The Legend of Hell House is a 1973 British gothic supernatural horror film directed by John Hough, and starring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, and Gayle Hunnicutt.

The house was originally owned by Emeric Belasco, an imposing, perverted millionaire and supposed murderer, who disappeared soon after a massacre occurred at the home.

The rationalist Barrett is rudely skeptical of Florence Tanner's belief in "surviving personalities", spirits which haunt the physical world, and he asserts that there is nothing but unfocused electromagnetic energy in the house.

Tanner is convinced that one of the "surviving personalities" in the home is Daniel, Belasco's tormented son, and she is determined to prove it at all costs.

Fischer wanders the house afterwards, attempting to sense psychic energy; in astonishment, he declares the place "completely clear!"

He taunts Belasco, declaring him a "son of a whore", and that he was no "roaring giant", but instead more likely a "funny little dried-up bastard" who fooled everyone about his alleged height.

Fischer realises that Belasco had had his own stunted legs amputated, and that he had used the prosthetics with which they were replaced in a grotesque attempt to appear imposing.

The Legend of Hell House is one of only two productions of James H. Nicholson after his departure from American International Pictures – a company he had run, along with Samuel Z. Arkoff, since 1954.

Nicholson's company, Academy Pictures Corporation, also released Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry through Twentieth Century Fox on 17 May 1974.

[5] Despite these changes, the film remains fairly close to the novel, with the script often incorporating large sections of dialogue from the original text.

His part consisted of a couple of recorded lines and an on-camera appearance as an embalmed corpse seated upright in a chair.

"[6] In his 2002 Movie & Video Guide, Leonard Maltin gave the film three of four stars and called it "Not the usual ghost story, and certain to curl a few hairs.

[8] TV Guide stated that "While director John Hough does a fine job with the things-that-go-bump-in-the-night aspects of the material, he fails to breathe any life into Richard Matheson's woefully underdeveloped screenplay.

The website's consensus reads: "The Legend of Hell House makes up for its disappointing lack of outright scares with a top notch cast and a suitably macabre atmosphere.

"[10] The Legend of Hell House was released on VHS cassette by CBS/Fox Video in 1985, on DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on 4 September 2001.