As the hot desert sun beats down on the tiny mining town of Lago, out in the distance emerging from the heat rides the mysterious "man with no name".  All eyes watch as this stranger (Clint Eastwood) makes his way through town. Is it because he has a familiar face or just an uneasy feeling of what hell has brought?  The image of a undertaker fashioning three coffins serves as an omen of what's to come and with the snap of a whip, the story begins.

After killing the town's three hired guns and raping a women (Mariana Hill), the stranger is commissioned by the frighten townsfolk to help protect them from three revenge-seeking outlaws who have recently been released from prison. He accepts the job on the condition that he have free reign in doing it. His first duty is making the town's midget, Mordecai, (Billy Curtis) into the sheriff and mayor.

All the while he is haunted by the memories of  young Marshall being whipped to death.  This seems to drive the stranger as he prepares a little welcoming home reception for the boys. He orders the entire village painted a fiery red and the name changed to "Hell" and that is exactly what he's bringing. 

This was the second film directed by Clint Eastwood and is a classic western ghost story. I have always been a big fan of Clint Eastwood, especially his "spaghetti westerns" ("The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", "A Fistful of Dollars", and "A Few Dollar More").  "High Plains Drifter" offers an interesting mixture of two very diverse genre that have been so rarely attempted. The films succeeds for me, because it is not your traditional ghost story. Rather than having  the main characters being frighten by ghosts, spooks, or specters, "High Plains Drifter" brings the ghost into the real world seeking revenge. A must see for any fan!!!!

A dying millionaire (Roland Culver) offers 100,000 £  to a group of paranormal researchers lead by renown physicist Lionel Barrett (Peter Bowles). Their objective is to investigate the phenomena of life after death at the diabolical Belasco house (aka Hell House). The team consists of Barrett, his wife Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt), mental psychic Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin), and the only survivor of a previous visit to the House, physical psychic Benjamin Franklin Fischer (Roddy McDowell). The two prior attempts to unravel the secrets of this, the Mount Everest of haunted houses, have either lead to death or madness for those who have ventured forth. Barrett is given to Christmas Eve to complete his work. 

After entering the House, they are greeted by the chilling words of  its' deceased owner,  Emeric Belasco (Michael Gough), playing out from a gramophone: "Welcome to my house. I'm delighted you could come. I'm certain you will find your stay here most illuminating. Think of me as your unseen servant, and believe that during your stay here I shall be with you in spirit. May you find the answer that you seek. It is here, I promise you. And now, auf Wiedersehen." Barrett, a skeptical at heart, instantly refutes that that the message was meant for them, but Fischer knows otherwise. He goes on to explain that the House was soiled by Belasco's sick trips into the twisted perversion of drug addiction, alcoholism, sadism, bestiality. mutilation, murder, vampirism, necrophilia, cannibalism, and all gamut of sexual goodies. These deviant behaviors led to the death of twenty-seven people in 1929 including Belasco, whose body was never found and whose spirit now manifests itself as the haunting presence of  Hell House. Or does it???  

The tension mounts as strange forces begin moving against the team. The evil seeps out like oozing puss from a rotting corpse trying to seduce them. Fischer struggle to convince everyone to leave before it's too late, but Barrett is bent on  preparing his machinery to de-energize the House of its' psychokinetic powers. Will science be able to overcome the supernatural??? Rent this film and see for yourself. 

The film was written by Richard Matheson's ("I am Legend", "Omega Man",  "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (TZ), "Somewhere in Time") who also wrote the novel "Hell House". Matheson  wrote the original pilot for the "Night Stalker" in 1971, a favorite here at the house.  The magic of this particular film falls into two particular areas: the cast and  the ending. The cast, although small, is powerful in their portrayals.  Roddy McDowall (another favorite here at the House) was outstanding in his characterization of a meek psychic who turns hero when  he decides he must confront his fears. Finally, the ending provides the finality that is so rare in many haunted house movie, thus making it a real winner in our book. 

A young man, Ronald DeFeo, ruthlessly murders his entire family with a shotgun one evening for no apparent reason. The detectives that arrive to try and make sense of the crime place the time of death at approximately 3:15 AM. Thus begins the Amityville Horror.

Suddenly it is a year later, and a newly married young couple, the Lutz's, are shown the house and instantly fall in love with it. They buy it and move in immediately with Kathy's three children, eager to begin their new life together. But no sooner have they started unpacking their boxes then strange things begin to happen. Things that soon can no longer be explained by natural causes.

Strange breezes and offensive odors occur, and then cease as suddenly as they began. A priest called in to bless the house hears inhuman voices ordering him to "GET OUT!" The father, George Lutz, becomes irritable and is plagued by a strange coldness that will not go away, though he sits by the fireplace day in and day out. The family receives frightening phone calls, and visitors to their front door that suddenly disappear. And their young daughter, Amy, begins to converse with an invisible friend whom she will only identify as "Jody", and who seems to be able to make bad things happen to anyone who makes Amy angry. These events build up to a conclusion so terrifying that it will, even after years of repeated viewing, still frighten any seasoned horror fan.

The Amityville Horror

Buy The Amityville Horror Conspiracy at  Amazon.com Amityville Murders Website Warren's Investigation: Amityville The Hoax in Amityville Links to the Supernatural

1979

From the moment the story of George and Kathy Lutz surfaced, first in a terrifying novel by Jay Anson, then on film directed by Stuart Rosenburg, the very word "Amityville" has held the power to make people shudder with fear. And with good reason. It is, after all, the true story of a family under siege by demons obviously intent on destroying them, either physically or mentally, or both. Guest Contributor....flynne sybylle throat.

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