Editorials
The Five Rules of Haunted Houses and the Horror Movies That Broke Them Brilliantly
Haunted house movies don’t have the active fandom of, say, slasher movies. Or vampire movies. Maybe because no iconic actor has ever played a haunted house. Maybe because the horror genre doesn’t have famous set designers like we have famous special effects and makeup artists (but we should!). Maybe because haunted houses sit, stuck to their foundations, sessile and passive, gazing out their window-eyes as hordes of zombies and covens of witches and tombs of mummies stumble and fly and prowl past them, chasing their victims instead of hoping their victims are in the market for a property investment.
But in the hands of the right movie makers, these boxes of brick and wood can be terrifying.
In researching my meta-haunted house novel Twelve Nights at Rotter House, I dug deep into the haunted house movie subgenre and discovered five rules for them—the HHOA bylaws—but also learned that some of the best haunted house movies flipped that haunted house model faster than the Property Brothers inadvertently picking up the Amityville Horror house.
1. Haunted House Movies Take Place in Houses…right?
‘The Innkeepers’
It’s right there in the name: Haunted house movie. Otherwise it’s a ghost story, right? However, haunted house stories can take place in all kinds of edifices and structures. Even vehicles. The Shining, The Innkeepers, and 1408 are all in hotels. Ghost Ship is on a ship. Below is on a submarine. The currently in production Horrorstör is in a furniture store. Poltergeist III and The Sentinel take place in apartment buildings. There’s more to haunted house stories than suburban sprawl.
Haunted house movies, while they can say a lot about where we hang our toothbrushes, are more about enclosed spaces. Defined borders. Walls and floors and roofs. Inside-ness. You’re safe on the sidewalk in front of the We Are Still Here house, but once you cross the threshold, you’re Larry Fessenden with a fire poker in your eye. You could take a beached whale carcass, stick candelabra-wielding guests inside it, and it could feel like a haunted house.
2. Haunted House Movies Star Ghosts…right?
‘Session 9’
Again, it’s there in the name. If you don’t need a literal house, surely you at least need it to be haunted? This section is going to be a spoiler-fest, so—like entering a haunted house—continue at your caution.
Many great haunted house movies end up without a single ghost in their entire run-time. These houses just appear to be haunted until the Scooby Gang unmasks the human villains at the end. Think Housebound, The Pact (sorta), the original House on Haunted Hill (Vincent Price with a puppetry rig strapped to his torso!), Session 9. We realize as the credits roll, that we were actually watching a mystery movie. But you’ll still find these films in the horror section of your local streaming service.
That’s partly because we’re looking for an ambiance from haunted house movies, that aforementioned inside-ness, but also because haunted has more than one definition – only one of which involves ghosts.
3. Haunted House Movies Feature Spooky Locations…right?
‘Poltergeist’
Hill House, Hell House, Bly Manor, Rose Red, Dunsmuir House, whatever the name of the estate in Crimson Peak is—these mansions all get a prominent place on the poster. They’re big and creepy and you can just tell from the opening shot that only evil lives there. I mean, who has the house from Poltergeist tattooed on their arm?
But some movies sidestep castle-like mansions masterfully. Paranormal Activity worked because the house didn’t look special. It was bland and beige and a lot like the houses most people live in. Poltergeist, as already mentioned. The Witch in the Window. Ghostwatch. The Haunting in Connecticut. But that’s part of what made them scary. If you look up and see that your living room looks a lot like the haunted living room on the TV, you might think twice about crossing it to refill your popcorn. And the chances of sleeping with the lights on are much higher.
4. Haunted House Movies Climax with a Big Reveal…right?
‘The Haunting’
Every movie is a mystery movie in some way. But haunted house movies come pre-loaded with multiple mysteries automatically: 1) Is this house haunted or not? 2) Is the force behind that haunting paranormal or human? 3) What do the ghosts or humans want? The answers to those questions are the big reveal of the movie and often the climax.
