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{{quote|''Last Chance Not To Go Near The Castle''|Sign outside [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|Dontgonearthe Castle]] in ''[[Discworld
''This is the article for the trope Haunted Castle. For the [[Castlevania]] game of the same name, click [[Haunted Castle (
On a foggy mountain peak in a [[Uberwald|spooky land]] looms the '''[[Haunted Castle]]''' -- and who knows what manner of beast lurks within its walls? It could be [[Our Vampires Are Different|some sort of vampire]], [[Frankenstein's Monster]], the [[Mad Scientist]], the [[Wolf Man]], or even [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]]. Or maybe [[Monster Mash|all of them at once]].
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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
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]].
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== Film ==
* Any [[Dracula]] movie, or [[Frankenstein's Monster]] movie.
* Played straight in the ''[[Underworld (
* ''[[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 [[Haunted Castle]].
* ''[[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:
* ''Castle of Blood'' depicts Edgar Allan Poe being challenged to reveal the inspiration of his stories. Big mistake--it leads to a night in a haunted castle. The film claims to be based on a story of the real Poe but nothing he wrote in our world really fits the bill. The movie was remade in 1971, titled ''Web of the Spider'' and was allegedly based on Poe's famous story ''Night of the Living Dead''. Uh, yeah.
* 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.
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== Literature ==
* Walpole's ''[[
* 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 ''[[Discworld
** And it worked. People would come in for MILES just so they could Notgonearthe castle. And when, every few decades, the vampire there rose again {{spoiler|([[Genre Savvy|and was quickly quelled, of course]])}}, it just added to the interest...and the local economy. It helps even more that there's something with the roads that causes all traveling coaches to break a wheel as they near it...
* 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 ''[[
* 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}}).
* [[Harry Potter (
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'''Giles:''' Uh, a castle?<br />
'''Riley:''' A big, honkin' castle. }}
* ''[[Star Trek:
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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== Video Game ==
* Fighting your way through such castles is the very premise of the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series. In fact, ''[[Haunted Castle (
* 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 [[Haunted Castle]].
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**** Or to be exact, "normal" people with undead bodies, at least if you don't count Varimathras and the evil royal apothecary society
**** 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 ''[[
* ''[[Kuon]]'' features a cursed medieval Japanese mansion.
* The gothic Castle in ''[[Amnesia:
* 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
* Mundus's castle in the first [[Devil May Cry]]. Dante's not spooked easily, but it's filled with eerie contraptions and horrific demons.
* [[Fatal Frame]] features Himuro Mansion for the first game and the Mansion of Sleep for the third. Both are big. Both are spooky. Both are designed to make sure you never come out again, dead or alive.
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