Hell House

Director: George Ratliff
Studio: Plexifilm
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Four people enter the Belasco Mansion, the so-called "Everest of haunted houses," hired by a dying millionaire to investigate the possibility of life after death. Physicist Clive Revill leads the quartet, which includes his wife Gayle Hunnicut and two mediums. Pamela Franklin, young and impulsive, immediately makes contact with what she perceives as a tortured spirit, while Roddy McDowall, the only survivor from the previous investigation 20 years ago, closes himself off completely, deathly afraid of the malevolent forces that crushed his former comrades in body and spirit. Science fiction and horror legend Richard Matheson, responsible for penning such horror classics as The Devil Rides Out and Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum, brings a literate sensibility and a refreshing seriousness to the haunted-house genre with this adaptation of his novel Hell House. Director John Hough follows Matheson's lead with a moody but sober approach, balancing the physical threats of objects lethally leaping to life with the slow, subtle possession of the characters by a truly evil spirit. Parts of the script feel like so much scientific mumbo jumbo, with characters discussing the finer points of supernatural manifestation and ectoplasmic activity, but Hough's deliberate direction gives it the necessary solemnity to take it all seriously. --Sean Axmaker

Description

In sits there, shrouded in mist and mystery, a nesting place for living evil and terror from the dead. It's Hell House. Roddy McDowall heads the cast of this exciting chiller about four psychic investigators and the dark, brooding mansion they themselves call "the Mt. Everest of haunted houses." It's already destroyed one team of researchers. Now this brave quartet ventures in for another try at unraveling its secret. But before they succeed, they must suffer through madness, murder and everything else the spirits that dwell here have in store for them. Yet learning the truth just might drive them all insane. An ingeniously-devised ghost story, THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE will thrill and delight veteran horror fans from the first creaking door to the very last slithering shadow.

Customer Reviews:

The Legend of Hell House.......2007-05-13

On a scale where THE HAUNTING is rated as a five star movie I have to assign this film about three stars. I enjoyed THE LEGEND, however, more than that rating would convey. Despite the several faults it has, which have been well presented by previous writers, it was a lively, entertaining and enjoyable movie. It is too bad that the DVD did not include more extras like a brief documentary on the making of the film and but it was a decent transfer and well worth the current price.

The thinking man's horror story........2007-04-30

Unfortunately, this movie doesn't begin to touch the truly perverse and horrifying depths as written in the novel of which it is based, Richard Matheson's "Hell House". There are many key elements to the story which were barely mentioned but not explored due to the times when this was released. A more faithful film adaptation would be welcomed, so long as the CGI was kept to a minimum and if competant actors are hired for the project.

Belasco House is the Mount Everest of haunted houses, a private Hell built and orchestrated by its owner, Emeric Belasco. A large number of atrocities, horrors and criminal activity occurred there, and nearly all paranormal investigators called to the house had died in violent circumstances. The only survivor of the previous investigations is Ben Fischer, a physical medium who is called to return to the house along with Florence Tanner, a mental medium, and Dr. Lionel Barrett, a physicist who has brought along his wife Edith despite his protests. They are being paid princely sums of money each by an elderly millionaire to uncover absolute proof of life after death. What happens following their arrival is a series of red herrings woven into the plot consisting of ghostly apparitions, possessions and restless spirits wreaking havoc.

This might be a boring film for those who are accustomed to seeing lots of blood, gore and violence in their horror movies. Indeed, it is rather tame in comparison to the original novel. Still, it boasts a VERY fine cast in Roddy McDowall, Pamela Franklin, Clive Revill and Gayle Hunnicutt, who all give excellent performances. The storyline is worthy of discussion and dissection for devoted fans of both the book and movie, and there is usually something new to find with each viewing of the film. Until its DVD release nearly ten years ago, this film was somewhat hard to find and rarely shown on TV. It was years before I met someone else who'd even seen it before! Today it is still rather elusive, but now much easier to buy a copy for your own film library.

"The Legend of Hell House" is a great classic horror film which makes you think...something that not many other movies in the genre tend to do. It is scary without being gory, and is sure to be a reliable favorite in your household for many years. Buy a copy of it today!

Insane, nasty and beautiful.......2007-04-09

"The Legend of Hell House" is one of those in-the-heat-of-the-moment-sadistic-satanic-70's films that everyone wants to forget about, as though cinema had a decade long fever peopled with sweaty dreams of demons, hauntings, and hapless female vixens with mysterious backgrounds and pronounced C-cup screen presences.

There is a cavernous darkness to this film from the opening scene that doesn't let up, not even with the absurd ending (Roddy McDowall jumping around, beating up a spirit who apparently can't escape the phenomenal world because of really good titanium.)

A bunch of psychics and one really pompous scientist decide to investigate the phenomenon of "Hell House", a foul little mansion once owned by an Aleister Crowley type (only worse) named Belasco. How can the name Belasco not inspire fear? It sounds like a tobacco company owned by Satan himself.

This Belasco wasn't a nice guy. One of the most chilling parts of the film is when the vulnerable (cues from "The Haunting" are wisely heeded) and unbalanced Christian psychic accidentally plays a record of which politely greets the troupe and promises "a memorable stay". Indeed.

Things don't turn out well. At all. Some of the highlights are McDowall's bone chilling monologues about the first exploration of the place which almost killed him and an unwise decision on the part of the female psychic to set free the spirit of Belasco's "son".

The ending could have destroyed whatever dubious scientific pretensions the film has, but by the time it takes place the movie has already cast its ugly and compelling spell. A must see.

