Connect with us

Editorials

Book a Stay at These 12 Haunted Hotels!

Published

on

Haunted Hotels

There are a plethora of “haunted” hotels all around the world. Some are home to some surprisingly sick and twisted crimes. Of course, this means that they are prime tourist attractions, with people all over the world coming over to visit them. I did a little bit of digging and thought I would single out some of our favorites (and by favorites I mean I really want to go to there).

Driskill Hotel – Austin, Texas

I’m a little biased towards this one because it’s the hotel my partner and I stayed at the night that I proposed, but it is supposedly haunted! We were lucky enough to stay in a room near a painting of Samantha Houston, whose ghost is rumored to haunt the hallways (we didn’t see her though). She was the daughter of a U.S. Senator who was chasing a ball down the stairs and tripped and fell to her death. The creepy thing is that the stairs are in the painting with her. In other news, Room 525 is dubbed the “Suicide Bride” room because two brides committed suicide on their respective honeymoons in Room 525’s bathroom on the same day twenty years apart. Talk about creepy! It’s one of the smallest rooms in the hotel though so it may not be worth the price of admission (the Driskill is known for being pretty pricey).

Haunted Hotels

Stanley Hotel – Estes Park, Colorado

Lying just five miles from the entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park, the Stanley Hotel is best known as the hotel that Stephen King stayed at in 1974 (in room 217, no less) and inspired him to write The Shining. Unsurprisingly, reports of paranormal activity started popping up after. King’s book was released.

Haunted Hotels

Grand Hyatt Taipei – Taiwan

Supposedly built on top of a former World War II prison camp and Japanese execution ground, the Grand Hyatt Taipei has more than earned its status as a haunted hotel. Rumors of wandering spirits permeate the halls. It has gotten to the point where locals stay away from the place.

Haunted Hotels

Emily Morgan Hotel – San Antonio, Texas

The Emily Morgan Hotel is supposedly the third most haunted hotel in the United States. I’m not exactly sure how you rate the degree of haunted-ness a building is, but I digress. Before becoming a hotel, the building was a medical facility, complete with a psychiatric ward and a morgue. The 12th and 14th floors are reportedly the most haunted because they used to be the hospital and surgery floors, respectively. Perhaps some of the dead are still roaming the halls?

Haunted Hotels

The Place D’Armes Hotel – New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is actually home to quite a few haunted hotels, but the Place D’Armes has one of the most tragic histories. Before the hotel was built, the grounds were home to a school building that unfortunately burned to the ground in the 1700s, killing several students inside.

Place D'Armes New Orleans

The Hollywood Hotel Roosevelt – Los Angeles, California

Open since 1926, The Roosevelt is the oldest continually operated hotels in Los Angeles. It is most well known for the number of celebrities who stay there, even after they die. The two most notable supernatural guests at the hotel are Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift (Tom Cruise’s uncle). Then there are the reports of mysterious phone calls in the night and random “cold spots” in the hotel. Spooky.

Haunted Hotel

Langham Hotel – London

Thought to me the most haunted hotel in London, the Langham Hotel is also home to Room 333, otherwise known as the most haunted room in London. There have been several sightings of various ghosts in the building over the years. Some of the more notable ones are a German nobleman who threw himself out of a window, a doctor who murdered his wife and killed himself, a man with a gash on his face, a butler with torn socks and another ghost who likes to shake beds. These guests have an affinity towards the aforementioned Room 333, but they have supposedly been spotted all over the hotel.

Haunted Hotels

Dalhousie Castle – Edinburgh, Scotland

The Dalhousie Castle grants its guest views of some of the most beautiful countryside in Scotland, but it also houses the ghost of Lady Catherine of Dalhousie, the daughter of the previous owners of the castle. You see, her parents forbid her from seeing a young boy that she fell in love with so she locked herself in a room at the top of the castle and starved herself to death. Guests at the castle have been known to see her grey figure wandering around the turrets and the dungeons.

Haunted Hotels

Hotel Chelsea- New York City, New York

Hotel Chelsea is filled with ghosts. It is considered to be one of the most haunted places in New York (again with that ranking system). A couple of notable celebrities have died there, which is where all the ghost stories come from. First up is writer Dylan Thomas, who died of pneumonia in the hotel in 1953. The most famous death is that of Nancy Spungen (girlfriend of Sex Pistols bass guitarist Sid Vicious). She was stabbed to death in her hotel room and there have been multiple sightings of her and Sid’s ghosts over the years. Unfortunately, the hotel closed for renovations in 2011 and has yet to reopen.

Haunted Hotels

RMS Queen Mary – Long Beach, California

This haunted hotel is a boat. Yes, a boat. It’s awesome. The RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967. It is now permanently moored at the coast of Long Beach, California. After it docked, rumors of hauntings began to spread around the city. Cabin B340 is rumored to be haunted by the spirit of a person who was murdered in the room (at the time it was Cabin B326 but it was renamed after the ship was refitted following World War II). Sounds of ghost children can be heard in the nursery. All in all, there have been no less than 49 crew members and passengers have died on the ship during its initial run. Board at your own risk!

Haunted Hotels

Hawthorne Hotel – Salem, Massachusetts

It’s really just Room 325 in Salem’s Hawthorne Hotel that gives paranormal investigators the chills. Word on the street is that the bathroom lights and pluming like to turn on of their own volition an ghostly hands touch guests at night. . The ghost of a woman can supposedly be seen in Room 612 as well. It probably doesn’t help matters that the hotel is built on the grounds of a former apple orchard once owned by Bridget Bishop, one of the first women to be executed to the Salem Witch Trials. Guests at the hotel have reported smelling rotten apples in the hall, which probably doesn’t get the appetite going.

Haunted Hotels

1886 Crescent Hotel – Eureka Springs, Arkansas

The last hotel on the list is the Crescent Hotel, reportedly one of the most haunted places in the United States. A reported eight spirits haunt the halls of the hotel. These spirits include (but are not limited to): a nurse who worked in the building when it was a hospital, Dr. John Freemont Ellis (also an employee of the former hospital), an Irish stonemason who fell of the roof and a small boy who died from complications from his appendicitis. A perk of staying at this hotel is that they offer a ghost tour for free!

Haunted Hotels

Which hotels do you want to stay at the most? Let us know in the comments below!

A journalist for Bloody Disgusting since 2015, Trace writes film reviews and editorials, as well as co-hosts Bloody Disgusting's Horror Queers podcast, which looks at horror films through a queer lens. He has since become dedicated to amplifying queer voices in the horror community, while also injecting his own personal flair into film discourse. Trace lives in Austin, TX with his husband and their two dogs. Find him on Twitter @TracedThurman

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

Published

on

leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

Continue Reading