Top 10 Favorite Haunted House Movies

Full disclosure: these are my favorite haunted house movies. Me. Regi’s. They may make you question if I have any taste, and that’s perfectly fine by me! Everyone should know by now that I’m nothing more than an opossum in a trench coat trying to pass as a human. Enjoy!

1. Lake Mungo (2008)
   Lake Mungo is an onion of a movie. The more you peel back, the more you find. On the surface, it’s a family dealing with the loss of their daughter and her supposedly haunting the house. As you dive in, though, you end up with more questions than answers, and theories abound all over the internet on exactly what it all means.

2. House on Haunted Hill (1999)
   Yes, the 1999 one, not the original. I’m a sucker for the early-00’s horror set aesthetic, and this and 13 Ghosts (below) are the peak of that design. The set is designed within an inch of its life, the layout of the house makes no sense, The Incredible Hulk rollercoaster from Islands of Adventure features for reasons, and then there’s Chris Kattan. All that to say, I watch this movie at least once a year.

3. Hell House LLC (2015)
   Where better to have a haunted house movie than within a Halloween attraction? The claustrophobic atmosphere of the tight spaces within the house coupled with the numerous red herrings from the haunt’s mannequins combines into a creepy and tense viewing experience. I especially like the use of strobe lights in lieu of a traditional jump scare.

4. Poltergeist (1982)
   I would not be where I am today without Poltergeist. Required viewing for any horror fan, and a classic for a reason. 

5. Gonjiam (2018)
   Gonjiam twists the found footage genre by making it all occur on a real-time Twitch stream (or that equivalent for copyright purposes). The group breaks into a haunted hospital in Gwangju (a real haunted location) in order to get revenue from a high-volume, and supposedly scripted, stream. Obviously, things don’t go according to plan, otherwise, why would we have this movie to begin with?

6. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
   Based on the Janghwa Hongryeon Jeon folktale, A Tale of Two Sisters follows a young girl returning home after an extended stay in a mental institution to a house very different from the one she left. The ensuing events blur reality and nightmare as Su-mi navigates the new environment and more about the circumstances of her stay come to light.

7. 13 Ghosts (2001)
   Much like House on Haunted Hill (above), this is a haunted house story that is all style and pretty much no substance, but I love it with all my heart. The costumes of the ghosts are incredible and I would pay so much money to see them as McFarlane figures. Someday, I will make a Jackal costume. Someday. Until then, I’ll watch this movie more than is probably deemed sane. 

8. Housebound (2014)
   After being sentenced to house arrest, Kylie is trapped in her New Zealand house for 8 months with her mom and step-father. The mom claims that the house is haunted, and Kylie eventually learns that may actually be the case. More on the comedy side than horror, this is a hidden gem of a haunted house movie that more people should add to their watchlists.

9. Beetlejuice (1988)
   BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE!

10. Session 9 (2001)
    Filmed in the Danvers State Mental Hospital before it was demolished, this film has pretty much everything. A set that needed basically no dressing as it was already run-down, David Caruso taking off his sunglasses, cassette tapes that conveniently show up just in time for more plot, and some questioning of reality. It has a great creep factor and doesn’t rely on gore or jump scares as much as future films will. Though it doesn’t quite stick the landing, it’s a great time nonetheless.