History Literature / HouseOfHell

* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: Most of the rooms are named after demons or other similarly significant concepts.

** If you reach the torture chamber in the cellar and pick the wrong option, you'll get the choice between two cages you can take place in. Both options lead to a instant death paragraph.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: No characters qualify, oddly enough (though the Earl comes close, owing to his MeaningfulName), but the rooms are another story. Many of them are named for famous demons, such as Abaddon, Asmodeus, and Dispater.

** And if you happen to forget that you are ''not'' a sword-swinging action hero in this gamebook, charging in to save a beautiful naked virgin from being sacrificed by ''FORTY'' cultists on your own [[TooDumbToLive ends as realistically well as you can expect.]] This action is so foolish, in fact, that the book even ''[[WhatTheHellPlayer states]]'' [[WhatTheHellPlayer that you deserved to die]].

* SurvivalHorror: Funnily enough, a TropeCodifier that was written ''twelve'' odd years '''before''' the game ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' created the genre proper.

* SurvivalHorror: Funnily enough a TropeCodifier that was written eight odd years ''before'' the game ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' created the genre proper.

** Suffering four hits from a Ghoul will paralyze you, which allows the monster to eat you alive. Not fun.
** Not to mention if you fail the torturer's test, you are forced to chose whether to spend the rest of your life crouching in a tiny box or standing in a thin box, eventually dying as your muscle cramps break your spine either way.
** Worst of all, [[spoiler:the book of hypnosis in the library, which is actually a prison of trapped souls. Even if you don't fall victim to this trap, simply seeing it causes a lot of Fear Points.]]

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Many throughout the book but a very nasty one in the torture chamber: you can end up in a cage where you slowly are starving to death.

* FaustianRebellion: The Kris Knife was used for HumanSacrifice. [[spoiler: It is the only weapon that can hurt the Master. Being surprisingly GenreSavvy, the cult knows this.]]

* GoshDarnItToHeck: ''House of Hell'' was censored to ''House of Hades'' when released in the U.S. Mind you, all of the stuff about a satanic cult, ghosts clutching their blood-dripping decapitated heads, and the infamous illustration of a naked woman about to be killed in a ritual sacrifice were untouched. Just instances of the word "hell".

* HauntedHouse: There are a few ghosts in the house, but the living enemies are greater threats. (One spirit is actually helpful.)

* HollywoodSatanism: While there are many monsters and ghosts in the House, the primary antagonists are a cult of stereotypical satanists who wear robes with goat heads as masks and practice virgin sacrifices.

* ManBehindTheMan: The Earl of Drumer is NOT the true Master behind the cult, its actually [[spoiler:Franklins the Butler. In fact, it's not clear if the Earl was aware that Franklins was actually a demon.]]

** You pretty much have already lost by the point where you arrive in [[spoiler:the kitchen]], since all three options offered eventually lead you to a bad end; trying to get through the door will only revealed it's locked, while [[spoiler:fighting the ghoul or grabbing the key]] will both cause enough noise to bring the cultists and allow them to get you.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The many inhabitants of the House include a vampire, who will most likely kill you unless you have garlic on yourself.

* MeaningfulName: The Earl of Drumer, whose name is an anagram for [[spoiler: [[SignificantAnagram Murder]].]]

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: No characters seem to qualify, oddly enough (except for the Earl, although he's sort of a subversion), but names of famous demons are common here as the names of rooms, such as Abaddon, Asmodeus, and Dispater, just to name three.

** As per the UnwinnableByDesign trope below, you die of fright if you reach your Fear Point total, and as you will accumulate a minimum of eight Fear Points in order to complete the book, as written you cannot win if your initial Fear Point total is eight or less. The way round this is to fudge the rule slightly so you die only if you ''exceed'' your Fear Point total plus one.

** There are ''other'' innocent people trapped in the House of Drumer besides you, and quite a lot of them have been driven mad with desperation to escape... Helping most of them is an invitation to be stabbed in the back, often literally, to help facilitate said escape.
** And if you happen to forget that you are ''not'' a sword-swinging action hero in this gamebook, charging in to save a beautiful naked virgin from being sacrificed by ''FORTY'' cultists on your own [[TooDumbToLive ends as realistically well as you can expect.]]

* TheFilmOfTheBook: ''House of Hell'' is being developed into a movie, but seems to have fallen into DevelopmentHell.

* ManBehindTheMan: The Earl of Drumer is NOT the true Master behind the cult, its actually [[spoiler: Franklins The Butler. In fact, it's not clear if the Earl was aware that Franklins was actually a demon.]]
* TheManyDeathsOfYou / HaveANiceDeath: Though nowhere as nasty as books like ''Literature/BeneathNightmareCastle'', many of your character's bad-ends can be quite sleep-depriving...

* NintendoHard: The first truly hair-rippingly frustrating ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' Gamebook, that requires ''one'' straight and narrow path to survive to the end. To give one example of how hard it is, [[spoiler:if you fail the torturer's test, you lose, but at least it's obvious. However, if you pass the test with flying colours, he offers to give you directions. If you accept his help... Well, you're also going to lose, because if you do that, you'll bypass the room where you can find the item you need to defeat the FinalBoss. Get the mediocre score on the test or refuse his advice if you get the perfect score, and you're fine - but seeing as his advice ''seems'' like a good idea if you follow it (it takes you out of the cellar), it's hard to tell.]]
* NoFairCheating: ''House of Hell'' had two paragraphs which could not possibly be reached normally unless the reader actually knew the correct "password", which chided the player for cheating. Also, it was impossible to find the item you needed to win in the end unless you followed given instructions and read ten paragraphs backwards when you were in the place where the secret door leading to the item was. (To get those instructions, you had to access one of those two "special" paragraphs mentioned above, and ask the right question.)
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished
** There are ''other'' innocent people trapped in The house of Drumer besides you, and quite a lot of them have been driven mad with desperation to escape... Helping most of them is an invitation to be stabbed in the back, often literally, to help facilitate said escape.

