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It isn't long before the couple realizes the house is alive — and it is hungry for a blood sacrifice. While there have been many fine adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Alastair Sim's performance as the miserly, penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge elevates this version to must-see status. With Christmas soon approaching, Ebenezer's old friend, Jacob Marley (Michael Hordern), returns from the grave to offer Scrooge a chance at redemption through the haunting of three spirits.
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (
The film follows a group of experts as they head into the title house with the goal of finding proof of the supernatural. It quickly devolves into terror as the group encounters dark image after dark image, all building toward a terrifying conclusion that’s still one of the more fascinating haunted house resolutions in the cinematic canon. More than 25 years after its original release, the film inspired the creation of the MTV horror reality series Fear. The haunted house is one of horror’s most time-honored tropes, a dark twisting of the place we call home into a maelstrom of terror and things that go bump in the night. There’s something eternal about the idea, so it’s no wonder that hundreds upon hundreds of filmmakers have channeled it for dark visions of their own. There are, of course, dozens of classics in the genre on the big-screen, but if you’re looking for the very best to dive into this Halloween season, these are the ones you definitely won’t want to miss.
'Livescreamers' Review - Virtual Haunted House Movie Tackles the Perils of Online Content Creation - Bloody Disgusting
'Livescreamers' Review - Virtual Haunted House Movie Tackles the Perils of Online Content Creation.
Posted: Tue, 02 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The Evil Dead (
Don’t look up the plot, don’t watch trailers, just watch the movie and hold on for dear life. It’s been nearly 50 years since Obayashi’s film was released, and there’s still nothing else in the horror genre—or in any other genre—quite like it. It’s a dark dream full of imagery that will live in your head forever, and a singular achievement in haunted house storytelling. While House was an immediate hit in its native Japan, American audiences didn’t get a chance to witness it until more than 30 years later, when it began screening at festivals in 2009 and very quickly gained a cult following.
Lake Mungo (
Two African refugees settle into government-provided housing in the United Kingdom, and quickly discover they’re not alone. Like so many horror films on this list, His House begins with something very straightforward, easily graspable by any audience, then evolves into something else entirely. James Wan’s franchise-launching film is among the most successful, and most frightening, horror movies of the 2010s, and still looms large in a horror landscape that’s since moved through many sequels and spinoffs. Wan’s ability to wring maximum screams out of a good jump scare is, of course, legendary at this point. And while there’s no shortage of that kind of terror in The Conjuring, it’s the human struggle at its core that will keep you hooked.
In fact, the serenade Rick writes and plays for his love, "Stella by Starlight," was composed specifically for the movie. However, it became a sensation when lyrics were later added, and it was even performed by Frank Sinatra. Lake Mungo is chilling from start to finish, employing a mockumentary and found-footage style of filmmaking to exude an atmosphere of realism and tension that is supremely frightening to the senses. The fun of Lake Mungo, without spoiling the film's well-executed jump scare, is its use of modern technology to frighten audiences when they least expect it. One hundred and twenty years of haunting and horror isn't going to stop Anne Sacchetti (Barbara Crampton) and her husband, Paul (Andrew Sensenig), from buying a rural home, but perhaps they're blinded by the death of their son, Bobby.
Drew Barrymore auditioned for Spielberg for the role of Carol Anne, but, despite not landing the part, it was her Poltergeist tryout that led to her being cast in E.T. On April 8, 2013, it was confirmed that Wayans, Open Road, and IM Global Octane will produce a sequel due to the financial success of the first film. The sequel had begun shooting in late August 2013.[13] On April 18, 2014, a sequel titled A Haunted House 2 was released. Five teens trapped in a hospital on Halloween night must figure out who is alive and who is dead as spirits take them over. As if chronic sleep deprivation isn't scary enough, this 1999 film follows three insomniacs who agree to sleep in a haunted mansion as part of a sleep study. Hausu's over-the-top subject matter isn't for everyone, but horror fans — particularly of Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992) — will find the movie resonating with them.
In this classic '60s-era horror film, a group confronts supernatural forces in a 90-year-old New England haunted house. The film's twist is one of those watercooler moments that rivals any horror movie ending. Without spoiling the climax, A Tale of Two Sisters uses the haunted house motif almost as a window dressing to obscure the psychological aspects at play in this immensely enthralling, supernatural flick. Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is one of the all-time great haunted house stories, and it has given us more than one great adaptation along the way.
