The 13 Scariest Movies Featuring Haunted Houses
Films featuring haunted houses have scared moviegoers for generations. Whether they are based on real-life paranormal activity or purely works of fiction, horror movies with ghost houses get people in the spirit for Halloween.
The first known movie with a haunted house is the three-minute 1896 silent French film The House of the Devil. Since then, every decade has featured movies with spooky houses — from The Innocents and House on Haunted Hill to The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist, The Conjuring, and Sinister.
Haunted houses are front and center in the following terrifying movies. Won’t you come in?
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Based on the best-selling book of the same name, The Amityville Horror tells the purported real-life experience of the Lutz family after they move into their new Long Island home in which a family got murdered by their eldest son. The Lutzes heard demonic voices that told them to “get out” and saw oozing walls, a phantom pig with glowing red eyes, a secret room in the basement, and swarms of flies.
The hit movie spawned myriad sequels and spin-offs, scaring generations of Americans. Although the real house still stands in Amityville, Long Island, subsequent owners have altered its appearance — including its signature triangular-shaped attic windows — and have not reported any spooky shenanigans.
The Shining (1980)
Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining follows a struggling writer named Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) who accepts a job as a caretaker at the haunted and secluded Overlook Hotel. With wife and son in tow, Jack slowly loses his marbles as the ghostly denizens of the Overlook get into his head and convince him to try to murder his family.
From the creepy twin girls who want to “play forever and ever” to the hag in the bathtub in Room 237, the ghosts of the Overlook are pure nightmare fuel. Mike Flanagan successfully recreated the Overlook and its notorious ghosts for the 2019 sequel Doctor Sleep.
The Others (2001)
Set in 1945 on the European island of Jersey, The Others stars Nicole Kidman as a mother with two photosensitive children who experience supernatural activity at their old manor.
If you like old-fashioned, gothic ghost stories featuring a creepy haunted house, The Others stands apart as one that delivers the most chills. What fascinates about The Others and elevates it above lesser horror movies is Kidman’s convincing performance as a desperate mother who believes something sinister lurks in her house and is after her children. She’s right… but when it’s finally revealed who the spirits responsible for the haunting are, audiences’ jaws dropped.
Poltergeist (1982)
Based on a story by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist is inarguably the most terrifying PG-rated movie of all time. The movie follows the Freeling family whose suburban L.A. home is invaded by lost souls drawn to the life force of the family’s youngest daughter, Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke).
Poltergeist features a dead tree that comes to life and grabs a little boy from his bed, a portal to another dimension in the kids’ bedroom closet, a terrifying clown toy that comes to life, and an under-construction pool full of the bodies of buried folks who were left behind when their cemetery was moved. It’s no wonder that the Freeling mom’s hair turns gray due to pure fright and that the movie spawned two sequels and a remake.
Fun fact: the Simi Valley house used for exterior shots in the movie found a buyer after being off the market for decades.
The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as real-life demonologist couple Lorraine and Ed Warren. Set in 1971, the movie follows the Warrens as they investigate malevolent paranormal activity at a Rhode Island farmhouse.
The intro of The Conjuring features the Warrens investigating the case of the possessed doll Annabelle, who got her own spin-off series of films. The popularity of The Conjuring franchise proves that movies about haunted houses are not exclusive to the past century and still have the power to scare the bejesus out of audiences.
The Orphanage (2007)
J.A. Bayona’s The Orphanage is about a woman who returns to the decrepit orphanage where she used to live with the intention of fixing it up as a home for disabled children. She soon discovers that the building is haunted by the ghosts of orphans who used to live there, including a deformed little boy with one eye named Tomás.
The Orphanage is a scary, atmospheric, and poignant haunted house movie that never resorts to cheap scares or gallons of blood. Bayona’s feature directorial debut won seven Goya Awards, the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars.
The Haunting (1963)
The British supernatural horror film The Haunting follows a group of people invited to stay overnight and investigate a supposedly haunted house. Directed by Robert Wise, the eerily effective ghost story stars Julie Harris as Eleanor Lance — a woman who experienced poltergeist activity as a kid.
