Top 5 best haunted house movies! part 1!

 Top 5 best haunted house movies! part 1!

- Today we're digging into some of the scariest best of the best haunted house movies that involve spirits, ghosts, demons, and moving furniture! 

The Entity (1982)

"All right. All right, bastard. I've finished running. So do what you want. Take your time - buddy. Take your time. Really, I'm thankful for the, uh... rest. I'm so... tired of being scared. So it's all right, it really is, it's all right. You can, uh, do anything you want to me, you can, uh, torture me, kill me, anything. But you can't have me. You cannot touch me...that's mine."

- Based off the true accounts of a single working mother of three who lived on the West Coast, and how for years she was endlessly attacked and raped by an unseen spirit. Here we watch the terrifying story of a woman's fight for survival, as she fights to protect her children, and whatever is left of her dignity. The true two MVPs of this film is the terrifying score (the guitar that strikes up whenever the attacks happen always send shivers down my spine), and of course the stunning Barbra Hershey. Whenever people ask me what's one of my favorite female performances in a horror movie, Ms. Hershey in this film always comes to mind. Note exactly a haunted house movie, but still in my eyes counts. Sure plenty of people saw it as a cheap movie about rape, and the exposure of a woman's body...but I saw it as so much more. In fact, this film even inspired Poltergeist to get made (via the scientist coming to a house to investigate what's happened.) One of my favorite scenes is when Carla visits her friend and the spirit comes, breaking all the windows and for the first time ever, somebody actually believes her. It's moving, as well as powerful. This film always features one of the most bone tingling moments in a film when we finally hear the spirit talk to Carla. Complete nightmare fuel. 

Rose Red (2002)

"How beautiful you are Rose Red."

- I love the story behind this mini-series getting made. Basically Steven Spielberg contacted Stephen King and told him to write the most terrifying grand scale haunted house story. Well, as most things happen, King wrote a treatment for Rose Red, and as time passed the project fell through. In the end, King decided to write up a screenplay, and instead of making a novel, turn it into a mini-series that would air in the spring of 2002. With the same team who brought the epic mini-series Storm Of The Century in 1998, an all star cast, amazing special effects, and grand breathtaking sets that made the massive house of Rose Red become a character within itself, this hands down is one of King's most impressive TV movies to date. It tells the story, vaguely based off the Winchester mystery house, where  a wealthy oil man's bride receives a gorgeous mansion as a wedding present, but right from the start of the house being built, the land appeared to be cursed. Unexplained deaths, and accidents occurred over the years, as the young woman received news from a psychic that as long as she continued to build onto the house, she would never die. Here she hired construction crews to work 24/7 to build additions, upon additions onto her house, transforming it into a labyrinth of endless rooms, towers, and hallways. The house became famous for all of the disappearances, and well as mysterious deaths. Becoming closed off to the public and on the verge of being destroyed to make way for condos, the great grandson of the family allows a professor, who's hired several psychics to spend Memorial Day weekend to stay at the mansion, and try to prove that it is indeed haunted. Sadly, this team gets much more than they asked for, when one of the psychics, a powerful young girl begins to wake up the revengeful and angry spirts trapped inside. This movie is one of my favorites. Between the sets, the cast, the score, it's a comforting creepy movie with one of the most beautiful houses that appear on this list. I honestly wish this house existed!

Poltergeist (1982)

"What's happening?!"

- It was the early 80's. Mr. Steven Spielberg was at the height of his popularity. Deciding to try his hand at horror, he yet again crafted an all American middle class family, and spun them on their heads with the help from director Tobe Hooper. Sadly everyone knows that Spielberg didn't just serve as producer, he basically took over filming himself. I feel this sells Hooper short, since the man really was a decent director, and has endless amazing credits up until his passing this past autumn. Still, despite the confusion on who exactly directed this movie still remains unseen, this is one of the greatest haunted house movies from the 1980's. In fact, the image of the little girl with the long white blond hair, touching the television screen, uttering the words "They're here!" will be forever immortalized in pop culture history. The film tells the story of a family with their three children who live on the West Coast in a track housing community. The father works for the company that makes these as a restate agent, the wife is a stay at home mom, and they have a teenage daughter, a young son, and an adorable five year old daughter named Carol Ann. One night the family awakes to find their daughter speaking to the TV. It appears she hears voices coming from the set. A day or so later she does it again, and an unexplained earthquake plagues the neighborhood. Slowly the family begins to notice furniture moving by itself, their dog barking at walls, and a spot in the kitchen that will push you across the floor by some unseen force. Everything reaches a head when a storm hits the house, and their little girl vanishes into thin air. Here's the catch though...she's still in the house, well at least her spirit is. Her voice becomes through the TV, and she can't seem to find her way back. Running out of answers, the horrified family hires several scientist who study paranormal activity who set up camp at their house, trying to figure out what is causing the hauntings, as well as how to get Carol Ann back before it's too late. 

