Horror’s Creepiest Homes

Horror’s Creepiest Homes – test your knowledge

Ok, folks! Let’s test your horror knowledge. Below are pics of horror film’s most infamous homes. Without looking at the answer key below it, how many of the homes/movies can you guess.

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Part I – we’ll start off with some easy ones to get your mind in gear…

1. 
2. 
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5. 
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10. 

Ok, folks. Give yourself 5 pts for each correct answer. How many of you got #4? That was a hard one…

Take a deep breath… Are you ready for Part II? Go!

 

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Part II – Some of these are going to be difficult, but you will probably recognize them all…

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2. 
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5. 
6. 
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9. 
10. 

Once again, give yourself 5 pts for each correct answer.

 

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Bonus:
Add 2 points for each of the homes below that you guess correctly:

1. 
2. 
3. 

 

Super Bonus:
Name 3 of the 5 films this England Mansion (below) was used in and add 5 bonus points! The actual place is Oakley Court in Berkshire England

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Part I answers:

1)The Woman in Black – 2012 – Eel Marsh House, 2)Psycho – 1960 – the Bate’s Home, 3)The The Munsters – 1313 Mockingbird Lane, 4)Black Christmas – 1976, 5)Nightmare on Elm Street – 1984 – 1428 Elm Street, 6)Halloween – 1978, 7)The Amityville Horror – 1979, 8)Legend of Hell House – 1973, 9)The Haunting – 1963, 10)Crimson Peak – 2015

Part II answers:

1)Salem’s Lot – 1979, 2)Burnt Offerings – 1976, 3)Don’t be Afraid of the Dark – 1973, 4)The Changeling – 1980, 5)House on Haunted Hill – 1959, 6)The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – 2003, 7)Poltergeist – 1982, 8)The Conjuring – 2013, 9)Beetlejuice – 1988, 10)The House that Dripped Blood – 1971

Bonus answers:

13 Ghosts – 1960, House – 1986, The Others – 2001

Super Bonus answers:

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), The Brides of Dracula (1960), Nightmare (1963), The Plague of the Zombies (1966), And Now the Screaming Starts (1973)

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Score:

Below 50 – You’re a horror novice. You should go and find yourself a good romantic comedy on Netflix to watch because you sure ain’t no horror fan!

50 – 75 – Not bad! You have obviously watched and enjoyed many horror flicks in your lifetime and retain some memory of creepy places in these movies. Your awareness will probably serve you well in real life. If you were to come across a home like any of these, you would know to stay away.

75 – 90 – You are a horror buff with a keen eye and good memory. You would probably want to live in a home that resembled some of these, just so you could frighten the neighbors and scare your friends.

90 and above – You are obsessed with horror and I think it’s probably at an unhealthy point by now. You should go find yourself a good romantic comedy to get your mind out of this psychotic state of horror obsession you’re in!

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An additional look at some of the lovely homes. Are you in the market for a new home?

The Amityville Horror House, Today…

So, I was driving thru this South Shore community, Long Island NY, and came upon a familiar looking house.

Gone are the curved attic windows. Not so scary anymore.

 

Had to take a quick couple of pics while on the move. The loitering ticket for sight-seeing is like $1,000.

The home was up for sale recently for 1.5 million.

 

 

The Conjuring (2013) – movie review

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The Conjuring

In Harrisville, Rhode Island, a young couple with five children struggling to survive a weak economy got a great deal on a home and several acres of land. It was an opportunity they could not pass up. They would later regret it.

The Conjuring is the classic haunted house tale, a true story adapted for film under the direction of James Wan. It relays the harrowing events of the Perron family and what occurred in their country home during 1971. It also follows real-life paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, who throughout their lives have helped hundreds of families deal with supernatural occurrences.

The Conjuring delivers, jump scares, creepy scares, fun scares, and ‘think about it at 2: am’ scares – it has it all! The pacing was excellent, leaving time after each big scary scene for nervous laughter and regrouping before ramping up the tension again. There
were some intentionally funny parts, dark and oppressive atmosphere, and the kind of build-up needed for a supernatural film to be effective. At its climax the film escalated into a high-action fear-fest.

Some will say that aspects of the film could have been more in-depth. The investigation into the history of the land seemed truncated but nothing is worse during a ghost movie than watching the protagonist sit in a library looking at old newspapers on microfilm. The scene with the priest was equally short but the film is not about the priest, it is about the Warrens and the Perrons. So, while these scenes were obligatory they were kept to minimum length, which I think worked well for this film.

If you like supernatural horror, ghost stories, haunted house flicks, and a bit of spirit possession, you will likely enjoy this film. It is the most fun I have had with a haunted house film since Poltergeist.
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Recommended if you like:
Poltergeist, House, The Amityville Horror, Insidious, The Woman in Black, The Changeling,

Lorraine Warren was on set as a consultant, a testament to Wan’ s commitment in portraying the events as close to the real happenings as possible.

