Sometimes the star of the movie isn’t a person, or even a creature. Sometimes it’s a building! Eric and Liz review some of their favorite Haunted Houses.
This one is for the production designers! Be it a decrepit shack or a glorious victorian mansion, there is an undeniable pull of a good haunted house. Even the banal suburban home isn’t safe, the house itself doesn’t need to be an ornate gingerbread creepy abode to be an effective scary house… think Paranormal Activity or Poltergeist.
But the most fun haunted houses LOOK the part. I love a unique house, with lots of creepy knick knacks or houses that are mazes or traps. And in order to properly set up our favorite haunted houses, it would help to use plenty of images. Enjoy!
Beetlejuice: Tim Burton’s whimsy in full effect. This is the fun house version kooky haunted house. Queue up the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari!
Thir13en Ghosts: The house as a machine/trap. A glass house like none other, the house is as dangerous as it is beautiful, and is filled with lots of nasty killer ghosts.
The Pact: Blue collar tract haunted house, that holds plenty of mysteries. Mysteries so interesting that Liz doesn’t dare spoil the plot.
Crimson Peak: Guillermo Del Toro’s ultimate haunted Victorian mansion. This marvel of set design was from the late great Thomas E. Sanders (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Braveheart, and Saving Private Ryan.) Absolutely spectacular!
American Horror Story: Roanoke and Murder House. Good old fashioned dilapidated creepy places, and the wonderful ensemble AHS cast.
The Shining: The Overlook Hotel is made up of three of the great hotels in the Country: Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, The Stanley Hotel, and the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. You can stay at all of them. Editor’s note: The bar scene is in the Stanley Hotel. The Lobby/writing room is in the Ahwahnee. (I had it backward in the Podcast.)
The House with a Clock in the Walls: The Candler House is now a bed and breakfast in Atlanta. You can stay here! (I don’t think the demon head fire place is there any more though…)
So, consider this to be a guide to the podcast. You can reference these images to follow along with the audio discussion so you can understand why we picked these gems. So, go ahead and start up Episode 81!
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