Winchester (2018)

"Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me..."

- The most recent movie on this list grabs my vote. I have always been highly interested and curious over the tale of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle company. Based loosely on true events that occurred durning the great 1906 earthquake that damaged the massive mansion, and the legends that surrounded what exactly happened at that time. Sarah Winchester suffered many great losses durning the course of her life. First her newborn daughter, then her husband a little over a decade later. Devastated, she visited a psychic in Boston who informed her that her family was cursed. That the spirits of the souls who lost their life's due to her family's invention, would forever haunt her and her remaining family members. That the only way out of this was to continue building onto her house. Much like Rose Red, she was told if she kept building onto the house, it would confuse the spirits, and actually be a comfort for the souls who have found peace and crossed over. For years, she remained unseen besides her staff. She hired construction crews to work around the clock, building constantly. Doors opened to nowhere, stairs went up the ceilings, windows in floors, rooms upon rooms. The house was stunning, very ahead of it's time, as well displaying no rhythm nor reason. The film tells the story of a doctor with a haunted past, diving into an endless abyss of drugs to block out the grief he's currently suffering from. Hired by the Winchester company, he's set to stay at the famous mansion to see if Sarah Winchester is of sound mind. Here he stays, and instantly begins to notice not all is what it seems. He hears crying at night, notices rooms are sealed off, and explained visions start to plague him. Sarah confides in him that she's afraid that a new spirit, one of the angriest she's ever encountered is terrorizing her family, and will stop at nothing for revenge. I might be alone here, but I loved Winchester. I found it a creepy slow-burn haunted house film that reminded me of old 1960's Hammer horror movies. Besides one silly line deliveries, this is an actual decent horror movie that proves you can still become unsettled, even without all the blood and gore.

Burnt Offerings (1976)

"There are centuries in this room, Mrs. Rolf... there are years, years in this house."

- The true MVP of haunted house movies is this classic right here. In fact, whenever I'm asked what's one of my all time favorite haunted house movies, or favorite 1970's horror movies...Burnt Offerings always comes to mind. With an all star cast Karen Black, Oliver Reed, and Betty Davis, this film not only is beautifully filmed, it's a perfect example of a very creepy, and unsettling way of storytelling. The film was recommend to me by my uncle years ago. He basically summed up this film by saying "It's a haunted house movie, where the house repairs itself. You see it's roof changing, the walls, the shingles. It's creepy as Hell!" Well for 12 year old Stacy, that's all I needed. I found this movie, and instantly loved it. I mean the people behind this film were responsible for such films like Night and House of Dark Shadows, Dark Shadows, Trilogy Of Terror, and Dead Of Night. It's about a couple, their young son, and great aunt who rent out this beautiful falling apart mansion by an elderly set of siblings who let them have the house for the summer for a steal, as long as they agree to let their eighty year old mother remain in her home. She has a room upstairs in the attic. All they need to do is bring a tray of food and leave it in her parlor three times a day, that's it. The wife agrees, excited to spend the summer fixing up the house, while the husband isn't too sure. Slowly he begins to notice how much the house, which was basically falling apart at the time they first moved in, has been slowly transforming into a beautiful breathtaking home. Everything appears to be new. He's also noticed how the house seems to have the power to possess him. He blacks out in anger, his aunt appears to be getting weaker, and weaker, while his wife becomes distant, and spends all her time upstairs with the mystery woman who he's never seen. Does this house have unseen terrifying power? Will it allow them to leave? Truly one of my favorites. I can't brag about it enough.

Stay tuned for part 2 where we might take a stop in the Amityville neighborhood!