The Horror Pod Class Season 3, Episode 21: Adam Roberts and The Legend of Hell House
Welcome to the Junior Year Episode 20 of the Horror Pod Class. My name is Tyler and I am the editor in chief of Signal Horizon a company dedicated to exploring horror in and out of the classroom. When I am not managing signal horizon I am a teacher at a local hs here in KC Missouri. Tonight I am joined by my cohost and monster ambassador here at SH, award-winning writer Orrin Grey. And tonight we are joined in Quarantine by one of our favorite small business owners Adam Roberts. Adam’s Screenland Theatre has been described as a jewel of indy cinema. The epicenter of Film culture here in Kansas City, and most important to Orrin and I the comfortable family room where anyone can catch a movie. Most recently MovieMaker magazine ranked Panic Fest, the genre film festival Adam co-founded as one of the Bloody Best Genre Fests In The World. Adam welcome to the horror pod class. How are you holding up in isolation? (There will be a quick Q and A and time to plug the Patreon and whatever events we have coming up).
Screenland Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/screenland
What have we been watching and reading.
Tyler: Final Cuts, Horror Shorts based off of movies, Freaking Great. AC Wise’s story is my favorite so far. Vivarium.
Orrin: Deathdream for the first time; Infection
Adam: Argento’s Opera, The Hunt, Sex Lies and Video Tape
Essential Question: What can The Legend of Hell House tell us about American folklore and the creation of a legend.
Movie manages to capture the sadistic/psychosexual nature of the novel, while still being rated PG. (To be fair, we didn’t yet have PG-13 back then.)
Richard Matheson’s interest in spiritualist beliefs. Several nonfiction books (Mediums Rare, The Path) and Come Fygures, Come Shadowes, an uncompleted novel that deals with a family of mediums.
Those who are looking can find elements of Hell House in LOTS of my stories: the figure in the chair in “The Granfalloon,” the history of the house in “Nearly Human,” hauntings that aren’t what they appear to be in lots of stories.
Victorian Science and Spirituality
AAU leaves one star review:
Boring and dreadfully slow. Outside of some interesting silhouettes of apparitions, the movie didn’t instill any general fear or scares. It is way too tame by today’s standards and can’t hold up. In fact, I have a hard time believing this held up that well in 1973, as objects randomly flying around by ghosts was more of the kind of thing you would see in a 1950s William Castle movie. The only reason to MAYBE see this movie would be to see Roddy McDowall acting over-the-top, but why bother? You can see him act over-the-top in several movies. I just can’t recommend this movie. I was way too bored.
Next Week: Dolls
Tyler has been the editor in chief of Signal Horizon since its conception. He is also the Director of Monsters 101 at Truman State University a class that pairs horror movie criticism with survival skills to help middle and high school students learn critical thinking. When he is not watching, teaching or thinking about horror he is the Director of Debate and Forensics at a high school in Kansas City, Missouri.