But some of the best haunted house movies don’t offer easy answers to those questions, like The Babadook. And The Innocents. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. In fact, the gold standard for haunted house movies, Robert Wise’s The Haunting, has no reveal whatsoever. Poor Eleanor.
5. Haunted House Movies Use Houses as Traps…right?
‘The Changeling’
Michael Myers slashes with a kitchen knife. Candyman disembowels with a hook. Haunted houses…they’re a bit more indirect with their murder and maimery. Sometimes they kill with pieces of themselves (Owen Wilson beheaded in a fireplace), but they mostly possess people to do the dirty work. But they do all that by trapping their victims inside. After all, if you can walk outside, it’s pretty easy to outrun a house. Even Terrified, which was a haunted neighborhood movie, still keeps its spooks indoors.
Still, some of the best haunted house movies let people come and go for most of the film, like The Changeling, What Lies Beneath, and The Amityville Horror. Some haunted house movies are all about the opposite, trying to make the residents leave. Like Beetlejuice. And Sinister.
In the end, a haunted house movie doesn’t need to have a house, have that house be haunted, or really adhere to any predefined conditions. It’s an ambiance more than anything else. A place where something goes bump in the night. And, with that flexible of a foundation, an imaginative director can make the haunted house as immediate and terrifying as any other cinematic monster.
Over the years, many have.
J.W. Ocker is the Edgar Award-winning author of horror novels Death and Douglas and the recently released meta-haunted house novel Twelve Nights at Rotter House. He has written for Rue Morgue, Paracinema, ShriekFreak, as well as mainstream publications like The Boston Globe, The Guardian, and The Atlantic. Ocker is from John Waters’ Maryland but has lived in Robert Eggers’ New Hampshire for more than a decade. Visit him at oddthingsiveseen.com.
Editorials
‘Immaculate’ – A Companion Watch Guide to the Religious Horror Movie and Its Cinematic Influences
The religious horror movie Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney and directed by Michael Mohan, wears its horror influences on its sleeves. NEON’s new horror movie is now available on Digital and PVOD, making it easier to catch up with the buzzy title. If you’ve already seen Immaculate, this companion watch guide highlights horror movies to pair with it.
Sweeney stars in Immaculate as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Cecilia’s warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside gets derailed soon enough when she discovers she’s become pregnant and realizes the convent harbors disturbing secrets.
From Will Bates’ gothic score to the filming locations and even shot compositions, Immaculate owes a lot to its cinematic influences. Mohan pulls from more than just religious horror, though. While Immaculate pays tribute to the classics, the horror movie surprises for the way it leans so heavily into Italian horror and New French Extremity. Let’s dig into many of the film’s most prominent horror influences with a companion watch guide.
Warning: Immaculate spoilers ahead.
Rosemary’s Baby
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The mother of all pregnancy horror movies introduces Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), an eager-to-please housewife who’s supportive of her husband, Guy, and thrilled he landed them a spot in the coveted Bramford apartment building. Guy proposes a romantic evening, which gives way to a hallucinogenic nightmare scenario that leaves Rosemary confused and pregnant. Rosemary’s suspicions and paranoia mount as she’s gaslit by everyone around her, all attempting to distract her from her deeply abnormal pregnancy. While Cecilia follows a similar emotional journey to Rosemary, from the confusion over her baby’s conception to being gaslit by those who claim to have her best interests in mind, Immaculate inverts the iconic final frame of Rosemary’s Baby to great effect.
The Exorcist
William Friedkin’s horror classic shook audiences to their core upon release in the ’70s, largely for its shocking imagery. A grim battle over faith is waged between demon Pazuzu and priests Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow). The battleground happens to be a 12-year-old, Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), whose possessed form commits blasphemy often, including violently masturbating with a crucifix. Yet Friedkin captures the horrifying events with stunning cinematography; the emotional complexity and shot composition lend elegance to a film that counterbalances the horror. That balance between transgressive imagery and artful form permeates Immaculate as well.
