New House, New Problems

A new family has moved into their home. They are prepared to pay the monthly mortgage payments and settle in with kids exploring the rules. This is a brand new chapter in their lives, an aren't going to let any minor quirks with their new property bring them down! Strange noises at night? Probably just poor ventilation. A mysterious chest in the attic, or a door without a key? No big deal, we'll get round to sorting that. What, a dead body? Okay, well that is a little strange...

An incredibly prevalent trope in horror or supernatural tales, New House, New Problems sees a new family move into a new home, whereupon strange happenings will begin to reveal themselves. While one of the more astute members of the household may figure out something strange is afoot, by the time the rest of the family twigs it is usually far too late.

Sometimes the happenings can be rooted in realism. Houses may have dark secrets in them that don't require magic. This trope can also apply to a vacation home or temporary rental.

Anime and Manga

 * Inverted in a Junji Ito story where a woman with an obsession for a historical house marries the owner, moves in to become a stepmother to the narrator, and.

Film

 * Insidious: We in fact see this happen twice
 * Two first The Amityville Horror movies and the remake.
 * Ju-On and its American remake The Grudge: woe betide anyone who moves into the cursed house shown in this film series.
 * Walsh family in the second A Nightmare on Elm Street film has just moved into the house on 1428 Elm Street when Freddy starts making his comeback.
 * The Deetzes move into a Haunted House in Beetlejuice. However, the lackluster haunting job done by Adam and Barbara Maitland does nothing to scare them away.
 * A non-supernatural example in Panic Room. Meg and Sarah move into a big house in New York, and get trapped in the titular panic room by thieves the first night.

Literature

 * The Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side features this when a famous actress named Marina and her latest husband move into a new house. Soon a well-meaning but insensitive woman Heather Braddock gets murdered when Marina is hosting a party, and everyone suspects that Marina was the target..
 * Tends to happen in practically any Goosebumps book that involves a family moving. In the case of Welcome to Dead House, Amanda and her brother realize belatedly that they were lured to a town full of . It's reversed in The Ghost Next Door where Hannah has lived in her house for years but a neighbor named Danny moves in overnight, making her suspicious..
 * The entire (innermost) plot of House of Leaves is built around this.
 * Coraline begins when Coraline and her parents move to a new house, which contains a door into a spooky Mirror Universe. As long as Coraline never goes through the door, she is safe.
 * The hotel from The Shining, though the Torrances are only planning a temporary stay.

Video Games

 * Epic Chef has the player character Zest learn that he bought a house for cheap in a bad economy and moves there. The local town guards are alarmed when they learn what place it is and offer to let Zest stay in the guardhouse because the place is haunted. On night one at least, the ghosts don't bother Zest.

Web Original
""My name is Reginald P. Linux, and ever since my wife died, I've been very depressed. This is why I've been searching for the house of my dreams. But as a philosopher once said, be careful what you dream for, because you just. Might. Get it.""
 * Parodied in Something Awful's Doom House. Or possibly played straight, if it's possible to think of anything used there without being parodied. It's just a one-person "family", though. The house turns out to be.

Western Animation

 * This is the starting premise of The Ghost and Molly McGee. The McGees move into a teardown that a ghost named Scratch haunts in the miserable town of Brighton. Molly immediately befriends Scratch, who attempts to scare her away with a curse. It backfires; the curse bonds them together, which makes them besties. The McGees soon make Scratch part of the family, complete with including him on chore duties. Indeed, close to the first season finale,.
 * Parodied in the very first Treehouse of Horror special from The Simpsons. Lisa and Bart are telling scary stories on Halloween. Bart's story is about the family moving into a haunted house that compels them to try and murder each other, while Marge remains immune. She demands the house compromise with them; the house chooses to blip out of existence rather than do that.