“Wonder it Hitchcock’s seen this place?” 18 September 2019
Joe and Frank agree to help a young woman with psychic abilities who’s accused of being a witch discover the mystery of a creepy old house that has haunted her for years. Why is she drawn to this place? What happened to her here years ago? And what other mysteries does the house hold?
Based on the Season 2 episodes I’ve watched recently, I really wasn’t expecting much from The House on Possessed Hill. It’s not great, but what a relief - it’s not as Gawd awful as the last few I’ve seen. The episode gets off to a fairly creepy start when you realize that the titular house is actually the house from Psycho. I always welcome any episode where Joe and Frank stumble around an old, dark, supposedly haunted house. The story here is a reasonably entertaining blend of the supernatural mixed with an everyday human crime. And while the Boys (to no one’s surprise) catch the bad guys, I appreciate that every now and then, the Hardy Boys’ writers saw fit to leave an unexplained supernatural element or two. The acting in The House on Possessed Hill is a mixed bag. You get exactly what you expect from the regulars, but the very (and I mean very) young Melanie Griffith really stands out regardless of how ridiculous the lines she’s given. On the other end of the acting spectrum is Hollywood legend Dorothy Malone. She’s not very good here and seems horribly miscast. But the most ridiculous part of the whole episode has to be the townspeople chasing the young Griffith because they think she’s a witch. What is this – the 1600s? Give them torches and pitchforks and you’d have a Frankenstein movie. It’s funny for all the wrong reasons. Finally, it’s always a plus with any of these Hardy Boys episodes when I’m not subjected to a Shaun Cassidy song.
6/10
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