Spooky season (and Spooky Season Spookathon Spooktacular) are now in full swing. It’s the most wonderful time of the year as people all over the world begin watching their favorite horror movies featuring masked killers, zombies, werewolves, and Draculas. A particularly popular subgenre of horror (if box office is any indication) this time of year is the haunted house movie. It’s a subgenre with a very long history that has produced multiple successful franchises like The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Conjuring (and their many spinoffs). There’s a good chance that you’ve seen some of these even if you aren’t someone who typically watches horror films. They clearly hold mass appeal. Despite that, it’s not a subgenre I typically love. I don’t really know why that is, but I just don’t find them very effective. It could be an over reliance on jump scares, or maybe I just don’t find ghosts very scary. Because of that, I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight some haunted house movies that I do enjoy that don’t quite get the same attention as the ones I mentioned at the top.
The Innocents (1961) directed by Jack Clayton
This is your favorite director’s favorite haunted house movie. It’s an adaptation of 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (most recently adapted by Mike Flanagan in the Netflix series The Haunting of Bly Manor) that follows the story of a governess (played by Deborah Kerr) tasked with watching over two children on a massive estate that may be haunted. Spoiler alert: there are definitely ghosts involved. If you’ve seen Bly Manor, then you already know what the twist is. If you haven’t, then you’re in for one of the most haunting final scenes in horror film history. It’s a fantastically written, directed, and acted film that elevated haunted house movies to new heights.
The Haunting (1963) directed by Robert Wise
It’s another great 1960s haunted house movie that was adapted from a novel most recently adapted by Mike Flanagan for a Netflix series! This time the source material is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The premise of this film is that a small group of people are invited by a paranormal investigator (played by Richard Johnson) to stay in a supposedly haunted house in order to document any potential paranormal activity. This turns out to be a bad idea. What makes this film so effective is how subtle it is. There are no predictable jump scares or flashy special effects. It instead relies on slowly building dread that feels genuine due to the performances of the cast. It’s readily apparent why this film continues to be held in such high critical esteem.
The Sentinel (1977) directed by Michael Winner
This is one I really want more people to see because it is truly one of the most deranged haunted house movies ever made. The haunting in this one isn’t due to ghosts. Instead, it’s because this particular apartment building includes a gateway to Hell. I hope they included that information on the listing, but I suspect they did not. This film is full of disturbing imagery and situations, and it frequently feels like you’re trapped inside of a nightmare. It also has a loaded cast that includes Cristina Raines, Chris Sarandon, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, Burgess Meredith, Christopher Walken, and many more.
The Changeling (1980) directed by Peter Medak
George C. Scott doesn’t get enough credit as a horror and thriller icon. Everyone knows him from movies like Patton and Dr. Strangelove, but have you seen him in movies like Hardcore and The Exorcist III? He’s great! The Changeling is another example of just how good he can be in a horror film. The premise for this one is a New York City composer (Scott) suffers a horrific tragedy and moves across the country to Seattle to try and put some distance between himself and his loss. You’re never going to believe this, but it turns out his new home might be haunted. This leads him down a path of trying to solve a mystery behind what is causing this particular spirit to be haunting his new home. It’s both a really good mystery movie as well as a genuinely unnerving ghost story.
Lake Mungo (2008) directed by Joel Anderson
This little Australian film purports to be a documentary about a family whose daughter drowned and whose spirit may now be haunting their home. What I love about this movie is just how authentic it feels. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was a real documentary. All of the interviews seem so genuine that you truly feel heartbroken for the family, but that also makes the spooky scenes hit harder. This isn’t a movie that’s going to make you jump out of your seat or let out a scream, but it’ll send a chill down your spine and make your skin crawl.
The Innkeepers (2011) directed by Ti West
This one should come as no surprise from me as the world’s foremost Ti West super fan. West has a penchant for nailing the tone of classic genre films, and The Innkeepers is no exception. The film follows Claire (Sara Paxton) and her coworker Luke (Pat Healy) who work at a failing inn that has long rumored to be haunted. They assist guests by day (kinda) and conduct ghost hunting investigations at night. Things escalate when an actress who doubles as a psychic medium (played by Kelly McGillis) checks into the inn for a few nights. It’s a slow burn of a film that escalates to a crescendo of madness by the end.
Gonjijam: Haunted Asylum (2018) directed by Jung Bum-shik
This Korean found footage film is one of the freakiest in recent memory. It’s about a group of young paranormal investigators who are planning to livestream their investigation into an abandoned psychiatric hospital that is supposedly haunted. It’s a pretty traditional setup, but it is full of really inventive and effective scares. I don’t mind jump scares in a movie they are well executed, and these are some of the most effective scares I’ve seen in recent movies. It also has the most upsetting whispering noises I’ve ever heard.
Host (2020) directed by Rob Savage
Made during the height of the COVID pandemic, Host is an experiment in making a horror film in which none of the cast or crew are in the same room with each other. How does one do that? By holding a seance over a Zoom call! As silly as that might sound, the execution is incredible. The scares are as good as you’re going to see, the acting is excellent, and the whole film is a tight fifty-six minutes. There is no fat to trim out of this one. It’s a perfect film to throw on when looking for a spooky night without needing to schedule a huge window of time in your busy schedule. You just might not sleep to well afterwards.
Deadstream (2022) directed by Joseph and Vanessa Winter
I loved this movie so much when it came out in 2022 that I have made it an annual tradition to watch it on Halloween. The best way I can describe it is as if Evil Dead II was found footage film. It follows an obnoxious internet personality named Shawn (played by director Joseph Winter) who is attempting to resurrect his channel after getting canceled by live-streaming himself all night in a haunted house. Unsurprisingly, things don’t go according to plan. There are some legitimate thrills and chills to go along with a lot of laughs as Shawn continually screws things up for himself as his viewers watch. It’s incredibly entertaining, and Winters has great comedic timing and line delivery to go along with the gross out horror.