A great haunted house movie that has virtually vanished from distribution and pop culture, this film stars Roddy McDowall in one of his best performances as a clairvoyant who along with 3 other people is tasked with spending time in a haunted house to determine if there really is an afterlife. Of course weird things start happening from the instant they settle in at the house and the events continue to escalate, becoming more terrifying and more violent.
The Legend of Hell House is based on a book by Richard Matheson (who wrote some of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone along with Rod Serling) and Matheson actually wrote the script for the film as well. There’s some iconic stuff here, especially in the way the entity in the house lashes out at the visitors with weird voices and object levitations. You can see how this film influenced Kubrick’s The Shining, especially with the eerie title cards that bookend each scene, showing the date & time similar to Kubrick’s use of title cards to show the day. This is up there with some of the best haunted house films of all time.