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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Last Chance Not To Go Near The Castle''|Sign outside [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|Dontgonearthe Castle]] in ''[[
▲{{quote|''Last Chance Not To Go Near The Castle''|Sign outside [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|Dontgonearthe Castle]] in ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'', a [[Discworld]] novel set in [[Uberwald]]}}
''This is the article for the trope Haunted Castle. For the [[Castlevania]] game of the same name, click [[Haunted Castle (video game)|here]].''
On a foggy mountain peak in a [[
The protagonist will be [[Closed Circle|driven to the castle]] by a thunderstorm, running out of gas, or by [[Curiosity Killed the Cast|his own curiosity.]] In the valley below, the villagers will have warned the hero against spending the night in the castle, but he presses on into the night. His beautiful bride will question his decision, but will reluctantly accompany him.
Once at the castle, the monster will take a liking for the bride. Perhaps she resembles some long lost love of the monster, or he desires her for some mad experiment.
It will also typically be [[Always Night]], with the sun never rising until the evil is vanquished. Expect [[Dramatic Thunder]], [[Grave Clouds]] with a [[Hostile Weather|Chance of Rain]], [[Ominous Fog]], [[Cobweb of Disuse]], and your typical [[It Was a Dark and Stormy Night|Dark And Stormy Night]].
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In an American setting, instead of a haunted castle, the [[Haunted House]] will be the monster's home, since actual castles are in short supply in the U.S. of A. They are plentiful in [[Transylvania]].
{{examples|suf=s}}
* Castle McDuck in Disney's ''[[Donald Duck]]'' and ''Uncle Scrooge''
== Comics ==▼
* Rueben Rueben, from ''Zip Comics'', stumbled on a haunted castle with benevolent ghosts who gave him powers.
▲* Castle McDuck in Disney's ''[[Donald Duck]]'' and ''Uncle Scrooge'' comics -- When first introduced in [[Carl Barks]]' "The Old Castle's Secret," it was purportedly haunted by the ghost of Sir Quackly McDuck, who sealed himself in its walls along with a chest full of treasure. In [[Don Rosa]]'s comics, it's apparently haunted by every member of the McDuck clan, who watch over their descendants and help scare off enemies; Sir Quackly is the one who shows himself the most often. There was also a [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]] launched by their rival clan the Whiskervilles involving a ghostly hound.
▲* Rueben Rueben, from ''Zip Comics'', stumbled on a haunted castle with benevolent ghosts who gave him powers.
* Doctor Doom's castle in Latvaria. The only monster is the human monster of Doctor Doom.
== Film ==
* Any [[Dracula]] movie, or [[Frankenstein's Monster]] movie.
* Played straight in the ''[[Underworld (film)|Underworld]]'' movies with Kate Beckinsale. A gothic mansion and a haunted castle both make appearances.
* ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of this trope, among others.
* The ensemble comedy ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095304/ High Spirits]'' (1988) was set in a
* ''[[Van Helsing]]'' plays this straight but also kind of lampshades it since the whole movie is an deliberate mash-up/tribute to Universal Horror Classics.
* ''[[Manos: The Hands of Fate]]'' played this exact trope, except they couldn't get a castle, so they used a smallish and rather boring house.
* ''Castle of Blood'' depicts Edgar Allan Poe being challenged to reveal the inspiration of his stories. Big
* Many of Vincent Price's movies were set in haunted (or supposedly haunted) castles, ''The Pit and the Pendulum '' probably being the best example. Although P&P was directed by Roger Corman, other of Price's vehicles were directed by William Castle.
== Literature ==
* Walpole's ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' initially gave rise to this trope in popular culture, not to mention to [[Gothic Fiction]] in general.
* Bram Stoker's ''Dracula,'' of course. Dracula greets Jonathan Harker: "Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!"
* Played with in the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[
** And it worked. People would come in for
* Present in Christopher Stasheff's novel ''The Warlock's Companion''; it's the location where half the story takes place. The other half is flashbacks, including one that plays with the trope by referring to an ancestor a few centuries ago who, seeing that haunted houses were becoming all the rage, but owning only a fairly recent mansion, instructed the house butler/majordomo to go out and ''buy'' an ancestral ghost from somewhere.
* In [[James Thurber]]'s ''[[The 13 Clocks]]'', the Duke finds his castle haunted by the children he locked in the tower: that is, he hears their laughter, and children's balls come bouncing down the stairs. Cold as he is, he finds this more horrifying than the ordinary sort of ghosts.
