The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Haunted House Horror Movies | ScreenRant – Screen Rant

Haunted house horror movies have long been a favorite among fans, but some spooky abodes are just better than others.

The haunted house movie is an interesting subgenre of horror. Here, the house itself is a character, ready to spook the main characters at any given moment, but it usually happens in the middle of the night. No matter how many times the characters convince themselves that everything is going to be fine, it eventually becomes clear that a choice must be made, and if they don't leave, the house always wins.

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Whether streaming horror movies on Netflix or renting something from iTunes, it's always a good idea to spend an evening with a good horror movie. But before picking out a haunted house movie, it's helpful to know which ones are worth some time and which ones fall flat.

Katie Stevens, known for her role on popular TV drama The Bold Type, stars inHaunt, which features a Halloween-themed haunted house attraction that is literally evil.

Harper (Stevens) goes along with her pals when they want togoof off in the house but almost immediately, it becomes clear that they have made a grave error by even entering.Soon, Harper fights for her life and discovers an inner strength she didn't know that she had. Hauntisan nice modern and original take on the familiar haunted house formula, and every moment is horrifying.

The 90's was a great decade for horror movies, with many movies of varying quality being released in each year. In 1999, the remake of 1959'sHouse On Haunted Hillcame out but unlike other movies of its time, it didn't offer much of interest.

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The remake stars Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, and Ali Larter, but even though it's got an awesome cast, it doesn't really seem to go anywhere. Supposedly for an experiment, the main characters are promised $1 million if they can make it through the night in what used to be a mental hospital but is now a truly haunted hill. It's a cool premise but one that's not much fun to watch.

The originalPoltergeistis one of the best haunted house movies ever made, and it's truly a classic in both horror and cinema in general. Since this movie was made so many decades before others in the genre, it really paved the way for haunted house films to come.Poltergeistspawned sequels and a remake, but only the original stood the test of time.

Here, the Freeling family is justhappily going about their liveswhen they learn that their daughter Carol Anne can somehow talk to spirits. Because their house was literally built on top of a cemetery, the ghosts Carol Anne met aren't thrilled about the intruders and they make their disdain dangerously clear.

Adam Brody, famous for playing Seth Cohen onThe O.C.,gave the horror genre a try withIsabelle.Brody and Amanda Crew star as a couple who lose their baby and move into a new house. Before too long, she starts seeing things and she's convinced that the house is haunted.

The movie has some creepy moments and some seriously weird neighbors, but it never really gets off the ground. At the end of the day, it's nothing that people haven't seen before.

From the director ofDoctor StrangecomesSinister,which isincredibly creepy in all the right ways. Ethan Hawkeportrays the washed up true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt, who willingly moves his family into a haunted house because that's where his latest subject -- a string of strange brutal murders dating back to the '60s -- took place. Little does he know that he's about to get more than he bargained for.

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Because Ellison is actively courting the evil residing in the house, Sinister'splot move forward quickly compared to other haunted house films. Sinisterdefinitely stands out as no one is sure what's going to happen next. The only guarantee is that no one will want to move houses or make home movies after watching this film.

InTheHaunting In Connecticut, a couple moves into anew house because they want a healing place for their son who has cancer, but they have no idea that it's actually haunted.

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This isn't a very well-done or interesting movie, as there are so many films where a family moves into a new place that has supernatural happenings. That premise alone isn't bad, but The Haunting In Connecticutdoesn't stand out from the pack because it barely does anything new withitssecond-handbag of tricks. The only thing of note here is that the movie is supposedly based on true events.

Beginning in 2007, theParanormal Activityfranchise is incredibly popular and though it has tapered off in recent years, its impact can't be denied. Not only did it kick-start a trend of found footage films, but it also modernized the haunted house film in more ways than one.

Each films' basic premise is thata couple or family moves into aseemingly normal house, only torealize that something strange is going on. To get to the bottom of things, they start filming the house at night using security cameras. This is not only an interesting way to tell this kind of story, buttheParanormal Activityfilms doesn't give many of their characters happy endings either, which makes them even scarier.

Sometimes, a remake of an older horror movie offers a cool, fresh take on the events. Case in point, John Carpenter's The Thing.But a lot of times, the original was stylish and terrifying, and there's no reason to try again. This is the case forThe Amityville Horror,a remake of the 1979 movie of the same name and the nth Amityville movie.

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Starring Melissa George and a pre-DeadpoolRyan Reynolds, this remake isn't anything to write home about. It could be considered one of theworst films Ryan Reynolds has been inas it's not very scary and can come off as boring and tedious to most.

The underrated Stir Of Echoeshas much better characters than a lot of horror movies. Tom (Kevin Bacon) is a classic family man who wants to provide for his wife and child, but when he realizes that something supernatural is going on in his home, he becomes obsessed with solving the problem. He finds out the disturbing truth about a young girl who was killed in their house years ago, and his family's life changes.

By the end, audiences learn that Tom's son Jake (Zachary David Cope) can hear ghosts in any house that he's near. The story is unique and never feels flat, providing a new dramatic take on an otherwise tired supernatural plot.

Unique among the entries here, the Netflix horror movieThe Open Housedoesn't have a plot or avery compellingending. Frankly, tocall it a "movie" would be charitable.

Logan (Dylan Minnette) and his mom move into a house in the middle of nowhere after tragedy strikes their family, and it's clear that they're not alone. But they don't do much about it and seem to just drift around, oblivious to the haunting going on. The ending is bleak and dark as is normal for this kind of story,but it doesn't explain why someone or something was going after them in the first place. As a result, it makes everything that happened before feel pointless and useless.

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Aya Tsintziras writes about travel and pop culture. She loves coffee, barre classes, avocado, and watching TV. She lives in Toronto with her husband.

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The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Haunted House Horror Movies | ScreenRant - Screen Rant