![The Legend of Hell House [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81l0Z51UyqL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
In this review I'm not going to discuss the plot as so many already have. Instead I'll delve into the reactions of so many who have reviewed it and what I believe this film is. I've read a great deal of reviews on this film. Some complimentary and some almost resentful that it didn't live up to whatever imaginary standard the reviewer felt the creators promised the movie would be. The most common consensus I come across is that this movie is not a horror movie but rather a "chiller" or a "thriller". Let's be perfectly clear on this matter. There is absolutely no way this movie cannot be a horror film. Granted there are no scares in this movie. None. There is suspense, especially towards the end, but there are no frights and bumps in the night that some viewers may be accustomed to or expecting. On the other hand, there is an extreme gothic presence lacing the story line. Not gothic in terms of black mansions and blood for dinner. I mean something brooding and mysterious. I mean sinister but beneath the surface of things presented in the characters, and definitely in the mansion itself. You have to look for it. If you stare at the film with a quiet mind you may not see it. This story is loaded with goth but on a subterranean level and I feel that so many who dislike this picture have simply failed to see the dark cancer slowly oozing its way out of the character's and into their relationship with the story.
Many have stated that the ending is terrible. I can see their point. In fact every review I've read has stated this point to some degree and if I didn't get the ending and its message the way I do, I would be forced to agree with them but there is something malevolent and clever about the ending that bothers me. It makes me uneasy and I'm convinced that if every viewer saw this ending in the light I see it in, they would probably feel uneasy too. Watch the film. When you're finished, read ahead in this review.
If you have not seen this film...STOP READING...SPOILERS AHEAD.
I believe the female lead character is possessed. Within the space of 24 hours she transforms from a person who cannot live with herself at the idea of being responsible for the deaths of others as well as having a near nervous breakdown at the idea of being part of a Satanic cult (not being able to take the ring off, her obvious discomfort when asking the other guests if they're into witchcraft, & when she's being drawn back into the mansion she says to her man that perhaps she was influenced by magic or a dark force) to becoming someone who brags about having "the power" and fully accepting her role in the service of her dark Lord. Remember there is a clear place in the film where she begins to appear numb from the evil around her. This numbness eventually turns to acceptance. In the final ceremony she takes the dying man's power into her. You can almost see her change from being slightly apprehensive about what she needs to do and be to becoming someone who is in charge, confident, and deeply pleased about the idea of serving Satan. This is a dramatic shift that I cannot discredit or ignore. But this is not my point. My point is this. She gives the ring to her man knowing he now has a 16.67% chance of being murdered by her. She doesn't tell him as that's the rule. She willingly puts him in this position and you can clearly see how she is the one in charge of things now. I get the impression that due to her sudden personality shift which has changed her feelings about everything in her life (including her boyfriend), she knows she may eventually kill him and she's fine with that.
All of these conclusions come from watching her body movements, eyes, gestures, and listening closely to her words. She is not even close to the same woman as she was at the beginning of the film and I wonder if in time he would ever put together who killed the other 5 in that house and begin to feel the noose tightening around his own neck.
When you see the ending in that light, I feel it adds a merciless, quiet brutality to her character. This changes the ending for me as a whole. It makes the male lead character vulnerable and even despite his understandings, helpless to a woman that has changed so cleverly that he may never recognize it. The ending of the movie may depict people smiling, but the true ending for Sam Elliott's character is something else altogether, perhaps bloody.
One final point. One can say that she tries to stop her boyfriend from making the final shot to kill the assassin on the rooftop because if Sam Elliott's character had killed him, Elliott's character may be doomed just like the recent five victims were doomed to die in the same ironical fashions as they had killed. It's possible, even before her final ceremony as she watches her man do battle on the lawn that she's already planned out that he will be one of her 6 captains. It is this point I would be in total agreement. However, the sinister nature of her character at the end is so sudden and heavy I can't help but think that in time, perhaps a great deal of time, once her cruelty has had time to ferment and take shape, if another person comes along who is more promising an heir to "The Legacy", Sam Elliott's character won't last long by her will whether he's killed anyone or not.
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
Along bottom edge looks like the factory tape was removed
No where did it state this was a used copy. Along bottom edge looks like the factory tape was removed. I was under the beliefI was buying new not used.
Top reviews from other countries
Paula Shaughnessy
The Legacy [DVD]
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2024
samantha cole
70's cool - not to everyones taste im sure - but ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2014