* Harrenhal has this reputation in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', partially because the Targaryens used dragons to roast the castle's holders alive centuries ago, and partially because most of the people who hold the castle end up experiencing misfortune ( {{spoiler|Janos Slynt got sent up to join the Night's Watch, Amory Lorch got thrown in the bear pit when the castle was taken, Vargo Hoat had his limbs chopped off and ''fed to him'' by Gregor Clegane, and so on}}). On a more mundane level it's also built on an Awesome But Impractical scale, its sheer size making it a huge money-pit and a large amount of it standing empty, either because the damage caused by the Targaryens and their dragons was never fully repaired or because the current owners have no use for the space.
* [[Harry Potter (novel)|Hogwarts Castle]] is a unique form of this trope: the castle is indeed haunted by several ghosts, but most are perfectly nice (well, except Peeves, but he's a pest rather than an actual threat), and the castle is, of course, also a [[Wizarding School|school]]. Most of the ghosts just hang around and give advice when asked, but one of them is actually teaching classes, and no-one's sure if he's even noticed he died.
▲== Live Action Television ==
* Castle Forrester in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''
* Subverted and played for laughs in an episode of the Canadian reality series ''Kenny Vs. Spenny''. The two title characters have a competition to see who can stay inside an abandoned house the longest without getting scared. Kenny (the member of the duo that always cheats) tries a number of tactics to scare his friend Spenny, who's easily manipulated. In the end, Kenny is spooked out of the house by a loud noise, which he believed to be a ghost. It was actually a construction crane that fell on the house, making Spenny win the competition.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' has several, mostly concentrated in [[
* * ''[[Dungeons
== Video Games ==
▲== Video Game ==
* Fighting your way through such castles is the very premise of the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series. In fact, ''[[Haunted Castle (video game)|Haunted Castle]]'' is the actual title of one of the arcade games in the series.
* Keith's castle in ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' is both a straight example and a subversion. It ''is'' haunted, as is only appropriate for a castle owned by a vampire, but the owner himself is a very nice guy; all the ''real'' trouble in the area is being caused by the mayor of nearby Bistriz.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has two haunted castles, Shadowfang Keep and Karazhan. Groups can assault these castles to kill their [[Evil Overlord]]. Also, the Forsaken hometown of the Undercity is the dungeon of a
** Only because the Undead killed everyone there, razed the surface, and moved into the basement, of course...
*** But other than that they're okay people.
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**** To be fair, the city was razed by the faction that made them rather than the splinter group that lives there now.
* Foe Mansion in ''[[La Tale]]'', complete with Frankenstein-esque monsters and ghosts.
* ''[[Kuon]]'' features a cursed medieval Japanese mansion.
* The gothic Castle in ''[[Amnesia: The Dark Descent|Amnesia the Dark Descent]]'' is located in thick Prussian forests which the locals are afraid to enter as it is supposedly haunted by the deserters of wars.
* Warden's Keep from [[Dragon Age]]: Origins is an abandoned fortress inhabited by roaming undead, demons, ghosts and a centuries-old [[Blood Magic|blood mage]] trying desperately to hold back a [[Hell on Earth|demonic invasion]] from the Fade.
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* Hang Castle Zone in ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'' is filled with ghosts and witches and sprawls out as far as the eye can see. The following stage, Mystic Mansion, is set on the inside, with the final area on the roof at dawn, having survived the many traps within. The reason Sonic is here is because he's spotted a Chaos Emerald in the castle.
▲== Web Comics ==
* The ''[[Girl Genius]]'' webcomic has Castle Heterodyne. The ruined steampunk castle may not actually be haunted, but it's stuffed full of deathtraps, and its broken [[
==
* The upcoming{{when}} ''Grave Academy'', while not a comic per se, it is a Forum/RPG, that centers around a school for monsters which is located in such a castle.▼
▲* The ''[[Girl Genius]]'' webcomic has Castle Heterodyne. The ruined steampunk castle may not actually be haunted, but it's stuffed full of deathtraps, and its broken [[AI Is a Crapshoot|artificial intelligence]] tends to kill the people trying to repair it.
▲* The upcoming ''Grave Academy'', while not a comic per se, it is a Forum/RPG, that centers around a school for monsters which is located in such a castle.
== Western Animation ==
* Ghosts always seemed to love that old haunted castle on the outskirts of town, in ''The Ghost Busters''.
* Subverted in many ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoons
* Bender's uncle Vlad's castle in the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "The Honking". Near the village of Thermostadt, it was "haunted" by holograms of his dead ancestors.
* And of course many adventures of [[Scooby Doo]] and friends.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Tower]]
[[Category:Settings]]
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[[Category:Abandoned Area]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Haunted Castle]]
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