters that's losing their minds, which is in a way accentuated by the dynamics between the science-based Barrett and the psychic Florence.
Aside from a few elements I didn't like about the book, I still found it quite enjoyable of a read and I get why it's considered a classic horror novel.
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