Hell House by Richard Matheson
Now this book is what I wanted out of a haunted house story.
The house itself seems to have its own personality, Belasco being the one controlling
all of it, like a puppet master in the wings.
Hell House did a wonderful job in keeping the reader unsure whether
to trust Florence or Lionel, mediums or scientists. Back and forth we went,
seeing the evidence validated from both sides until the very last scene. I’ll
admit, I did think the book was over after Lionel’s machine finished, but then
Benjamin said exactly what I was thinking, that ending like that was too easy.
Chapter to chapter, I never knew exactly what was the truth or not about the
ghosts, Belasco, Daniel, Florence’s power, or anything else in the house. I
love that.
The prompt for this week talked about masculine takes on
haunted house books, specifically using the term ‘testosterone-driven’. This book
was not that to me. Perhaps Belasco himself was sex-crazed and lusty over the
women in the book, even possessing them into doing sexual acts, but the other
men were uninterested. Sex, not testosterone specifically. That being said, the
lines where they women were possessed and saying vulgar sexual things to one
another really turned me away from this book. I am asexual, like Alexis, but I
find myself often sex-repulsed by such blatantly lewd things. The bruises
around her nipples and even they gay wandering eyes didn’t bother me, but the
vulgar speech was what got to me despite being integral to the haunting.
That being said, Matheson does have a style. It reminds me of Clive Barker. We previously read Rawhead Rex for the Monsters course, and the same kind of imagery was found in that story. I titled that blog post ‘Raw-Head Sex, Urine, Menstrual Blood, and Other Forgettable Fluids’. Matheson seems to have a clear focus on body mutilation and sex when it comes to Hell House. That subgenre is not my cup of tea (and I love most tea). But whereas a short story such as Rawhead Rex didn’t hook me in, Hell House caught my attention and held it, so I was able to get past the vulgarity to get to the next plot point. A few times I did chuckle from how absurd it was. The vulgarity was the only thing I didn’t like about this book. Everything else was lovely.
The ending for this book was both a hit and miss for me. Finding
out Belasco was a self-hating, self-mutilating man with leg extensions was disappointing.
Degrading him into submission was also very unsatisfying. But learning that his
dead body was hidden behind the chapel in a lead room, and he had dehydrated
himself to death with a pitcher of water a few feet away? Now that is what I
was looking for.
But Hell House really hit all the notes I wanted that The
Haunting of Hill House didn’t. We get more of the paranormal. We still get
parallels between science and the supernatural. We get inside the heads of the
characters analyzing phenomena around them without being dragged down by
lengthy internal monologues.
Overall: I enjoyed reading this book, but probably wouldn’t
watch a movie adaptation of it.
Rawhead Rex was Clive Barker.
ReplyDeleteI fixed it shhhh let's forget that happened...
DeleteThis is off-topic, but I cannot stress enough how happy I am to have another asexual friend. This program has brought so much good to my life. Hard to believe that I almost deleted myself out of it after the first residency. I look back now at all the stress from R1 and am proud we all made it through!
ReplyDeleteI am not sex-repulsed. I love reading things that have mutilations of sexual nature. I think it is just the twisted soul that lives inside my human shell. I took the vulgar speech as essential to the plot Matheson had. This ghost is a twisted soul with a huge appetite for sexual deviance. Clive Barker is a master at disgusting and making it work. Rawhead was one of my absolute favorites from the Monster readings we had.
I also felt the ending fell. It was like the story was on top of a forty-floor building, then jumped and hit the pavement HARD. The idea they bullied the ghost into submission just didn't work for me. I get its point. You are only as big as what you make of yourself. But if you watch the second half of IT's remake, the adults there do it so much better than this book could have dreamed.
RIGHT, it's so nice to have another asexual friend to talk to, especially when books like this come up and despite our same sexuality we show such differing POV on the sex in the story. I'm very glad you stayed in the program too, and I'm glad we are in the same RiG again finally.
DeleteSee, Rawhead Rex was one of the few stories from the Monsters RiG I didn't like, but I think that's because of our different POV on sexuality. The gratuity of the sex was just too much for me. Some things are fine with me, and I can read sex scenes in romance books just fine, but this aggressive just hits a little too close to home for my take on the topic.
I've never seen any of the IT movies. Are they worth a watch? I tend to not like gore and like psychological, but I know nothing about IT other than clowns.
In case my name doesn’t come through, this is Glenna.
ReplyDeleteGreat review of Hell House. I agreed with much of what you said, although personally I didn’t like the novel as much as you did. It held my attention, though. You were spot-on in your observation that we never knew what the truth was about the haunting or the characters and their psychic powers. I liked that aspect, too, and the back-and-forth between science and the supernatural.
Yes, yes, yes on the blatant sexual language. C R I N G E. Maybe the sexual content would have been more effective if it was actually sexy?
Your mixed reaction to the ending of the novel was justified. I also liked the way Belasco’s body was hidden in a lead room, showing that he had thought ahead to someone like Lionel coming along someday with a machine to drain the house of its psychic energy. But I agree with both you and Alexis that Fischer’s humiliation of Belasco was not very effective. The novel had not set us up adequately for Belasco to have so much of his self-worth invested in his height.
The funny thing is, I didn't care a ton for this book after a certain point. All the scenes not involving the blatant sex I enjoyed, like the dishes being thrown or the recording of the mediums going into trances, but that wasn't the majority of the book. I just chose to go for a more literary point counter-point review. I still gave this book a 2/5 stars like Hill House and wouldn't really recommend it to friends.
DeleteAlexis -- completely agree with you about IT 2. The humiliation of that ghost was so much better. The take-down of Belasco just didn't work.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt seems we all agree that the ending confrontation was unsatisfying and absurd. Here's a man who controlled and demoralized a house full of followers for years then lingered beyond death driving all prior psychic investigators into death or insanity. And he's finally defeated and sent into the abyss by being "unmasked" as a sawed-off bastard. Um, no. His manner of suicide through sheer force of will only made it seem even more ludicrous that a little name-calling ended his reign of terror. That said, like you, I did find some satisfaction in the lead room and the fact that both science and spirituality held pieces of the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI can't watch IT or IT2 because ... clowns. Worse, a clown lurking in sewers that can morph into a giant spider. No, no, NO!! Just the trailer for the first movie gave me sit-up-in-bed-screaming nightmares.
I love your characterization of Belasco as the "puppet master in the wings." I had the same thought which is why I don't think haunted house is a character; it's a manifestation of Belasco's character.
I also enjoyed the push and pull between Dr. Barrett and Florence, between pure science and spiritualism. Those passages were some of the only parts I found entertaining, though as I was reading I knew many modern horror fans would be bored senseless by the discussions.