The Legend of Hell House .......2007-04-07

Outstanding classic horror film. A must have for all horror film fans.

The Legend of Hell House.......2007-01-12

Good old fashion haunted house movie. A little hokey at times, but none the less " A good scary flick"

Average customer rating:

Not bad at all for 30 years ago...
Scariest Movie I have ever seen.
Not Great, But very Unsettling
A very frightening flick that sort of falls apart at the end
Great movie gets so-so treatment from Universal video...

The Sentinel
Starring: Chris Sarandon , Cristina Raines , Martin Balsam , John Carradine , and José Ferrer
Director: Michael Winner
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Changeling
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ASIN: B00023P4UQ
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Customer Reviews:

Not bad at all for 30 years ago..........2007-06-09

Considering it's from 1976...it's pretty good! Wouldn't take much to modernize it into a remake. Better than many of the "horror" movies that come out today.

Scariest Movie I have ever seen........2007-05-29

Watch this movie in the morning or afternoon - way too scary for nighttime viewing - it will keep you up.

Not Great, But very Unsettling.......2007-04-13

This another of the movies that scared me as a child that I have bought and watched in an effort to relive my childhood. While this movie isn't the best of the bunch it sure stays with you long after it ends.
Cristina Raines is a model who moves into a killer(in more ways than one) apartment only to be subjected to all manner of creepy and strange visions. The neighbors are also an assortment of weirdoes and slowly her life begins to unravel. To say much more would do you an injustice, you must watch this one and pay attention to follow the story. There are a few good gore scenes but for the most part this relies on the Gothic terror of the building and on long hidden secrets to make your skin get goosebumps. I like it at 12 and now at 40 I still like it.

A very frightening flick that sort of falls apart at the end.......2007-02-22

"The Sentinel"is based upon the novel of the same name,written a generation ago by author Jeffrey Konvitz(who also wrote a sequel,"The Gaurdian")...The book is frightening,but ,like the film,sort of falls apart at the end...The plotline is as follows;A model with a checkered past,who has tried to commit suicide over family problems and who has lost touch with her catholic faith is now an up and coming fashion model..She has a trendy young lawyer for a boyfriend,and has just moved into a very nice apartment in a converted old mansion..What could go wrong?Well,for starters,the model(played by Christina Raines)is more or less being stalked by both demons from hell and the catholic church..It seems that her nice apartment is in a building owned by the catholic church and also happens to be the gateway to hell..To make matters worse,her boyfriend the lawyer(played by Chris Sarandon)may have had his first wife killed...
"The Sentinel"was written and filmed in the aftermath of the success of both"Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exsorcist"..while very frightening it nonetheless suffers by comparison,especially in the portrayal of the catholic church ..It will not be giving everything away here by noting that "The Sentinel"portrays the church as not only unforgiving and unnecessarily cruel(portrayals that,as history clearly shows,is not wide of the mark),but willing to punish a confused and mentally unstable young woman because of a suicide attempt...It seems that the building in which the young woman has moved has a blind old cleric living on the top floor,a mysterious figure,a"gaurdian"if you will,whose tenure has just about come to an end,and the church,without any regard for anyone or anything but its own neadrathal teachings,wants to replace the old cleric-cum-sentinel with the young model...
Now I know,of course,that this is a work of fiction,but,likewise,I also know that way back when the church had a ratherlow tolerance for those who,for whatever reason,attempted to self-destruct..Add to this the fact that the model was sleeping with the lawyer before his first wife died-or was murdered-and adultery is also added into the mix..At the conclusion of the film a second cleric,sent to guide the transitional from the old cleric to the model,tells the poor confused thing that,as far as the church is concerned,her attempt at self-destruction earned her an eternal place in "Hell" and that giving up everyday living in order to become a blind sentinel for the church was the only way she could avoid that fate...
Pardon me,but with that as a choice,I think that I would prefer Hell..History shows that the church was unforgiving towards suicides,refusing them burial in"consecrated"ground,and telling thier relatives that the victims were doomed to eternal hell...Nice,especially for a church that ALLEDGEDLY represents not only"The prince of peace"but the"God of love"...Konvitz took this sort of intolerant and ignorant thinking,added in a little from Milton's"Paradise lost"and lots of scares to come up with a dandy thriller,which Michael Winner transformed into an equally frightening film...Alas,because of this antiquated religious dogma about suicides,deservedly discredited today by most intelligent people,the ending flounders..For,afterall,grief,mental derangement,and countless other reasons might lead a person towards suicide and a church that claims to represent a"loving"God can hardly do so when it claims that same God would damn a person if he/she self-destructed under pressure or due to illness...much less so if the ONLY alternative would be to give up one's life,go blind,and sit forever at a window looking out at nothing in an otherwise empty house,an indefinite"sentinel" against a "Hell"that is more or less a figment of catholic imagination and,worse,a tool the church has used successfully for centuries in order to frightened people into obeying them without question...

Great movie gets so-so treatment from Universal video..........2006-12-29

Young model in N.Y.C. wants some space from her boyfriend and ends up in a Brooklyn Heights brownstone crawling with demons! Released to DVD twice: the low-priced GoodTimes copy of "The Sentinel" obviously came from a print, with some muddy-dark action looking even worse in the full-screen format, however the sound quality is excellent. The Universal widescreen distressingly has a much deeper tone in the sound mixing--not affecting the music score, just the octave of the speaking actors--giving the viewer the incorrect impression that star Cristina Raines has a deep, flat voice. Other actors in the cast, particularly Chris Sarandon and Sylvia Miles, also sound as though they have nose colds. A quick comparison between the Universal DVD and the GoodTimes version shows that some vocal distortion is apparent on Universal's end, despite a cleaner letterboxed appearance.

