Hell House by Richard Matheson is a classic in the horror genre. A rich old man is dying of terminal cancer and wants to know if there is life after death. He pays a physicist and two mediums to investigate the infamous Belasco House, also know as Hell House. Other groups have gone in and most of them have not made it out alive. The entity in the house does not like having company and it quickly makes that known. I have strong feelings toward this book. It was written in the 70s and you can certainly tell. It did not age well when it comes to gender equality and discrimination, among other things. This book goes all in on the awful. It is violent, and uses sexual assault as a consistent shock factor. The way that the women in this book are sexualized and abused from the beginning to the end is disgusting. An undercurrent of blatant homophobia runs throughout the whole story. Apparently being a lesbian would be the worst thing in the world. The characters aren’t the most endearing. Barrett in particular loves to mansplain to anyone who can hear his voice. I wanted to give this the benefit of a doubt because it is such a lauded book and author within the horror world, but I can’t look past all the bad. I would not read this again and I won’t recommend it. There are better haunted house stories available to read. The scariest part about this book was how grossly the women were treated. The plot sucks, as well. Add in the gratuitous animal abuse and this is a big no. 1/5 stars. 

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