Hill House as seen in the Netflix series.
When The Haunting of Hill House dropped on Netflix in October, it reminded me why haunted houses are just as scary as monsters made of flesh and blood. Inspired by Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same name, The Haunting of Hill House introduces us to the Crain family in both 1992 and present day. Without giving too much away, the family is haunted literally by the ghosts they encountered in Hill House. Yes, the ghosts and the house itself gave me plenty of scares during the 10-episode series, but it also delved into the family’s trauma and grief, which affected me just as strongly.
Haunted houses are scary to me because home is supposed to safe. Home is supposed to be a haven. Home is filled with family and loved ones. But when something dark and sinister moves in, it causes chaos and fear. Losing that sense of safety is a true horror.
Hill House is just the latest of haunted structures in popular culture. For this month, I thought I would take a look at some of my favorite haunted houses and why you shouldn’t “make yourself at home” quite yet.
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Supposedly based on a true story, this movie stars James Brolin and Margot Kidder as newlyweds who move into a house where a mass murder had occurred. The house starts to change and affect them in dark and disturbing ways. When they find out the house was built on top of a Indian burial ground, they immediately leave the house. Can you blame them? This was a haunted house movie where the house felt like a main character. Who can forget the house’s “eyes” staring and watching? The Amityville Horror was remade in 2005, but it doesn’t compare to the original.
Poltergeist (1982)
“They’re heeeere!” Like The Amityville Horror, a family moves into a new home, unaware of the ghosts that already inhabit the space (in this case, a cemetery that had its headstones moved, but not the bodies). What I like about Poltergeist is that we are drawn into the story because we care about the family (I felt the same way with the Crain family in The Haunting of Hill House). When little Carol Ann is taken by the house, we desperately want to rescue her as well. Even though the movie had a happy ending, it made us double-check to make sure the TV was off. Like The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist was also remade, and again, it can’t top the original film.
Beetlejuice (1988)
Beetlejuice is more a comedy-fantasy movie, but it is still one of my favorite films about a haunted house. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis play a recently deceased couple that want to get rid of the new family that has moved into their house. They “haunt” the house and even enlist the aid of the ghost called Betelgeuse (played by Michael Keaton) to torment the new occupants. The movie ends with the ghosts and the living sharing the house peacefully — which you don’t see very often in haunted house movies.
The Others (2001)
Nicole Kidman is a mother raising two young children in this moody, dark, and gothic film set during World War II. What I like about this haunted house is the atmosphere. You feel each dark corner, each door creak, each strange noise. Throughout the movie, the audience thinks it’s the mother and her two children being tormented by other beings, but (SPOILER), these three are actually the ghosts that refuse to leave their home when a new (and very much alive) family moves in. It’s a great twist, and it shows that not all ghosts are evil and angry; some are just sad and tragic, unable to move on from the life they created in this world.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
This found-footage movie focuses on a young couple, Katie and Micah, who move into a new house. Soon enough, paranormal activity starts occurring (I wonder where they got the title from). Katie believes a demon is haunting her, so Micah sets up a camera to record the paranormal activity, and what it captures is definitely scary. Like The Blair Witch Project, the found footage element gives the movie a more realistic setting, which makes the film even more frightening.
The Conjuring (2013)
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators, who are called to a farmhouse to assist a family who has reported disturbing events. Once there, they realize they need to perform an exorcism on the house after finding out it used to be owned by a witch who still resides there. What makes The Conjuring frightening is that it’s based on real events, and the cases the Warrens investigated are what inspired The Amityville Horror.
Images from IMDB.com and Newsweek.com
No Comments