Average customer rating:

Cult indeed
Worthwhile Italian Classic
Pathetically funny
Fulci lives!
This movie is awesome

The Beyond
Starring: Al Cliver , Laura De Marchi , Giovanni De Nava , Roberto Dell'Acqua , and Anthony Flees
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The House By The Cemetery
Zombi 2 (25th Anniversary Special Edition 2-Disc Set)
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Suspiria
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ASIN: 6305972052
Release Date: 2000-10-10

Amazon.com

Lucio "King of the Eyeball Gag" Fulci made his name with a series of gory, gooey horror epics, and The Beyond stands above all as his outré masterpiece. The largely incoherent plot has something to do with a turn-of-the-century curse and a doorway to hell in the cellar of an old New Orleans hotel. Fulci shows his usual sensitivity with wooden acting, clumsy dialogue, and buckets of oozing blood and pus, but don't let that get in the way of enjoying this mad tale of zombies from hell invading Earth and eating their way through a cast of humans: crucified martyrs, blind visionaries, creepy hotel handymen, befuddled cops, and a plucky pair of heroes desperately fleeing a horde of hungry undead. The blood-red art direction is eerily beautiful, and Fulci's relentless long takes, punctuated by jolting shock cuts and eruptions of grotesque violence, create a mood of sheer paranoid horror right down to the final, mind-bending image. And don't forget the Fulci claim to fame: eyes are gouged out, eaten away, melted with acid, and (shudder) popped out by a spike through the back of the skull. Yech! If you dare ignore such piddling details as narrative logic and let yourself get carried away on the creepy visuals, it's a deliciously stylish treat, an edgy bit of gothic gore pitched in all its bone-crunching, flesh-ripping, organ-splatting glory. This sadistic, sanguinary hell-spawn tale is for gore-hounds only.

The DVD features chatty but largely jokey commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl and an alternate German credits sequence featuring Fulci's preferred sepia-tinged prologue (but no alternate footage). --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Cult indeed.......2007-05-13

Getting the obvious out of the way, this is a movie for B Horror splatter fans, not for mainstream horror audiences. This movie, like Fulci's other films, places emphasis on graphic depiction of gore material, while paying little to no attention to plot, script, or acting. He definitely succeeds in giving zombie fans what they want, however if you expect anything more you will be disappointed. The script was particularly bad, and not in a cheesy-but-good B movie sort of way, but riddled with inconsistencies and occasionally just plain dumb. Like for example in the hospital scene with all the zombies it's obvious that the only way to take them down is to shoot them in the head, yet the guy wastes 3-4 bullets on a single zombie, gets it with a headshot, and then repeats the same pattern numerous times. Sure enough he runs out of bullets sooner than he wishes to. Acting is pretty bad too, not very credible at all. You have the typical protagonist who's seeing things others aren't, and of course those things aren't there when someone else checks it out, yet the character doesn't sound convincing at all when she's trying to explain that those things really are there and it's not her imagination. You can almost tell someone told her what to say just minutes before and she's struggling to remember. To summarize, this movie is underdeveloped but thrives on its gore factor which is fairly elevated all things taken into consideration. Don't leave this one out of your zombie film collection.

Worthwhile Italian Classic.......2007-04-11

The Beyond opens with what has become one of my favorite scenes. A strange man is painting pictures of Hell on a canvas in room 36 of an old Louisana hotel. The year is 1927 and the mans name is Sweik. The natives of the town believe that Sweik is placing a curse on thier village through his drawings and what follows is a typical southern stereotype. A lynch mob storms the hotel and constrains Sweik as he is finishing one of his paintings.

The mob then drags him down a spiral staircase into the basement where he meets his fate in the form of being crucified against a wall and then drenched in flesh eating acid. All while that typical annoying as hell gaillo music is playing in the backgound. Kathrine MacColl inherits the hotel where Shiek meet his unfortunate and horrible demise some six odd years later.

The hotel has all sorts of strange occurances, not the least of which is the consistant flooding in the basement. As she is preparing to open the hotel the flooding in the basement starts to present a real problem, thus she calls in a plumber. Joe the Plumber (yes that is the characters actual name) is called in to fix the issue. What he finds is far more serious than leaky pipe...

The reason that this film works is because of it's take no prisoners presentation. Fulci knows what we want to see, and he more than delivers. It works on the same principle that John Carpenter's 'The Fog' works, the events are presented with no context. You never really know why this guy has no head, or why that lady just got an acid bath. Nor do you care. Fulci doesn't raise any questions and he certainly doesn't answer any, but hey, thats ok with me.

Pathetically funny.......2007-03-19

This movie must be praised, but not for the "gory scenes" or "horrifying horror", but simply because IT IS DAMN FUNNY!

It has so many flaws, holes in the script and bad acting that I just couldn't stop laughing.

If you like big, big comedies, you MUST watch Lucio Fulci's movies... Trust me: it is DAMN FUN mock all his Z-quality movies

Fulci lives!.......2007-03-02

I watched this last night for first time after I've been trying to find it for months and absolutely loved it.I will probably watch it again today.This movie is dark,atmospheric and the N.O.L.A setting is great.I can understand why some "pop-horror" fans might not like it,a lot of the story is not explained and stuff just seems to happen out of nowhere but thats the feel Fulci was going for and why I love it.This movie is brutal ,unrelenting and Fulci's goriest.FULCI LIVES!