Lorraine even makes a Cameo appearance in the film during a lecture on supernatural occurrences.

***You can compare the movie with the real life happenings here: Reel Faces

**You can read about some of the Warren’s investigations here: The Warrens

**After many years of silence, the youngest Perron daughter penned a book, ‘House of Darkness House of Light’ in 2009 detailing the events that had taken place back in 1971. When asked why she waited all these years, she stated, “The world was not ready for a story like this back then.” Check out the book here: ‘House of Darkness House of Light’ 

Deadfall Hotel – Book Review

Deadfall Hotel – Steve Rasnic Tem
Solaris books

After tragedy strikes taking his wife, Richard Carter and his daughter, Serena attempt to rebuild their lives. Richard, answering an ad in the help wanted section, is called upon by Jacob Ascher, proprietor of the Deadfall Hotel to fill the job of caretaker. Under the guidance and training of Jacob, Richard learns the eccentricities and aberrations of the long forgotten hotel.

They discover the Deadfall to be a strange place where the horrors of the world go to vacation, retire and perhaps even to die. Richard and his daughter are faced with avoiding and sometimes combating serial killers, evil felines, angry spirits and other nasty entities that reside in the dark corridors of Deadfall Hotel. However, for Richard to truly learn anything he will have to revisit the darkest days of his own life, face the sinister Poolman and escape the blackened waters of the phantom pool that reach deeper than the foundations of the Hotel, itself.

The tale is unveiled as a series of events recorded by Jacob to detail the progress of training a new caretaker. It is easy to warm to the characters as Richard tries to protect his daughter and questions himself about bringing her to such a dismal place to live. Tem shows you the big picture by telling smaller stories which makes the journey interesting and less common than the usual novel. Dangers and conflicts ooze out of the cracks and corners, sometimes catching the reader by surprise and growing into frightening challenges.

For someone who is not a huge fan of modern novels, Tem’s writing is quirky enough to hold my attention. I enjoyed the story and had that melancholy feeling at it’s end; the feeling you get when you have grown fond of the characters and know you’re going to miss them.

Recommended if you like: The Shining, The Amityville Horror

Previous book review

The Remake Scoreboard / Hauntings and Ghosts

The Remake Scoreboard – Horror movie remakes – the good and bad list. Thumbs up or thumbs down and a few sentences why.
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Remakes: Hauntings and Ghosts

Thirteen Ghosts (remake – 2001)
(original 1960 – 13 Ghosts)
OK, the original has plot-holes you could drive a garbage truck through but, the plot of the remake was just too far-fetched. I can’t believe in that house with all those sliding glass walls and mechanical contraptions. I would have related better to a regular house and it would have been more believable and terrifying. The only saving grace is the inventive and well-defined ghosts that are captured and released in the house; for that reason alone I am giving this a thumbs up. The Jackal, and the Juggernaut are just frightening visual images and worth a look/see. People have even gotten tattoos of the Jackal on their arms and chest. They should make a movie based around the Jackal character.

 

The Haunting (remake – 1999)
(original 1963)
The original was an excruciating psychological terror tale and succeeded in inducing fear in the viewer by not ever showing a ghost at all. Sounds, movements in the house, and opinions from the characters, built the tension and suspense. The remake relied on fx gimmicks to try and spook us. I never felt as if I had stepped into the main characters shoes and therefore never became spooked by any of the special-fx.

 

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The Amityville Horror (remake – 2005)
(original 1979)
For all the authentic scares that the original Amityville Horror conjured up, there were also parts that were a bit hokey (bleeding walls, pit of black oil in the basement).The element that made it such a great horror flick was the transformation of George Lutz (played superbly by James Brolin) from a struggling dad we liked to a deranged lunatic with an axe. Add to that great performances of the wife, Kathy, (Margo Kidder) and Father Delany (Rod Steiger) and its hard to top. Not that Ryan Reynold’s acting was bad but I am too used to seeing him in romantic comedies to feel all that rage in him. The new one had a few nice CGI ghosts and creepy scenes (the boathouse scene in particular) but also had its hokey parts. I’ve lived in quite a few houses in my lifetime and have never spent time walking around the roof, especially in the rain with my whole family. All said, the original just felt more real and less Hollywood. I’d see them both.

 

House on Haunted Hill (remake) (1999)
(original 1959)
The 1959 original was just a much better story throughout the whole movie. It seems Hollywood horror movies today like to set up a story, then depart into a bunch of horror and scary scenes, only to pick up the story at the end and tie it all up. The story never unfolds, never lives and breaths. Sometimes it just seems like a life support system for special-fx, prop gags, and creepy sets. That being said, I never found the original to be all too scary (although I heard it was in its day) and the new one did have a few good moments.

 

The Fog (remake – 2005)
(original 1980)
Wholly forgettable remake that actually angered me for wasting my time. No redeeming value whatsoever. The original by John Carpenter was a creepy ghost story worth seeing again and again.

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