Suspiria
Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, an American newcomer at a prestigious dance academy in Germany who uncovers a supernatural conspiracy amid a series of grisly murders. It’s a dance academy so disciplined in its art form that its students and faculty live their full time, spending nearly every waking hour there, including built-in meals and scheduled bedtimes. Like Suzy Bannion, Cecilia is a novitiate committed to learning her chosen trade, so much so that she travels to a foreign country to continue her training. Also, like Suzy, Cecilia quickly realizes the pristine façade of her new setting belies sinister secrets that mean her harm.
What Have You Done to Solange?
This 1972 Italian horror film follows a college professor who gets embroiled in a bizarre series of murders when his mistress, a student, witnesses one taking place. The professor starts his own investigation to discover what happened to the young woman, Solange. Sex, murder, and religion course through this Giallo’s veins, which features I Spit on Your Grave’s Camille Keaton as Solange. Immaculate director Michael Mohan revealed to The Wrap that he emulated director Massimo Dallamano’s techniques, particularly in a key scene that sees Cecilia alone in a crowded room of male superiors, all interrogating her on her immaculate status.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
In this Giallo, two sisters inherit their family’s castle that’s also cursed. When a dark-haired, red-robed woman begins killing people around them, the sisters begin to wonder if the castle’s mysterious curse has resurfaced. Director Emilio Miraglia infuses his Giallo with vibrant style, with the titular Red Queen instantly eye-catching in design. While the killer’s design and use of red no doubt played an influential role in some of Immaculate’s nightmare imagery, its biggest inspiration in Mohan’s film is its score. Immaculate pays tribute to The Red Queen Kills Seven Times through specific music cues.
The Vanishing
Rex’s life is irrevocably changed when the love of his life is abducted from a rest stop. Three years later, he begins receiving letters from his girlfriend’s abductor. Director George Sluizer infuses his simple premise with bone-chilling dread and psychological terror as the kidnapper toys with Red. It builds to a harrowing finale you won’t forget; and neither did Mohan, who cited The Vanishing as an influence on Immaculate. Likely for its surprise closing moments, but mostly for the way Sluizer filmed from inside a coffin.
The Other Hell
This nunsploitation film begins where Immaculate ends: in the catacombs of a convent that leads to an underground laboratory. The Other Hell sees a priest investigating the seemingly paranormal activity surrounding the convent as possessed nuns get violent toward others. But is this a case of the Devil or simply nuns run amok? Immaculate opts to ground its horrors in reality, where The Other Hell leans into the supernatural, but the surprise lab setting beneath the holy grounds evokes the same sense of blasphemous shock.
Inside
During Immaculate‘s freakout climax, Cecilia sets the underground lab on fire with Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) locked inside. He manages to escape, though badly burned, and chases Cecilia through the catacombs. When Father Tedeschi catches Cecilia, he attempts to cut her baby out of her womb, and the stark imagery instantly calls Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s seminal French horror movie to mind. Like Tedeschi, Inside’s La Femme (Béatrice Dalle) will stop at nothing to get the baby, badly burned and all.
Burial Ground
At first glance, this Italian zombie movie bears little resemblance to Immaculate. The plot sees an eclectic group forced to band together against a wave of undead, offering no shortage of zombie gore and wild character quirks. What connects them is the setting; both employed the Villa Parisi as a filming location. The Villa Parisi happens to be a prominent filming spot for Italian horror; also pair the new horror movie with Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood or Blood for Dracula for additional boundary-pushing horror titles shot at the Villa Parisi.
The Devils
The Devils was always intended to be incendiary. Horror, at its most depraved and sadistic, tends to make casual viewers uncomfortable. Ken Russell’s 1971 epic takes it to a whole new squeamish level with its nightmarish visuals steeped in some historical accuracy. There are the horror classics, like The Exorcist, and there are definitive transgressive horror cult classics. The Devils falls squarely in the latter, and Russell’s fearlessness in exploring taboos and wielding unholy imagery inspired Mohan’s approach to the escalating horror in Immaculate.
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