This movie is awesome.......2007-02-27

If you like flicks like Blood Sucking Freaks, Necromatik, Sinful Dwarf, May, Devil's Rejects, zombie movies, or other goodies of this nature then you'll love this film. This movie shows everything, every bit of gore, with tons of attention paid to detail of the violence. Most of the really intense scenes (there are lots of them) come out of nowhere, and are well worth it when they do. Made by the same guy who made the Italian movie Zombie, but this film blows that one away. Not for the mild horror fan, this one's for us serious disturbing-movie-loving freaks only. If you're a sick and twisted horror fan, don't pass this one up, it will not disappoint. This movie is awesome.

Average customer rating:

HELL NIGHT : Pray For Day
Garth Manor Rocks
A Hellish Viewing Experience
Solid 80's Haunted House Slasher Flick
entertaining slasher film

Hell Night
Starring: Linda Blair , Vincent Van Patten , Peter Barton , Kevin Brophy , and Jenny Neumann
Director: Tom DeSimone
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00000JXVP
Release Date: 1999-08-24

Customer Reviews:

HELL NIGHT : Pray For Day.......2007-02-25

This film was very well done. It had a lot of suspense and plus Linda Blair stars in this non-gory slasher movie.Thats right NO GORE!!!It was meant to have some gore, but the director filmed it so that you see only some blood but no gruesome scenes shown.One wierd seen between Vincent Van Patten & Suki Goodwin, but its is brief.Great locationing (excellent scary mansion,as seen on cover) make this film a classic slasher-frenzy/80s body-count Horror film. I love it because of the many chases that occur (between Blair and the killer)multiple times. Also starring Peter Barton from Friday the 13th part4: The final chapter& The young and The restless.
Hell night is another name for the holiday Halloween.This night four sorrority & fraternity pledges must stay all night long in a creepy castle like mansion.Through legend, a crazy man(Ramond Garth)has killed his deformed family before killing himself. Some say a family member still survives...AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This film is filled with jokes(Goodwin keeps calling Van Patten by "Wes" instead of his charecters real name "Seth".The funny part about it is that she is doing it accidentally SEVERAL TIMES while being drunk.),scary sequences,suspense,and scenes that will keep you on the edge of your seat(Barton & Blair are running away from killer in cave, built under mansion & Blair on her own is chased by the non-axe-wielding killer at very end).

This movie is in my collection with all the Jamie Lee slashers including TERROR TRAIN,PROM NIGHT,& HALLOWEEN and is next to my favorites GIRLS NIGHT OUT & HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME ( All early 80s Body-count classics)

Linda Blair was in her early 20s and didn't act her best in this yet she kept me entertained and kept me routing for her to survive to the end , and she was the surviver.Shewas very delightfull, innocent& YOUNG .I'm a big fan of her , Jamie Curtis & Lesleh Donaldson(who was in Happy Birthday to me ,Curtains,Funeral Home & Deadly Eyes a.k.a. RATS)whom are all scream queens.

I Love This Movie!!! Its worth buying to own if you like this GENRE.

Garth Manor Rocks.......2007-02-13

"Hell Night"
This review contains an obvious spoiler.
I didn't think I would like this movie when I heard about it
"WAS I EVER WRONG"
Hell Night has all the elements needed for a great
slasher movie, Sexy people, good kills and a freaky killer on the loose..
I personally love movies where the killer is in some way disfigured yet still human and in this movie that is delivered.
Sorority newbies spend the night in Garth Manor Known for its legend about Raymond Garth and his deformed children and how he killed them all and then himself .Supposedly Andrew Garth The most hideous of all the children escapes being killed and lives in tunnels under Garth Manor "so the legend goes".
Linda Blair is all grown up and quite the good herione also starring the FINE Vincent Van Patten and cute Peter Barton.
The final showdown between Blair and the villain is grade A entertainment and the rest of the movie does not disappoint either.

A Hellish Viewing Experience.......2006-08-22

The cover says 'Hell Night', Pray for Day as the tagline, I was praying for this movie to end- Thats how boring it was. This was one of the recommended films in 'Fangorias 101 Horror Movies youve never seen' book. Most of the ones ive seen so far have been good but this one stunk.

Plot- starring Linda Blair, this was one of the things that attracted me to the movie because we all know Linda from the great horror film The Exorcist so I figured she would be good in this one too, to my suprise, far from it. Though the actors didnt have much to work with as far as dialogue. A very familiar plot- one dark night 12 years ago, a madman butchered his family in their mansion before killing himself. 'Legend has it' one child survived the slaughter and remains hidden in the house as a deformed monster. Halloween night a group of fraternity and sorority pledges must spend the night in Garth Manor on the anniversary of the killings.

This film was very slow moving, the acting was terrible. Mostly a bunch of unknowns except Linda Blair and it wasnt at all scary. This was a bad horror film. I wouldnt recommend it, you might not even be able to sit through it without falling asleep or turning off the TV.

Solid 80's Haunted House Slasher Flick.......2006-05-16

If you are a fan of 'Friday the 13th' (parts 1-4) or 'Halloween' you will no doubt enjoy this. As far as movies on that level, this is one of the best. Has good tension and scares and an effective score.

entertaining slasher film.......2006-04-21

Yet another slasher film, but a good one.

Well, they're ALL good. But this is even better than most, mainly because Linda Blair and Peter Barton lend depth and sympathy to their characters despite some hokey dialogue.