In it, a family moving into their new house hits, uh, a few snags while unpacking their things. The character of John Russell is a music composer, but Scott wasn't musically inclined. Even so, the actor practiced the piano pieces Russell plays so that he could actually tickle the ivories on screen. Also, the actress who portrays historical society agent Claire (Trish Van Devere) was Scott's wife in real life, and they made five feature films while they were married, as well as a made-for-TV movie and a play. Rick (Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) make the spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a lovely seaside home, and, as a result, Rick meets and becomes quite taken with young Stella (Gail Russell).
The actor suggested Handley be cast in the role in order to strengthen the bond seen between father and son in the film. While it’s firmly rooted in dark, zany comedy and not horror, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice remains one of the great haunted house movies thanks to its focus on the expected tropes and how they twist when the perspectives get flipped. Reportedly, Burton’s first choice for the role of Beetlejuice was Sammy Davis Jr. While some horror movies derive thrills and chills from ghosts, goblins, witches, vampires or other kinds of mad killers, others make the setting itself the centerpiece of the plot. The best haunted house movies don't just have to be about houses either — sometimes the genre sets the scene in haunted hotels, hospitals, farmhouses or other buildings where strange secrets lurk in dark corners, attics or basements. If you’ve never seen House, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 haunted house film, do yourself a favor and just go watch it.
In 2021, the Rhode Island home that inspired the film hit the market for $1.2 million. Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters is an unforgettable exercise in psychological terror for a number of reasons, but among the most striking is the way the filmmaker convinces you more than once that he’s switching genres. For a huge chunk of the runtime, the film might just be a gripping psychological drama with a few haunted house flourishes for the sake of symbolism.
In this creepy, found-footage-style flick, five friends hit the road in an RV for an adventure in search of the scariest haunted houses. Filmmaker Kim Jee-woon's heartbreaking horror film gives audiences valid reasons to avoid adultery. Su-mi (Im Soo-jung) returns home from a mental facility after her mother dies, but there's a strange family dynamic between her father and stepmother, Eun-joo (Yum Jung-ah).
The next day, Malcolm's friend Steve and his girlfriend Jenny bring over a ouija board to communicate with the ghost. When it misspells ghost as "gost", they all laugh at it, and it throws the ouija board across the room, scaring Jenny and Steve out of the house. When Malcolm finds out, he calls his cousin Ray Ray, who immediately flees when he sees the ghost's powers. Helen Mirren stars as the widow who occupies a possessed mansion in this chilling story, inspired by real events. While Martin Scorsese called it one of the scariest movies of all time, The Uninvited kindles a wonderful romance between Rick and Stella.
Not even Fixer Upper's Chip and Joanna Gaines can salvage your house when its walls start bleeding. George Lutz (James Brolin) and his wife, Kathy (Margot Kidder), get the deal of a lifetime when they buy a home in the quaint, seaside town of Amityville, N.Y. — but their new digs come with a sordid history and house full of haunting horrors. On another night, Kisha urges Malcolm to investigate a noise, but it turns out to be Rosa, his Hispanic housekeeper. Rosa quits, and Malcolm and Kisha smoke marijuana with the ghost to relieve their pain.
If you want a haunted house story that’s not scary, and might in fact leave you buoyant with joy, look no further than this classic starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison in the title roles. Bernard Herrmann, the legendary composer behind such diverse titles as Citizen Kane, Psycho, and Taxi Driver, scored The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and considered it his best work. The Uninvited, a ghost story from Hollywood’s Golden Age, has pretty much everything you’d want out of a classic black-and-white horror-drama. It’s got a spooky old house, a cast of beloved character actors led by Ray Milland, a slow-burn supernatural narrative that moves at its own leisurely pace, and of course old-school ghosts. It might move a little slowly for modern audiences, but if you’re patient with it, it’s the kind of film that will wrap you up in its own creepy comforts. In 2019, Martin Scorsese named The Uninvited one of the scariest movies of all time; “the tone is very delicate, and the sense of fear is woven into the setting [and] the gentility of the characters,“ he wrote for The Daily Beast.
And if you like found footage, the home movie segments are still chilling, even if you’ve seen them 100 times. Robert Cargill told Complex how the idea for Sinister came to him from a nightmare he had after watching The Ring. A family reeling from the loss of their daughter agrees to be interviewed for a documentary exploring the possibility that their house is haunted. What happens next is one of the most remarkable horror narratives of the last 25 years.
