Haunted House: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"It was an evil house from the beginning -- [[Curse|a house that was born bad]]."''|'''Dr. John Markway''', ''[[The Haunting]]''}}

 

 

 

It might be a ramshackle abandoned shack standing alone. Or a [[Big Fancy House]] maintained by a [[Creepy Housekeeper]]. Or a typical [[Suburbia|suburban home]] built on an [[Indian Burial Ground]]. It has a distressing tendency of killing its way through a family receiving it as an [[Unexpected Inheritance]], and if it gets a sufficiently sordid reputation it will be chronicled by a [[Haunted House Historian]] who tries to warn new would-be victims.

If it's merely the setting for a [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]] involving [[Ten Little Murder Victims]], see [[Old Dark House]].

 

{{examples}}

 

* In ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', the Hinata house is haunted by a [[Cute Ghost Girl]] who appears sporadically throughout the series. She turns out to be really a very nice person. Also, she kinda sucks at haunting.

* Anna and Yoh's house in ''[[Shaman King]]''.

 

 

== Film ==

* The little cabin in ''The [[Evil Dead]]'' contains a haunted book, so, for all intents and purposes, is haunted.

* ''Darkness'' (2002), starring [[Anna Paquin]], had a family moving into a haunted house as {{spoiler|part of an [[Evil Plan]] to complete a demonic ritual}}.

* ''[[Poltergeist]]'' features a suburban California home that is normal at first, but is invaded by ghosts that torment the owners in various ways. Because it was built on top of a cemetery.

* ''[[The Amityville Horror]]'' and all sequels.

* ''The Haunting in Connecticut'': The house was formerly a funeral home.

* ''[[Burnt Offerings]]''

* ''[[The Haunting]]''

 

 

* {{spoiler|Subverted}} in ''The Haunting of Grade Three'', where the eponymous third-grade class has relocated to an old house, which has mysterious noises and objects that moove seemingly of their own accord. {{spoiler|In truth, the house is sinking, which accounts for the odd noises and movements.}}

* {{spoiler|Subverted}} in ''The Ghosts of Cougar Island'', which features an abandoned, {{spoiler|seemingly}} haunted house. {{spoiler|In truth, the "haunting" is caused by some runaway orphans.}}

** Also the titular house in ''The Dreams in the Witch-House'', that has a haunted reputation, but is actually periodically visited by a living, immortal witch who used to live in the house, and still uses its sealed attic for her work.

* ''[[House of Leaves]]'': A postmodern horror story about a family that slowly discovers that their {{color|blue|house}} is larger on the inside than on the outside. [[Bizarrchitecture|Much, much larger.]] Also, <s>{{color|red|possibly there's a monster.}}</s>

* ''[[Nick Arcade]]'': The Creepyville board has a haunted house crawling with ghosts that scare Mikey (the player).

** [[Art Initiates Life|It is.]]

* Anne Rivers Siddons' ''The House Next Door'' is a very strange example in that the house is still unbuilt at the start of the book, and there's no obvious reason why it turns out the way it does (it's not built on a cemetery, for example). All the same, it's a very Bad Place indeed.

** But the people next door figure it out. {{spoiler|It's the architect that's cursed. All his previous projects were unfinished because someone died or was blinded in a freak construction incident. No reason why it's him but he was adopted and doesn't know who his real parents were, so that tells us something. After they kill him and are killed by the house someone finds the plans to that house and it looks like it's going to happen again.}}

* In ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, the Dean brothers visit the reputedly-haunted Mansion, but never work up the nerve to go inside. This was a wise decision, as {{spoiler|the house itself is the guardian of a portal between worlds. A very ''aggressive'' guardian.}}

** While we are on the subject of [[Stephen King]], we can count the Overlook Hotel from [[The Shining]], and ''Black House''.

 

 

== Live Action Television ==

* In ''[[American Horror Story]]'', the house is haunted by numerous previous residents who died there. Anyone who dies on the premises appears to become a ghost, and this leads to something of a snowballing effect when the ghosts start killing people.