It's initiation time on fraternity/sorority row. Four pledges must prove themselves worthy by spending the night at Garth Mansion, a huge abandoned estate. Years ago, Daddy Garth killed his wife and three mutant kids. The fourth mutant kid was never found. Legend has it he still stalks the mansion ...

Here's something odd. There are only four pledges: two guys (Barton and Van Patten) and two gals (Blair and Goodwin). Since when do fraternities and sororities hold joint initiations? And they are bid farewell on their initiation by a HUGE party. This implies a great many brothers and sisters. Yet at the rate of two pledges per year, the fraternity and sorority would each be down to eight members each within four years.

I guess director de Simone simply wanted lots of people at the party, but only two couples at Garth Mansion. I guess it's spookier (and cheaper) with just four pledges, never mind making sense.

Okay, I don't mind.

What's important is that the four kids are locked behind the tall iron gates of Garth Mansion, three upperclassman sneak in to scare them ... and the body count mounts!

The script and lead performances are a bit better than standard slasher fare. Barton portrays a sensitive rich boy. Blair is the poor girl with a heart of gold. She's also virginal, at first keeping Barton to his own bed, later cuddling and sleeping with him ... but just sleeping. Both keep their clothes on. Meanwhile, Van Patten and Goodwin fornicate like rabbits in the next room.

Guess which couple is killed first? And guess who survives the night?

Blair and Barton perform well, but Van Patten and Goodwin also add some dimension to their clich?d supporting roles: the [...] cutup and the sleazy party girl. Brophy, Neumann, and Sturtevant play the jerky upperclassman who sneak in to scare the pledges. They also provide much needed slasher-fodder. I liked Jenny Neumann in Stage Fright (aka Nightmares, Australian 1980), but she's under-utilized here.

Hell Night strikes tried-and-true horror psycho notes like a well-tuned instrument. One girl is pulled screaming down into a hole (although my favorite hole-dragging is in The Unseen, 1980). The psycho seems indestructible. They shoot him, but he keeps on going ...

But there are also some surprises, which is no small feat in this tradition-bound subgenre.

Cinematography and lighting are used to good effect. Shapes emerge from the dark, slowly, indistinct. Creeping up behind our unsuspecting heroes. Makeup is also simple but noteworthy. When we finally see him, the mutant resembles Nosferatu's Max Schreck.

The final scenes are visceral, even brutally poetic. 1981 was a good year for horror psychos, and Hell Night is prime vintage.

Average customer rating:

Religion Gone Bloody Bad
Frightening Insight
SCARY SCARY SCARY!!!
preachy skits sound like they're right out of a Jack Chick comic book
A Wake Up Call

Hell House
Director: George Ratliff
Manufacturer: Plexifilm
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Devil's Playground
Dark Days
Jesus Camp
Children Underground
Born into Brothels

ASIN: B000092T6A
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Description

Hell Houses are a distinctly American phenomenon which began in 1990 just outside of Dallas, at the Trinity Assembly of God Church. The original Hell House was conceived as a modern-day fire-and-brimstone sermon. Today, this religious ceremony of sorts is replete with actors, extensive lighting equipment and full audio-visual tech crews. Inside the Hell House, tour guides dressed as demons take visitors from room to room to view depictions of school massacres, date rape, AIDS-related deaths, fatal drunk driving crashes, and botched abortions. Hell Houses have now spread to hundreds of churches worldwide. With full access to the behind-the-scenes action, HELL HOUSE follows the process from the first script meeting until the last of the 10,000 visitors passes through the Hell House doors. The movie gives a verite window into the whole process of creating this over-the-top sermon, while showing an intimate portrait of the people who fervently believe its message. The film also features a score by Bubba and Matthew Kadane, formerly of the band Bedhead.

Customer Reviews:

Religion Gone Bloody Bad.......2007-01-29

Wanna get the cr@p scared out of you? And I don't mean that in any respectfully horror-ish way when referring to HELL HOUSE. I mean it in a way that'll cause you to doubt human sanity.

Technique-wise, I have to give the creators of this idea a definite thumbs up. Utilizing graphic imagery to frighten people toward God, the Assembly of God Church has accomplished something quite unique every October 31st. Threatening sinners with eternal damnation if they have premarital sex, are gay, or attend a rave party, this church puts on a haunted house filled with gore and violence each Halloween. The actors and actresses are pulled from their congregation annually. Some are young women who dip their crotches in fake blood and scream in mock pain while perched on a makeshift hospital gurney (their dialogue during this horrific scene is centered around "the morning after pill"and how dangerous it is ...which is completely untrue of course, but we're talking self-induced abortion so this little fib is obviously okay.)

Other scenes include a homosexual man dying of AIDS. A ghoulishly evil creature hovers around him and comments on his "evil lifestyle choice" as he groans his last breath and is ushered into everlasting pain and devilish servitude (never mind that the man may have been a pediatrician who cured a type of cancer that saved thousands of lives. Homo? You're goin' to Hell!)

At the end of peoples' tour through these strange Halloween acts, prayer groups are offered up for those who wish to be saved. Never mind that the pressure put on the guests by the aforementioned scenes and the "limited time" they have to act on this compulsion are stressed to the maximum ("You have six seconds to walk through that door and be saved by Jesus. One...")

Probably the biggest downer here is that this is a growing phenomenon. Forget that God is merciful or full of love or wants you to be happy. That's not what this is about. This is all about fear and the tactics used to instill it by a group of individuals who claim to be "religious." Excuse me but isn't religion supposed to be about acceptance, caring, and the loving nature of Jesus/God? Maybe I'm missing something.

