Meryl Streep, | | | Kerr has applied some of her research to the real world by helping to design haunted houses, and she says she hates seeing people dragged in … Stars: | Category:Films set in abandoned houses. The group of paranormal investigators here don’t have any fancy electromagnetic machinery to measure the effects of the supernatural; instead, they’ve got only their own senses. It’s hard to get more haunted than the Freelings’ house in Poltergeist. If you fancy something spooky that won’t give you nightmares, this might be the one. This is one of those films you ideally want to know nothing about before it starts. John Lynch Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Director: June Tripp, Left with the care of her family home, she has trouble meeting the mortgage payments and her ... See full summary », Director: Perry King, In a story fueled by rhythm and blues, a young boy's life is shaped by love and the stories of a cast of characters in the boarding house where he lives in 1960s Lackawanna, New York. John Hurt, Stars: Warren Leight It’s got some brilliant set design, some great performances, and some of the most gleefully swoopy camerawork in any film made since 1980. Best Movie Lists. Watching it now, with years of distance and knowing it’s not real, you’d think it’d lose some of its power, but nope. Director: 100 min | But this came first, and though its scares are more subtle, for my money they’re also far more effective. Murdered kids are the worst for that kind of ghostly pestering, but then maybe they’re entitled to a bit of post-death whining. | | Gross: The Mrs. Danvers analogue is properly sinister too. It wouldn’t be a disaster if you accidentally picked up the 2015 remake, either; it’s faithful enough to the original without being slavish about it, and it’s got some decently funny moments thrown in for good measure. Based on Richard Matheson’s novel Hell House, The Legend Of Hell House sees a group of psychic investigators moving into the home of Emeric “The Roaring Giant” Belasco. What follows is a list of great haunted house movies and TV shows that really do have haunted houses in them…. And the set-up is a classic, although it’s not as well-handled here as it is in another, similar film (more on that later!). Though they have yet to find one that meets their high standards, they catch wind of the infamous Blue Skeleton. Drama, Romance. 25 best road trip movies ever. Tell us what you think about this feature. National Lampoon's Animal House. John Wayne, Michael Poole (Sir John Hurt) is an ex-conman, whose cons have finally caught up with him. Director: Widowed Liz Garfield and her son Bobby change when mysterious stranger Ted Brautigan enters their lives. Stars: It’s just great. 95 min If you consider what a house means to us in waking life you can see how this has an influence on dreams about houses and what they represent for us in our dream life. Proving that the haunted house premise can work over 10 hours instead of just two, Flanagan’s smart, stylish, downright frightening take on the genre feels like a bit of a milestone. These ones seem to. 42,811 | Each house also has its own Quidditch team that competes for the Inter-House Quidditch Cup. Drama, Music. Burt Lancaster, Votes: Best Movie Lists. Menu. James Wan’s ode to ’70s horror sees a pair of paranormal investigators coming to the aid of an unfortunate family who’ve moved into one of the most terrifyingly haunted houses ever. The ghosts themselves are similarly well-designed; they appear as skeletal forms, the injuries that killed them still clearly visible, their ectoplasm stained with the blood-red clay they’re buried in. C. Castle of Evil. Gwen Verdon, Stars: Home. Get ready and lock your doors: Full Horror Movies Involving haunted spaces! 150 min A sort of cuddlier take on Rebecca – with actual ghosts! 100 min Based on Henry James’ The Turn Of The Screw, the film sees a new governess move into a fancy country pile to look after a couple of orphans. Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin. Drama, Romance, Sara lives in a small town where everybody knows everybody and her life is an open book. So, yes, a lot of the films that tend to crop up on these kinds of list had to be ruled out. The 2007 wartime drama, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy , won a clutch of Oscars, including Best Film, and grossed $130 million at the box office. | | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, 101 min From the 'Big Short' on: Here are movies that tell the real story of the global financial crisis in 2008. | Votes: 358. Best Movie Lists. Arthur Chesney, Approved So little about it is ever explained, and it ends so horrifically that there’s no closure, only a creeping sensation that maybe, just maybe, some houses are actually evil. | Despite being a brand new... 13 Ghosts (1960). A poppy field scene shot at a farm in the Cotswolds features in Atonement, one of the most successful British movies of the 21st Century. Also shot in … With enough space and time to burrow into Jackson’s classic novel (and for it to burrow into us), the series is a triumph of style and substance – atmosphere over cheap thrills. | Gross: Crimson Peak seems poised to take its place in the official canon of brilliant haunted house movies. We can’t help but drool over Jackie Treehorn’s Malibu Beach manse in ‘The Big Lebowski’ and covet Mia Wallace’s stylish living room in ‘Pulp Fiction’. | Alfred Hitchcock Kate Reid, PG The scariest parts of Sinister are probably the old Super 8 movies Ellison finds in the attic, showing what happened to previous families who messed around with this particular demon – they’re violent in disturbingly creative ways. Lauren Bacall, Dany Robin, | Director: Kirk Douglas, Vincent Price is on fine form as the dastardly Frederick Loren, a millionaire who invites a group of strangers to spend the night in his haunted house – with a $10,000 prize for anyone who makes it till morning. Yasiin Bey, When literally anybody else does it. When Caroline (Kate Hudson) takes a job as caregiver to an elderly man, she thinks she’s prepared for the isolation and weirdnesses of the household, but after running afoul of the lady of the house, Violet (Gena Rowlands), she begins to suspect her patient suffered more than just a stroke…. Speaking of kids with very particular needs, the children in The Innocents are a pair you definitely wouldn’t fancy babysitting. The harsher one, though, will make you consider investing in a nightlight. 251 N. Bristol Avenue, to be exact. The fact that the only way to get to the house is to cross a narrow causeway that’s only accessible at certain times of the day and pretty much permanently shrouded in mist should’ve tipped him off that this was a terrible plan, but it’s only when he starts going through the paperwork that he realizes something spooky is going on. The show Charmed is set in San Francisco which has plenty of great Victorian-style houses, but the house is actually in Los Angeles. Hope Davis, Director: 20 best snow movies ever. Something spooky’s going on in a crumbling mansion deep in the Louisiana bayou. Director: – The Uninvited sees a brother and sister moving from London to Cornwall to take advantage of a gorgeous abandoned house they’ve found on the clifftops. Sydney Pollack Ironically, the house isn't even in Bel Air, but located in the posh area of Brentwood instead. Another TV production, what makes Ghostwatch so scary is how utterly believable it seems. Mika Boorem, Votes: She loves horror movies, unusual storytelling techniques, and smoking jackets. $7.40M, PG-13 Unfortunately, this time round I wouldn’t recommend picking up the remake, which tries to be terrifying and fails, killing all of the original’s cozy fun in the process. | Gross: 37,013 Stars: Don Siegel Fans of suspense know that atmosphere is everything. The house with the most points wins the House Cup. Drama, Romance. The build-up of tension is effective, and it all just works. Maurice Godin, 90 min These 13 (mostly) real modern houses featured in major films are memorable even when the movies are not, despite – in some cases – only appearing for a moment or two. In this made-for-TV movie, a couple inherits a Victorian mansion and excitedly sets about restoring it to their tastes. Darkness was directed by Jaume Balagueró of REC and Sleep Tight fame, which should be a pretty good indication that it’s not the slick early-2000s Hollywood nonsense the box art makes it look like. $30.04M, R | Director Guillermo del Toro hired two of the best monster performers in the business, Doug Jones and Javier Botet, to play the ghosts, and used practical rather than digital effects wherever possible – an extra bit of effort that pays off massively, because these are some of the most physically present ghosts you’ll ever see. Getty Images. Sure enough, as soon as the investigators start setting up their bizarre ghost-detecting machines, all sorts of paranormal activity kicks off. A landlady suspects her new lodger is the madman killing women in London. A dying gunfighter spends his last days looking for a way to die with a minimum of pain and a maximum of dignity. Director: Unaware of his past, Alice (Brenda Blethyn) joins him in a dramatic escape on the Orient Express. 104 min Unaware of his past, Alice (Brenda Blethyn) joins him in a dramatic escape on the Orient Express. Sarah is a freelance writer and editor. 5 of the best future sports movies. Actually a bit scarier than you think it is, Beetlejuice features Tim Burton’s idea of a haunted house – all weird architecture and manic ghosts. | It doesn’t matter how old you get; you never outgrow wanting to … 20 best christmas movies ever. | Matthew Broderick, Barbara Laage, Eschewing the traditional haunted house structure where things start off creepy and escalate to terrifying (if you’re lucky), it’s a non-stop ghost train with the creaky-voiced Kayako (Takako Fuji) and her wide-eyed meowing son Toshio (Yuya Ozeki) popping up every couple of minutes. | $1.88M, See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc. | A rooming house landlady recalls her past in flashbacks. Stephen Macht, 5 of the best golf movies. It’s got an incredibly creepy set up: Grace (Nicole Kidman) is a frazzled mother, waiting for news about her soldier husband while trying to take care of her two kids. Jeanne Tripplehorn, Alex Nicol, Approved S. Epatha Merkerson, Belasco was supposedly an evil murderer, and his spirit is said to still walk the halls of his former estate. Best Movie Lists. Stars: Sheila McCarthy, Friends (Brandy Schaefer, Mikey Roe, Jeff Larson) encounter genuine horror during a road trip to visit haunted houses. And while that seems like it probably isn’t actually true, at all, it’s still a brilliant haunted house film – it’s an obvious choice, but there’s a reason for that. The eerie old mansion is home to the ghost of a murdered child, and when it’s not pushing its wheelchair around the place, it’s pushing John to uncover its story and wreak its revenge. Conversely, Rebecca has a brilliant and creepy house in it, but despite the second Mrs. De Winter’s anxieties, it’s not actually haunted. Strictly speaking, the entity haunting the Oswalt family isn’t a ghost, it’s a kind of demon, but he comes with an entourage of ghostly kids, and they’re just as scary as he is, so I’m gonna’ say this counts. Rita Karin, Votes: Brian, painter Ellen and chef Sam timeshare an apartment on different days. Shark Movies: History and Top Films. National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis. It’s a smart inversion of the usual haunted house story where the living are trying to kick out the dead, and Michael Keaton’s “bio-exorcist” Betelgeuse, while not your usual chain-rattler, is a creation of nightmarish energy. These 15 ghost movies—featuring haunted houses, shadowy figures, and strange voices—are the scariest of all time. The Best Haunted House Movies and TV Shows of All Time Poltergeist (1982). The twist ending here seems daft, but if you think about it long enough, it becomes disturbing instead. Entertainment Music TV & Film Performing Arts Visual Arts Fashion & Style Ghosts should be the least of anyone’s worries, considering the elaborate games the party’s hosts are playing with one another, but that ending will give anyone goosebumps. If they want to have their house to themselves again, they’ll need to scare off the obnoxious new family. Speaking of Japanese horror, I couldn’t leave out Tokyo’s most haunted. Every appearance of the ghosts in this movie is chilling, but probably the scariest thing about it is Martin Stephens, the child actor who plays Miles. As human beings our primary need for shelter and warmth are met within the home. The same can’t be said for most of the sequels, but the 2005 remake isn’t terrible – it’s just not as good as the original. Stars: Several other movies have made it even tougher for us to sit home alone on Friday nights. He also played the leader of the creepy kids in Village Of The Damned, and there’s something really eerie about him. Best Movie Lists. 92 min Director Takashi Shimizu has returned to the story of the murderous Saeki ghosts over and over again, making, to date, six films about them and their scary house, but this is probably the best of them all. The titular Crimson Peak, known officially as Allerdale Hall, is the most elaborately designed haunted house you’ve ever seen, with its gaping roof, weeping walls, and sinking foundations; it’s a maze of tiny, darkened rooms, each one promising new horrors. The haunted house is a staple horror device. | Trains, romance, a mysterious past. | Brenda Blethyn, | The Best Movies With House in the Title Life as a House. 10 Best Horror Movie Houses, Ranked 10 The House On Haunted Hill. A character based horror that doesn’t skimp on the details, Flanagan’s show is a wonderful celebration of the original novel – repairing the damage done by the ’99 version. Comedy, Romance. A psychedelic Japanese horror starring mostly unknown (and inexperienced) actors, it sees a group of schoolgirls head out to visit an estranged aunt in the countryside, only to find that the aunt isn’t as kindly as you’d hope, and her house is full of horrors. 25 best space movies ever. Drama, Romance, Thriller. Considering how long it’s been empty, the house is immaculate… except for one upstairs room, which is always cold, and somehow ugly, and, well, yeah, obviously it’s haunted. A few flies and a broken window aren’t going to put them off… but then the scares amp up (and, spoiler: when it gets properly scary, they do what any sensible person would do and move out!). Delbert Mann Pauline Flanagan, Films where a significant part of the action takes place within an abandoned house. | | ", Director: Twisting the... 8 … The settlement house, an approach to social reform with roots in the late 19th century and the Progressive Movement, was a method for serving the poor in urban areas by living among them and serving them directly.As the residents of settlement houses learned effective methods of helping, they then worked to transfer long-term responsibility for the programs to government agencies. Stars: Released: 2001 Life as a House is a 2001 American drama film produced and directed by Irwin Winkler. Director: | Gross: George Bloomfield Here are five real estate movies sure to make every agent laugh, cry or at least do a little soul-searching. 108 min For starters, it gets right what so many haunted house movies get wrong: the Lutzes know they’re buying a house with a history from the off, but the house itself is so big and so grand (and so affordable!) Anton Yelchin, Words Azure. You’d do the same, right? 6,855 Marlon Brando, One of the Greatest Movie Actors of All Time. Bit of a slow-burner, this one, but it’s seriously creepy if it catches you in the right mood. Shirley Jackson’s novel was adapted again in 1999 as a lame Scooby-Doo rip-off starring Lian Neeson and Owen Wilson, but it got a Netflix reboot this year courtesy of Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Before I Wake, Gerald’s Game). BY Stacy Conradt. Scott Hicks The Big Short (2015) Written by: Adam McKay and Charles Randolph Alan J. Pakula Just in case. Now out of prison but still disgraced by his peers, Gordon Gekko works his future son-in-law, an idealistic stock broker, when he sees an opportunity to take down a Wall Street enemy and rebuild his empire. Robert Redford, Carmen Ejogo, Not Rated 25 best robot movies ever. Go on, ask. Drama, Romance. The Shining, for example, is about a haunted hotel, not a house. Another William Castle film, the gimmick for House On Haunted Hill saw a plastic skeleton flown over the heads of cinema audiences. Annabella Sciorra, 13 Houses With Secret Passageways. In recent years, found footage films have slowly evolved into quite the rage. Charles Bronson, behind for each other. Stars: This version is a bit slower than the Daniel Radcliffe remake, but it’s got one big scare that more than makes up for it – and the ending is better in this one too. Director: George C. Scott stars as John Russell, a solitude-seeking composer who rents the wrong house while grieving his dead wife and daughter. 9 of 43. Ron Howard, Houses at Hogwarts were both the living and learning communities for its students. Tim Guinee, Votes: Natalie Wood, It’s hard to get more haunted than the Freelings’ house in Poltergeist. The Amityville Horror, based on the book of the same title by Jay Anson, claims to be based on a true story.