What works so effectively in The Haunting is the use of sound — especially banging doors, knocking, and screaming — to elicit scares. Wise pairs the sounds with odd tracking shots and pans that disorient the viewer and build suspense.
A modern remake of The Haunting arrived in 1999, but it doesn’t come close to replicating the spooky vibe of the black-and-white original.
The Evil Dead (1981)
Sam Raimi’s feature directorial debut stars Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, who vacations with his girlfriend, sister, and friends at a remote cabin in the woods. There the group finds an audiotape containing an incantation that unleashes demons and spirits that try to possess the cabin and its occupants.
The Evil Dead not only became a horror classic that spawned several sequels, a TV series, and a remake, but it also made Raimi a sought-after director and Campbell a horror icon. Although subsequent movies in The Evil Dead franchise lean into comedy more, this grainy, low-budget, 16mm film depicts a haunted cabin that still makes one’s skin crawl.
Crimson Peak (2015)
In Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak set in Victorian-era England, Mia Wasikowska plays a young author named Edith who moves with her husband (Tom Hiddleston) and his sister (Jessica Chastain) into a crumbling mansion that is sinking into a red-clay mine in Cumberland. After settling in, Edith begins having disturbing nightmares and seeing ghostly visions.
Old-fashioned, gothic movies about haunted houses aren’t as common today as they were in the 20th century, but del Toro delivers the creepy atmosphere and striking retro costume and design elements fans of haunted house cinema expect — even from a film less than a decade old.
Insidious (2010)
James Wan’s supernatural horror film Insidious stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne as a married couple whose young son slips into a coma after encountering an otherworldly presence in their new home. Lin Shaye stars as psychic and paranormal investigator Elise Rainier.
Insidious introduced audiences to the concept of the Further — a kind of purgatory dimension overlapping our own that is inhabited by lost and tortured souls. The convincing way it’s depicted in the movie will have you second-guessing every shadow or open door in your house. Be gone, red-faced demon!
A box office hit with a minuscule budget, Insidious spawned two sequels and two prequels that further explored the Further.
The Grudge (2004)
Takashi Shimizu directed 2004’s The Grudge, a remake of his 2002 Japanese horror film Ju-On: The Grudge. The story involves an American care worker named Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) living in Tokyo who is assigned to care for a woman dwelling in a haunted house of horrors. We learn that a mother and her son were murdered in the house by her jealous husband, which created a curse that affects anyone who enters the property.
Moviegoers couldn’t get enough Japanese horror at the turn of the millennium, and The Grudge became one of the top earners with its terrifying ghosts that emit unsettling sounds. What makes The Grudge scarier than most haunted house movies is the idea that one can become cursed just for setting foot on the ghost-riddled property — simply walking out the front door and driving away won’t keep you safe.
Hereditary (2018)
Toni Collette plays Annie Graham — a miniatures artist whose family gets terrorized by supernatural forces after the death of Annie’s secretive mother — in Ari Aster’s Hereditary. We come to learn that Annie’s mother was a member of a sinister coven determined to find a human vessel for the demon king Paimon, which is why Annie’s house itself seems possessed.
Hereditary is one of the scariest movies of the past 10 years because it takes itself seriously and doesn’t rely on cheap scares, bursts of humor, or witty pop-culture references. Those things can be fun in another movie, but Hereditary gets underneath the skin by making us question if we really know the people we think are closest to us.
Sinister (2012)
In the aptly named Sinister, Ethan Hawke plays a true-crime author who, for inspiration, moves his family into a house where gruesome murders occurred. There he discovers disturbing snuff films and home movies that call forth a demonic Babylonian god named Bughuul who destroys families and swallows souls.
The creepy home videos in this movie directed by Scott Derrickson are what build an impending sense of dread and will make you look into the backstory of your own home… just to make sure. A scientific study concluded that Sinister is one of the scariest movies of all time, meaning that haunted house films still deliver thrills and chills in the 21st century.