The other issue is that these Assembly of God members obviously have no idea what Halloween is about nor its history (Note: All Hallows Day - also known as "All Saints' Day". The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although we now consider All Saints' - or Hallows' - day to be on the day after Halloween, they were, at that time, considered to be the same day.)

The church also shows how suicide is a sin. But God (nor the bible) ever said this (Note: "In the early Christian era suicide was not only tolerated, but condoned by the church, as a result certain sects such as the Donatists and the Circumcellions jumped off cliffs in great numbers to hasten an afterlife that promised greater rewards than those found on jolly old Earth. Faced with the loss of so many of its members, and rapidly shrinking collection plates, in the sixth century the church decided that anyone else who committed suicide was going to hell." Bet you won't be hearing that "biblical history" during a sermon any time soon.)

There's a brief shining moment when a group of young men and women confront the designers of Hell House and tell them how wrong all of this is (thus my two star rating). But it falls on deaf ears and is quickly swept under the rug in the documentary.

Frightening Insight.......2007-01-10

I have been critical of the "Hell House" movement for years based on their promotional materials, the experiences of colleagues and friends, and a theological revulsion to fear-based evangelism. This documentary is an excellent and terrifying glimpse into not only the experience offered to "guests" (or victims?), but into the personal and spiritual drives that motivate and shape the formation of a Hell House. The directors are incredibly hands-off, attempting to offer the creators of this institution the chance to tell their story. This isn't entertainment, but it is very enlightening and a great source for reflection and discussion on issues of tolerance, acceptance, religious diversity, and comparative theologies of evangelism.

SCARY SCARY SCARY!!!.......2006-11-15

Most of the other reviews have summed it up quite nicely. However scenes of cute smiling young teens saying some of the things they say in this film were quite chilling and frightening. It is quite disturbing to see these kids involved in this exercise of FEAR and exclusion of free thought. I find it difficult to express exactly what I'm thinking but basically it is just VERY disturbing and scary. I don't pray in the traditional sense but I pray that some of these kids can some day think and do what THEY truly want to. Amazing!

preachy skits sound like they're right out of a Jack Chick comic book.......2006-06-04

In what often feels like a Christian-themed WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, teenage thespians vie for roles as "the abortion girl" or "the date raper" in the tenth annual Hell House "Haunted House." Documenting this yearly collection of social ills and flagrant sins presented by the Trinity Assembly of God in Dallas, Texas, HELL HOUSE provides ample belly laughs coupled with groans of frustration.

Director George Ratliff takes the audience behind the scenes of the tenth annual Hell House, from early brainstorming sessions to "opening night," where Bible-thumping thespians try to save souls via their morality plays. We witness the wild auditions, fact-checking of the script ("Is it 'Magic' or 'The Gathering'?"), and creation of the sets. In between, we catch glimpses of Pentecostal pandemonium wherein prayer sessions are plagued with folks speaking in tongues ("Speaking in tongues is like speaking in French or German," says one parishioner), sounding like a Latka Gravis convention.

With material this good, it's difficult to go wrong but HELL HOUSE nearly does. The film remains steadfastly objective throughout. At times, the stone-faced journalism allows the irony to flow freely. However, the muted opinion of the film quiets the outrageousness of these amateur actors as they present crazed scenes of abortions, homosexuality, and suicide. Sure, the scripts to the preachy skits of Hell House sound like they're right out of a Jack Chick comic book but their implications are ominous. While it's not necessary for this film to have a central "argument," HELL HOUSE feels like a lightweight effort for such a heavyweight subject.

A Wake Up Call.......2006-01-25

This is an extremely disturbing but essential movie for any free-thinker or anyone who is disturbed by the current religious right wing. A "hell house" is an extremely clever form of brainwashing teens and stifling dissent. The documentary carefully focusses on how a real horror show is created for Halloween but unlike the usual scary and mindless fun is a full blown sermon that disguises itself as entertainment. The most frightening part of the whole concept of the "Hellhouse" is the hatred behind it. The scenario where a teenager is dying of AIDS and another is dying from taking RU-486 while someone dressed as the devil is laughing is sickening as is the re-enaction of Columbine where the teen character being mocked and obviously losing it is portrayed as "succumbing to Satan". Some parts of this movie are amusing, in a John Waters-ish kind of way. If these people weren't deadly serious about this quasi-indoctrination, I could pass it off as a laugh. And the kids who interrupt them and demanding answers are not "ranters". They chose to spoke out. So should anyone who, like the film makers (who let the people speak for themselves, rather than commenting on their own) believes that our young people have the right to make up their own mind about their sexuality, have the right to choose and seek treatment for their mental health issues, rather than believing that they are "living a life of sin".

Average customer rating:

Bette Davis, bootlegging, and a bunch of delinquents
very poor audio and visual
Early Bette Davis melodrama
Poor Sound

Hell's House
Starring: Bette Davis , Pat O'Brien , Junior Durkin , Frank Coghlan Jr. , and Emma Dunn
Director: Howard Higgin
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0000AGWM9
Release Date: 2003-10-07

Customer Reviews:

Bette Davis, bootlegging, and a bunch of delinquents.......2007-06-13

Undistinguished, yet a perfectly watchable depression/prohibition-era melodrama set mostly in a workhouse for delinquent kids. For those Bette Davis fans out there, yes, Bette Davis is in this movie, but it by no means a "Bette Davis movie". Ms. Davis plays the girlfriend of a bootlegger, but doesn't get to do much besides show that she has the conscience her boyfriend lacks (until the unlikely conclusion where the bootlegger all of a sudden feels guilt for those he ground under his boots on the way up). She's also not onscreen much, with most of the running time being devoted to a misguided kid trying to make his way in the workhouse after he refuses to dime out his bottlegger boss.

