Listen free for 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Hell House cover art

Hell House

Written by: Richard Matheson
Narrated by: Ray Porter
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $20.15

Buy Now for $20.15

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

Hell House is the scariest haunted house novel ever written. It looms over the rest the way the mountains loom over the foothills.” — Stephen King

From the author of
I Am Legend comes Hell House, the basis for the supernatural horror film starring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill.

For over twenty years, Belasco House has stood empty. Regarded as the Mount Everest of haunted houses, its shadowed walls have witnessed scenes of unimaginable horror and depravity. All previous attempts to probe its mysteries have ended in murder, suicide, or insanity. But now, a new investigation has been launched, bringing four strangers to Belasco House in search of the ultimate secrets of life and death. A wealthy publisher, brooding over his impending death, has paid a physicist and two mediums to establish the facts of life after death once and for all. For one night, they will investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townsfolk refer to it as the Hell House.

Hell House, which inspired the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House, is Matheson’s most frightening and shocking book and an acknowledged classic of the genre.

©1999 Richard Matheson (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Hell House

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    54
  • 4 Stars
    24
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    62
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    47
  • 4 Stars
    21
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Porter delivers a CRACKER!

it's brilliant, every moment. don't fall asleep with it on tho, it gets intense lol

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A superb ghost story

Great story. Lots of dark and adult themes throughout. Definitely a story written in a different time and with different priorities. A creepy blast. Going to listen to Hill House now!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

3 Star Appeal

I wasn't impressed nor was I disappointed. The narrators female voices were scarier than the story line. Norman Bates vibes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good entertainment

Great character development and an entertaining story. Well narrated and goes by at a good pace.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Masterpiece!

By far the best book I have read.
The storyline and characters fit together so perfectly, and the narration done by Ray Porter was absolutely superb.
I highly recommend this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Stephen King is right. Genuinely Scary

The King of Horror once pronounced this novel the best haunted house story ever written. He was correct. It definitely follows a formula - strangers paid by a dying eccentric man to stay in a creepy setting possessed by evil spirits - but Richard Matheson is a master at it. The characters are interesting (flawed and often unlikable), the setting is genuinely disturbing, and the atmosphere sets the reader on edge. The inexplicable episodes of ghostly activity are shocking and legitimately spooky. This book was written 50 years ago but feels like it could have taken place this summer. The writing and dialogue is a little immature, it is oversexualized at points - and it would be fair to say it is filled with clichés - but it is definitely unsettling. It's also fair to say it helped create those clichés in the first place. The book must have been astounding in 1971, as it is still engrossing now. A true masterpiece of horror.

Ray Porter delivers a masterful reading. His performance is reserved but full of emotion.

This trope-establishing novel is worth 8.5 stars out of 10.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Disturbingly good!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story.. it was unexpectedly dark and and pretty graphic. The setting and some of the writing style is dated, but didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story overall. There are parts that made me pull faces in disgust or horror, or make goosebumps show up on my arms, which I loved, because it was partly the narrator's effects and partly the story, and I love nothing more than a good story that makes me physically react. I would often have to reset my sleep timer because I just wanted to keep listening!

The narrator is excellent, and really makes the dialogue come alive. There's never any question as to who is talking, and he can do the scary voices quite well. I am picky with narration, but I'd listen to anything by Ray Porter any day.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Awful narration

The story was good for what it is but the narration is absolutely cringe worthy. I had a hard time getting through this and taking it seriously. The narrator's story telling is great, but when it comes to voicing the women and the evil spirits dialogue it's just horrible. I really didn't want to keep listening but I don't like to leave things unfinished. I wish I would have read the physical copy myself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Mostly just gross and unsettling

There's a lot of rape and sexual assault. In fact that is pretty much all there is. The whole book is just a bragge of sexual assault scenes written in a pretty fetishistic manner. There isn't really much story beyond to prop up this content. There's noting wrong with a few sex scenes in books or showing assault but in this book there just isn't enough of anything else to make it interesting, or enjoyable, or thrilling.

The narrator has a pleasant voice and mostly did a good job except the female characters came out so whiny that it was pretty hard to listen to.

The characters were mostly unlikable and they had no camaraderie which is usually pretty essential. If you compare it to Shirley Jacksons "Haunting of Hill House," which is a pretty similar premise, you really notice how much this book is lacking and how much it could have benefitted from some likeable characters and endearing moments. You might actually care what happens to them.

Honestly if this is what I was looking for in a book I just would have picked up some fetish material. This isn't scary, it wasn't entertaining. Just not worth the time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Relies on rape and homophobia to drive the horror.

This is my first negative review.

I would like to begin by saying that Ray Porter read the book well, he is absolved from blame in this.

But the book relies on tawdry use of rape and homophobia to drive the horror. The rape elements come across as more gross and sensationalist than anything else, and the homophobia just comes across as awkward and is only frightening if you are homophobic.
This book falls in line with the piles of moralizing horror wherein people are punished for moral lapses (as defined by the author).

The ultimate reveal fell utterly flat. It felt like we were given an obvious answer to a question we never asked.

In the past I have never understood when women complain about how male writers describe women. But Oh. My. Gosh! I clearly have just been lucky in my book choices! This book had my eye’s rolling into the roof with the hyper-sexualized descriptions of women (and, notably, never men). Except for the possibly-lesbian woman who was described as looking very masculine - so he didn’t miss the opportunity to feed into those tired stereotypes.

He also REALLY overused the word “hissing.”

In short, this book felt much more gross than it felt frightening.

I agree with a reviewer on Goodreads that this book reads more like a perverse straight male fantasy than a work of horror.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful