Home Is Where the Horror Is: 10 House-Themed Scary Movies to Watch This Halloween
Creaky stairs. Cobweb strewn attics too scary to enter. Dank basements with hidden passages. Some of the creepiest settings in the history of cinema are also the most intimate. We’re talking, of course, about homes. There have been house-themed scary movies since the dawn of the horror genre, and with good reason: Home is where we first learn the meaning of fear.
With Halloween right around the corner, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite house-themed scary movies for your next horror movie marathon.
1. Winchester (2018)
Accuse of bias all you want, but we guarantee you’ll be singing a different tune once you get a load of “Winchester.” A silver-screen adaptation of Sarah Winchester’s life, “Winchester” is about one woman’s encounter with a supernatural evil that occupies her home. Starring Helen Mirren, “Winchester” is the ideal way to kick off a scary movie marathon.
Have your own spine-tingling night at the Winchester Mystery House when you visit our haunted attraction, Unhinged: Housewarming. Tickets on sale now!
2. The Shining (1980)
The Overlook Hotel isn’t technically a house. But it is one of the eeriest settings of all time. The geometric carpet. The epic garden maze. The uncountable hallways and rooms where spirits and ghouls wait to terrorize the Torrance family. The enormous, spooky hotel looks how insanity feels. That’s why the iconic Stanley Kubrick film makes our list.
3. Barbarian (2022)
The history of a house collides violently with the present in gory, tension-filled fashion. The brilliance of “Barbarian” is its ability to tie your stomach knots by subverting your expectations. The jump scares don’t always come when you think they will, but you’ll feel a breathless terror all the same.
4. House on Haunted Hill (1999)
An amusement park tycoon invites a group of strangers to stay overnight in an abandoned asylum and promises a $1 million prize to those that can make it through the night. The contestants in the macabre game question what’s real and what’s a stunt until the answer becomes frighteningly real.
5. House of Usher (1960)
Get ready for old school creeps galore in this Vincent Price adaptation of a story by Edgar Allan Poe. When Philip Winthrop visits his fiance, he discovers she has an eerie, overbearing brother and an unsettling family secret that threatens to keep them apart.
6. The Amityville Horror (1979)
Based on a true story, “The Amityville Horror” tells the bone-chilling tale of a family man who becomes possessed by a malevolent spirit after moving into a home in an idyllic New York neighborhood.
“The Amityville Horror” is packed with disturbing imagery including a pair of demonic red eyes outside of a second-story bedroom window and blood pouring from walls. No wonder it’s been a scary movie marathon favorite for over 40 years.
7. Paranormal Activity (2007)
Question: What’s the only thing scarier than a ghost you can see?
Answer: A ghost you can’t see.
That’s what you get with “Paranormal Activity,” a modern fright-fest that tells the story of Katie and Micah, a couple tormented by a demonic presence in their suburban home. Part of what makes this scary movie so compelling is it was shot on a home video camera. The raw, realistic presentation is so gripping you can’t look away.
8. Poltergeist (1982)
“They’re heeeere.”
Those two words set off a whirlwind of ghastly frights for Carol Anne and the rest of the Freeling family. This 1980s horror classic will have you making sure you don’t go to sleep with the TV on and wondering what’s buried under your house.
9. Rose Red (2002)
Loosely based on the Winchester Mystery House, Stephen King’s “Rose Red” tells the tragic tale of an abandoned mansion. In this miniseries, a professor leads a team of psychic investigators to solve the violent mysteries of the old house, but they end up finding more than they bargained for.
10. The Conjuring (2013)
Who can forget seeing Lily Taylor’s terrified Carolyn Perron desperately grasping a door jamb as an evil entity drags her across the floor? We certainly can’t. Based on a true story, “The Conjuring” is full of paranormal scares and creepy images you won’t soon forget.
These house-themed scary movies will have you staying out of the basement all spooky season long. Don’t forget to visit our house of horrors: Buy your ticket to Unhinged: Housewarming today!