All in all, this churned-out, second-tier melodrama is a fairly painless stopover for Bette Davis completists. The movie is only 72 minutes long, the print isn't bad (though it's not sharp and restored, by any means), and there's a nice gallery of other vintage-era DVD offerings to scroll through, which mostly feature original movie poster art on the DVD boxes pictured.

very poor audio and visual.......2006-11-10

I would recomemnd selling this until a beter copy can be made

Early Bette Davis melodrama.......2006-06-03

Part reform movie and part "B" picture melodrama, Junior Durkin plays a kid who idolizes bootlegger Pat O'Brien; when O'Brien hires him as a go-fer, Durkin is in his glory. Little does he realize that O'Brien has eyes for his girlfriend, Bette Davis. When the bootlegger's joint gets raided and Durkin is arrested, he refuses to rat out O'Brien and the kid is sent to reform school for three years. Here the boy is cruelly mistreated; when another boy at the school dies, a newspaper threatens to expose what's going on (that's the reform angle). When Durkin finds out from his mother that O'Brien and Davis are a number, he escapes and pays a visit to Davis. She feeds him the line that she was only doing it to get O'Brien to spring him. Then when the cops show up on Durkin's tail, O'Brien confesses. It's a pretty unbelievable ending, and the picture is not very memorable. It's interesting to see Davis this early in her career, though, and some of her scenes with O'Brien are decent, if not great.

Poor Sound.......2000-06-05

Story OK. Main complaint is the quality of the print (purchased from Amazon). Casette labeled "Hell House, 1934" which is incorrect: It is "Hell's House" and it was produced in 1932. Print had numerous scratches and the soundtrack was very poor.

Average customer rating:

a hard movie to watch
I am so enamored of Catherine Breillat....
Fine Arthouse Porn
French profundity, an introduction....
Semi-watchable, but no triumph

Anatomy of Hell
Starring: Rocco Siffredi , Catherine Breillat , Jacques Monge , Amira Casar , and Claudio Carvalho
Director: Catherine Breillat
Manufacturer: Tartan Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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Release Date: 2005-01-25

Customer Reviews:

a hard movie to watch.......2006-10-12

The film is very thought provoking and doesn't mind pushing buttons or boundaries to achieve this end. Although I agree with another reviewer's (Dexter Tay) assessment that this film certainly pertains to Sartre's "Hell is the Other" view, I do not believe this film is more arthouse porn then art. I find it very interesting that the reviews are fairly divided between the sexes. Females seem to rave about this movie and males seem to find things wrong. Hmmmm. This film is basically two characters, one female and one male (names aren't used because they don't matter - they are ourselves) who are complete strangers and come together to discuss the real view they have of the "Other" as well as themselves. The setting is very bare as there is no need for props - it is the inter-relationship that is front and center and no diversions are allowed. So even though there are several graphic scenes, be prepared for much more dialogue and philosophical discussions between man and woman then actual sexual content. Also, the very graphic content is there for a specific purpose and it is not titillation. For example, the tampon scene is a little too detailed for my comfort but that moment shows the whole point of this amazing film. It was NOT about the female lead's bent toward self-mutilation as one reviewer suggests (sooooo male), otherwise every female who used tampons on a monthly basis would be carrying out a deprived act of self-hatred?! Rather, the diametrically opposed views held by men and women about the most basic and intimate nature of things. Two scenes stand out from all others: (1) when the women opines on the ridiculousness of the sanitary outer covering of a tampon to prevent intimacy. The very act by its nature is intimate. Why are men and women horrified by menstruation? This topic is delved into with such honesty that the viewer automatically shies away. I'll admit I closed my eyes in one scene; and (2) when the man complains to another about the way the woman let him debase her, allowed herself to be made to wallow in her own piss and excrement (no scenes of this, thank goodness) and with every humiliation, she asked for more. All the while he is disgusted by her, he is haunted by his own actions. The whole movie makes compelling comments about us as men and women. Catherine Breillat (director) presents a piece of work (based on her novel entitled, "Pornocrate") that forces the viewer to confront issues buried by morality or social conventions. I applaud her brilliant effort.

I am so enamored of Catherine Breillat...........2006-08-14

I adore Catherine Breillat's films, and I believe this to be her best work. Why do I love her so much? She challenges me, she entralls me, she makes me think, she takes sex seriously. Her films polarize, her films enrage people, but it's the good kind of polarization. None of her films are done for shock value. This is my favorite among her work. The performances are superb, especially that of Rocco Siffredi, who is a real porn star in Italy. Breillat cast him because he was unafraid of the part, and she also added that "most French actors aren't very handsome". He acquits himself quite well, and shows that a porn star can act. More often than not, porn stars are terrible actors, as porn doesn't require any emotions, just stamina. Breillat understands the true complexity of relationships, and it unnerves people. If she wanted me to do a nude scene, I'd do it. I wouldn't ask her about it. Full frontal. She is a great artist, and one of the greatest filmmakers working today.

