View Full Version : Best Haunted House Movie?
Stingy Jack
10-12-2004, 07:40 AM
I have seen a lot of haunted house movies, and have always been disappointed by them. They never seem to live up to what I would expect a haunted house to be like! Most of them rely too much on over-the-top special effects, and take no time to develop any sense of creepiness (The Haunting, Rose Red, 13 Ghosts, House on Haunted Hill (the original was okay)). Even the ones that do a good job with atmosphere, really blow it on the actual hauntings (The Legend of Hell House, The Haunting of Hill House). Is there one I have not seen that is actually good? I like the stereotypical haunted house stuff. Not a sprawling mansion, but a good sized victorian home that is in great disrepair and located on a lot that is overgrown with dead trees. Cobwebs in all the corners, dust all over everything. Moans, groans, rattling of chains, pictures with moving eyes, corpses appearing in closets and disappearing shortly afterwards. That sort of thing.
zwoti
10-12-2004, 07:46 AM
not even the original version of the haunting?
Stingy Jack
10-12-2004, 07:51 AM
Originally posted by zwoti
not even the original version of the haunting?
The Haunting of Hill House? I saw the original a long time ago, and read the novel. I don't remember that much about it, but I do recall not enjoying it as much as I had hoped to (because I had heard so much about it being the BEST haunted house story). I suppose I was disappointed because it was so tame. It built up the atmosphere, but didn't really deal with any actual hauntings. All I could tell you about the hauntings in that film (and novel), is that sometimes there would be a loud and persistent knocking at the bedroom door. What more can you tell me about it? Maybe it will jog my memory.
zwoti
10-12-2004, 07:59 AM
Originally posted by Stingy Jack
The Haunting of Hill House?
nope the haunting (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057129/) based on the novel by shirley jackson. the storyline is basically that of the remake...just done properly
ShankS
10-12-2004, 08:14 AM
I've seen a Haunted House film years ago, which was superb, but the problem is I cant remember what it's called, maybe it's the original The haunting.
There's a bit in it, where a woman is doing some chores around the living room and this realy creepy noise starts and she turns round and this cloudy apparition moves from one wall, hovers infront of her and then dissapears throught the opposite wall. There's plenty of other good scenes like this.
There was another Ghost films I've seen aswell, but it maybe the same one as above again, where one of the residents of a haunted house gets taken to a replica/construction of her house, which has been built inside a hanger or large open building of some sort, and she spends the night inside this replica house, and the ghosts seam to have followed her to this replica from her original house.
There are scientisis and doctors watching and monitoring whats going on from the outside via video camers and microphones etc.
geeez I hate forgetting the titles of great films.
Ninja Moo
10-12-2004, 08:24 AM
What about The Amityville Horror?
allmykids
10-12-2004, 09:24 AM
Amityville
House on haunted hill
Rose Red..............I know not very many people liked this on but I loved it!!!
Ninja Moo
10-12-2004, 09:26 AM
I also loved Rose Red...
and ...
:eek:
Kingdom Hospital ....
allmykids
10-12-2004, 09:31 AM
I have not seen this but I want to. I'm sure I would love it!!
Ninja Moo
10-12-2004, 09:33 AM
Originally posted by allmykids
I have not seen this but I want to. I'm sure I would love it!!
A lot of people didn't like it. It was sort of cheesy .. and weird beyond belief... But I enjoyed it. *shrugs* Stephen King. And the accident in the beginning was completely based on his own.. Down to why the driver hit the guy ..
I did not see the last three eps because I was in the hospital myself having a baby but what I did see I really liked.
allmykids
10-12-2004, 09:37 AM
Originally posted by Ninja Moo
A lot of people didn't like it. It was sort of cheesy .. and weird beyond belief... But I enjoyed it. *shrugs* Stephen King. And the accident in the beginning was completely based on his own.. Down to why the driver hit the guy ..
I did not see the last three eps because I was in the hospital myself having a baby but what I did see I really liked.
So was your hospital Ghost free???
Ninja Moo
10-12-2004, 09:43 AM
I was too drugged to notice!!
It was ardvark free, I can tell you that.
Vodstok
10-12-2004, 09:52 AM
Originally posted by Stingy Jack
I have seen a lot of haunted house movies, and have always been disappointed by them. They never seem to live up to what I would expect a haunted house to be like! Most of them rely too much on over-the-top special effects, and take no time to develop any sense of creepiness (The Haunting, Rose Red, 13 Ghosts, House on Haunted Hill (the original was okay)). Even the ones that do a good job with atmosphere, really blow it on the actual hauntings (The Legend of Hell House, The Haunting of Hill House). Is there one I have not seen that is actually good? I like the stereotypical haunted house stuff. Not a sprawling mansion, but a good sized victorian home that is in great disrepair and located on a lot that is overgrown with dead trees. Cobwebs in all the corners, dust all over everything. Moans, groans, rattling of chains, pictures with moving eyes, corpses appearing in closets and disappearing shortly afterwards. That sort of thing.
Would you settle for a short story set in an abandonned hospital?
Not that i am writing anything like that......:D
_Leatha_Face_
10-12-2004, 09:56 AM
ROSE RED
Stingy Jack
10-12-2004, 10:20 AM
Originally posted by zwoti
nope the haunting (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057129/) based on the novel by shirley jackson. the storyline is basically that of the remake...just done properly
Yeah, the novel is The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. That's the one I am talking about. The remake, titled simply The Haunting, was based on the original Haunting of Hill House.
I watched the Amityville Horror just the other day, because it had been so long since I had seen it. I like the house, but again, the hauntings are pretty tame. The blood dripping from the walls was cool, and the pig-like demon in the window was freaky ... but it seemed to be more about the husband going bonkers than the house actually being haunted. I have never seen any of the sequels, though.
If there was a movie based on Edward Bulwer-Lytton's short story "The Haunters and the Haunted", then you might be getting close to the type of film I've been waiting for.