12 Classic British Horror Films You Need To See

The Legend Of Hell House boasts a fine script (by Richard Matheson, based on his novel), good direction by John Hough (Twins Of Evil) and a cast that includes Roddy McDowall, Pamela Franklin, Clive Revill and Gayle Hunnicutt.

It’s a spin on Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting Of Hill House, with a team of paranormal researchers sent to “the Mount Everest of haunted houses” to collect evidence of life after death. Once inside, the crockery starts to rattle, furniture moves by itself and there’s a black cat that leaps out at nicely-timed intervals. Also, the movie employs a number of plot devices not normally seen in PG-rated fare.

Overcome with “autoerotic phenomena”, the lead investigator’s otherwise dull wife attempts to seduce McDowall while, later on, Franklin has an erotic encounter of her own with a spirit – a scene that was later spoofed, none too well, in Scary Movie 2.