Fine Arthouse Porn.......2006-05-25

Anatomy of Hell - a metaphorical reference to the nether realm, is, if I'm not wrong, Briellat's adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's famous quote "Hell is the Other". The film makes a rather stilted commentary centred around the notion of the Other, and of how as the Subject, we are desperate, if not phenomenally suicidal, to constantly yearn for the look of the Other to reflect upon our physical selves which we cannot escape, which is both a necessary "evil" and self-sustaining as it is tormenting and perpetually unfulfilled. Breillat is only excused by the highly symbolic, theatrical style of the film with a disclaimer that relinquishes the reality of the characters portrayed.

The choice of Siffredi as the male lead couldn't have been more surprising - few mainstream actors would have gone to the extent of no-bars-held in displaying their endowment aroused - close-up and in full glory. Siffredi's portfolio wouldn't stifle audiences more familiar with his pornographic work to boredom; his role in the film is highly restrained in the emotional sense, and there is a certain heightened sense of eroticism that goes with it. Amira on the other hand, plays a dejected Venus fallen from adoration - bordering on the inane and desperately seeking ways to turn the most quietly staunched of misogynists to reconsider sexuality in all its face value.

Unfortunately for all the philosophical postulations, the film is led more by the attempts to revolt and to shock, rather than to make a genuine attempt at examining the relations between the sexes. The man played by Siffredi could have not engaged in torrid sex with the woman - but the film would have lost its focus and the entire point that resolves in mutual sexual gratification, so that in the end, the entire film is more of an arthouse porn than art.

Fans and non-fans of Siffredi alike, this DVD is a collectable tribute to him in his prime.

French profundity, an introduction...........2006-03-08

Do you know what you get when you combine porn with art? Lousy porn and even lousier art. Curiosity and some rapturous reviews brought me to Catherine Breillart's films, which I find so dismal I usually wouldn't bother to write about them. But I find the intellectual acrobatics involved in elevating this type of fetishistic dreck into something someone finds profound most interesting and symptomatic of the exhaustion of both the art and the intellectualism that explains it.

Breillart's claim to fame is this marriage of full frontal, hard core porn with her particular intellectual conceits. Here we have another demented Frenchwoman working out her "issues" while having her own very special vagina monologues with a gay man as the camera practically inserts itself in every orifice. Wonderful.

I suppose everything worth doing has been done in art. That is the only explanation for this bankrupt and disheartening work. It isn't that anything is taboo or that the subject matter is off-limits. The male/female dichotomy and sexual relations have always been the subject of art. It is in the execution. The films I've seen so far just aren't very good.

The use of shocking and graphic images here is not insightful, nor does it represent anything revolutionary. They make no statement. They don't breathe life into film, they breathe decay and decline. This is the art of exhaustion and despair. This is the graphic image for its own sake.

Breillart represents nothing more than the celebration of the mediocre. The elevation of mundane rubbish to supposed high art. The never ending contest to out-sensationalize. You could throw a fistful of crap against a wall, and someone would consider it brilliant. Some of us, however, still see it as crap-on-the-wall. A monkey can play with his dung, but he can't write a symphony or a sonnet, and if we exhalt the one, it must be to the detriment of the other.

I don't want to belabor this and ruminate too long on something that is, after all, only a movie that few people will watch, and fewer still will rhapsodize over. I believe that this type of stuff wears itself out and is fairly quickly forgotten. There are only so many ways to shock and sensationalize. Watching Breillart work out her fetishes on screen is recommended soley for the seriously bored.

The ugly, sordid, scatological, and perverse abounds in this life, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to exhibit it. The capture of elusive and ephemeral beauty, ah, now there's a trick.

Semi-watchable, but no triumph.......2006-02-23

I have to agree fully with Alexiel's fine review of this film; there's no point in repeating what's been said so eloquently already. It's worth finding and reading. I will add, however, that after seeing this as well as her earlier stuff,it's beyond painfully obvious that Breillat has an agenda and it doesn't include liking men. Her female character's sweeping statements about all men in general are insulting and unintelligent, and having a gay man speak for all men about how they view women is naturally, a bit skewed from the git-go. The sex isn't erotic in the least, and the shock value is so obviously there to shock, it just ends up as cinematic sludge.
This is simply not an artistic film, but a dry and fairly pointless one. The ending in particular borders on inane.

Average customer rating:

Not bad at all for 30 years ago...
Scariest Movie I have ever seen.
Not Great, But very Unsettling
A very frightening flick that sort of falls apart at the end
Great movie gets so-so treatment from Universal video...

The Sentinel
Starring: Chris Sarandon , Cristina Raines , Martin Balsam , John Carradine , and José Ferrer
Director: Michael Winner
Manufacturer: Good Times Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00000JZHF
Release Date: 2001-05-01

Customer Reviews:

Not bad at all for 30 years ago..........2007-06-09

Considering it's from 1976...it's pretty good! Wouldn't take much to modernize it into a remake. Better than many of the "horror" movies that come out today.

Scariest Movie I have ever seen........2007-05-29

Watch this movie in the morning or afternoon - way too scary for nighttime viewing - it will keep you up.

Not Great, But very Unsettling.......2007-04-13

A very frightening flick that sort of falls apart at the end.......2007-02-22

Great movie gets so-so treatment from Universal video..........2006-12-29

Seven Doors Of Death - A.K.A. The Beyond (Widescreen Edition)

Average customer rating:

Cult indeed
Worthwhile Italian Classic
Pathetically funny
Fulci lives!
This movie is awesome

Seven Doors Of Death - A.K.A. The Beyond (Widescreen Edition)
Starring: Al Cliver , Laura De Marchi , Giovanni De Nava , Roberto Dell'Acqua , and Anthony Flees
Manufacturer: Diamond Ent. Corp.
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