* The British [[Dom Com|domestic comedy]] [[So Haunt Me]] deals with a suburban home haunted by its previous resident, a [[Jewish Mother]]. While the father is mostly annoyed by her presence, the other family members generally enjoy her company.

*** That's because she found out his name while doing research for the place. Mainly because it was originally haunted by Dennis' mother who was far less nice, and attempted to kill Cordelia or convince her to commit suicide, believing her to be Dennis' fiance, who she hated in life.

*** And the reason behind the said haunting was that Dennis's mother walled him in a closet to keep him from moving out to live with the said fiance, and suffered a heart attack immediately afterwards.

* ''[[The Monkees]]'': Featured in "Monkee See, Monkee Die" and "Monstrous Monkee Mash".

* The ''[[Castle]]'' episode "Demons" has the [[Body of the Week]] be a ghost-hunter killed in a reputedly haunted mansion. Castle, naturally, [[Agent Mulder|eagerly buys into the possibility of demonic possession]], while Beckett is [[Agent Scully|a lot more skeptical]]. Although the case of the week is ultimately discovered to have a human hand behind it, it's still [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|up in the air whether the house actually is haunted]].

 

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV]]: Oblivion'' has a quest which involves buying a haunted house and clearing it of ghosts.

* ''Might and Magic VII'' had one.

* A haunted house appears in the Neighborhood in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Skateboarding]]''.

* ''The House'' point-and-click Flash game series focuses on exploring a house whose inhabitants committed suicide. Or did they?

* Unsurprisingly, used in ''The Lost Crown: A Ghosthunting Adventure''. Also a Haunted Museum, two Haunted Churches, a Haunted Boathouse, etc. Basically, if it's got a roof, some ghosts are sheltering under it.

* Spookyraven Manor in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'', with such bizzare undead as the "Pooltergeist" (made out of Snooker balls) and "Undead Elbow Macaroni".

* ''The Haunted Mansion'' for the Gamecube. Playing it as a kid and being used to Mario Kart and other kiddy games did NOT help whenever rotting arms burst out of boarded doors and "The Ring" girl in a red dress flipped her hair up with a screech.

* In the second ''[[No More Heroes]]'' game, Travis fights Matt Helms, a ghost kid who haunts his creepy, abandoned house, complete with a graveyard on the front lawn.

* Draynor Manor in ''[[Runescape]]''. The front doors refuse to open from the inside, the grounds are filled with dead trees (some of which can and will lash out and attack), the eyes in paintings frequently follow the player... As do ''chairs''. This is not to mention, of course, the fact that the manor happens to be owned by a vampyre...

* The entire setting of the first ''[[Nightmare House]]'' fan game.

 

== Webcomics ==

* The Kesandru / Brie Meighsaton House in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.

* ''Stupidity in Magic'' has this. ''Twice'', actually. Both times, the main cast is only called in to see why the house is haunted - they never get the house itself (they have their own place already, anyways). The first time, {{spoiler|the ghosts were stuck in the house because of a curse, and most of them were happy to leave once the problem was fixed.}} The second time, the ghosts were haunting a house being rented out by a college - the rent was ''very'' reasonable, due to the haunting, and the college students only called for help because the ghosts {{spoiler|had started possessing the occupants and were getting a bit violent; once things were fixed so that they wouldn't be in danger of getting hurt any more and they realized ''why'' the rent was so low, they were quite willing to let the ghosts stay - they preferred slightly-haunted accomodations that were within walking distance of the college to anything else they could've afforded.}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* In a ''[[The Simpsons|Simpsons]]'' Treehouse of Horror segment, the Simpsons move into a haunted house, which does its best to make them leave... but they refuse, because it's pretty much their dream house. The segment ends with the house destroying itself rather than live with the Simpsons.

{{quote| '''Lisa:''' You can't help but feel a little rejected.}}