* SchmuckBait: Right near the beginning, when the real adventure starts. In the kitchen you see a keyring on top of the stove. Did you really think it would be that easy? [[spoiler: the stove is on, which burns your hand as you pick up the piping hot keys. Your screams alert the residents and it's GameOver]].

** Carrie Torrance - [[Literature/{{Carrie}} Carrie White]] and [[Film/TheShining Jack Torrance]]
** Jack Bates - Jack Torrance and [[Film/{{Psycho}} Norman Bates]]
** Norman White - Norman Bates and Carrie White

* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: Your only hope of completing the quest is to obtain the ''kris'' knife, the only weapon that can [[spoiler: [[WeaponOfXSlaying slay the Hell Demon]] which is the true Master behind the house's Satanic activities]].

** To give one example [[spoiler:using muscle to intimidate the Earl's hunchbacked servant like some CowboyCop won't get you anywhere; even if you outfight him, he'll just lie to get you off his back, and using the information he gives you will get you killed. ''However'', if you instead offer him brandy, he gets drunk and spills ''very'' useful information.]]

* ObviousRulePatch: As per the UnwinnableByDesign trope below, you die of fright if you reach your Fear Point total, and as you will accumulate a minimum of eight Fear Points in order to complete the book, as written you cannot win if your initial Fear Point total is eight or less. The way round this is to fudge the rule slightly so you die only if you ''exceed'' your Fear Point total plus one.

* GenreBlind / WrongGenreSavvy: If you act like the gung-ho, fearless Fantasy Action Hero more typical of the series' other entries in this book, you ''will'' meet a quick and grisly end.
** To give one example [[spoiler:using muscle to intimidate the Earl's hunchbacked servant like some CowboyCop won't get you anywhere; even if you outfight him, he'll just lie to get you off his back, and using the information he gives you will get you killed. ''However'', if you instead offer him brandy, he gets drunk and spills ''very'' useful information.]]
** Another good example is that trying to fight more than two opponents at once will get you instantly killed, no matter how high your SKILL score is. The book states that you simply can't defend yourself from so many attackers at once.
*** Which has led to accusations of FakeLongevity, as this is one of the few books in the entire series where it gives you a fight and you lose regardless of the outcome, and it does this multiple times. If the encounter kills you, you obviously lose, but if you win, then you lose on the next page. So what is the point of the fight at all? Just to eat up time and possibly force a re-read to beat the encounter and find out that you die anyway.

* SpiritualSuccessor: A companion/sequel of sorts called ''Literature/BloodOfTheZombies'', written by Ian Livingstone.

* ObviousRulePatch: As per the {{Unwinnable}} trope below, you die of fright if you reach your Fear Point total, and as you will accumulate a minimum of seven Fear Points in order to complete the book, as written you cannot win if your initial Fear Point total is seven. The way round this is to fudge the rule slightly so you die only if you ''exceed'' your Fear Point total.

* {{Unwinnable}}: The Fear score: Put simply, it's not possible to get through the book alive with a rolled score of 7, since that's the minimum amount of Fear points you must accumulate to get to the end (three of them right at the end, no less) - see ObviousRulePatch above.

* UnwinnableByDesign: Make one wrong move from the correct solution and it's most likely you won't be able to win; several areas, including the kitchen and the cells beneath the house, are completely inescapable.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: A 1980's splatterpunk-movie pastiche starring an [[TheEveryman Everyman Hero]] instead of a swashbuckling heroic medieval fantasy.

* LightIsNotGood: As you might find out, The Man In White is not an ally, he's actually a cult member who's fallen out of favor with the others, which is why he's locked up.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: ''House of Hell'' is being developed into a movie.

** Suffering four hits from a Ghoul will paralyse you, which allows the monster to eat you alive. Not fun.

* TheButlerDidIt: A variant. [[spoiler:Franklins the Butler actually is a demon, and the true mastermind behind the satanist cult in the house.]]

* MortonsFork: You pretty much have already lost by the point where you arrive in [[spoiler:the kitchen]], since all three options offered eventually lead you to a bad end; trying to get through the door will only revealed it's locked, while [[spoiler:fighting the ghoul or grabbing the key]] will both cause enough noise to bring the cultists and allow them to get you.

*** Which has led to accusations of FakeLongevity, as this is one of the few books in the entire series where it gives you a fight and you lose regardless of the outcome. If the encounter kills you, you obviously lose, but if you win, then you lose on the next page. So what is the point of the fight at all? Just to eat up time and possibly force a re-read to beat the encounter and find out that you die anyway.

** Carrie Torrance - [[Literature/Carrie Carrie White]] and [[Film/TheShining Jack Torrance]]
** Jack Bates - Jack Torrance and [[Film/Psycho Norman Bates]]

* CallBack: One of the many rooms you can enter is the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheCitadelOfChaos Balthus Room]].

[[caption-width-right:250:Something tells me [[{{Understatement}}this house is not very friendly]].]]

[[caption-width-right:250:Something tells me this house is not very friendly.]]

* CallBack: One of the many rooms you can enter is the [[''Literature/CitadelOfChaos'' Balthus Room]].

* CallBack: One of the many rooms you can enter is the [[Literature/CitadelOfChaos Balthus Room]].