Hell House

Hell House by Richard Matheson is a seminal haunted‑house novel that sets four investigators inside the notorious Belasco House in Maine for one week—to prove or disprove life after death. Financed by a dying millionaire, the team includes Dr. Lionel Barrett (a skeptical physicist), Florence Tanner (a spiritual medium), Benjamin Fischer (a survivor of a prior investigation), and Barrett’s skeptical but wary wife, Edith.

Inside the house, they deploy Barrett’s reversible‑polarity machine meant to eject evil—but the house retaliates. Hallucinations intensify, raw fears surface, and each guest confronts twisted memories fueled by the mansion’s malevolence. Sex, madness, and violence thread through chaotic nights as the investigators’ psyches fracture.

Matheson fuses scientific rationalism with gothic terror: Barrett’s machine clashes with spiritualism, mediums channel distressing visions, and Fischer’s cynical restraint falters under escalating horror. The house manipulates their vulnerabilities, exposing corruption, repressed desires, and desperation.

When morning comes, only one leaves alive—and the final horror reveals the true price of their arrogance.

Stephen King once called Hell House “the scariest haunted house novel ever written,” and it remains influential, raw, and unrelenting. It's ideal for readers who appreciate haunted-house horror fused with character-driven dread and moral ambiguity.